The depth-of-field camera will eventually withdraw from the stage of history.
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “Ray Technology” (ID: leitech), Author: a dawn.
I have to admit that for a long time in the past, the iPhone has always been the inspiration for the shape design of domestic mobile phones. I don’t mean to say that domestic mobile phones “plagiarize” the iPhone, but on many mobile phones, we can vaguely feel that “this phone has the shadow of other brands.” Although following the iPhone can reduce the probability of the appearance of your mobile phone “turning over”, blindly following the iPhone may also bring some side effects, such as learning the shortcomings of the iPhone to yourself.
The “Huobozi” camera from iPhone 6 is the best example. Although before the launch of the iPhone 6 there were many phones on the market that used camera as a selling point to adopt a protruding camera design, but this was a “helpless move” of the brand. If there is a feasible solution, the brand will mostly smooth it out as much as possible. The bulge of the camera lens. The emergence of the iPhone 6 has made many brands realize that “camera bumps are also acceptable,” and officially set off the prelude to “camera uncontrolled bumps.”
But why does the camera lens have to have a small volcano?
Isn’t a good camera not convex?
If “camera protrusion” is a “symptom”, then “insufficient internal space” is the “cause” behind it. The fundamental reason why the mobile phone camera has to break through the plane behind the mobile phone is that there is not enough space in the phone to accommodate the camera. If we continue to subdivide this conclusion, the bulge of the mobile phone lens is actually the result of the three factors of “camera module thickness”, “mobile phone thickness” and “module stacking”.
The first factor does not need to be explained. When the overall thickness of the phone does not change, the larger the size of the camera module, the more the part that exceeds the back cover of the phone, and the more obvious the protrusion. With the development of camera technology, users have higher and higher requirements for the image quality of mobile phone cameras. In the past, all-focus cameras that relied on small apertures and large depth of field could no longer meet the needs of users for mobile phone shooting. Autofocus with a more complex structure The module appears in the mobile phone configuration list.
But unlike an all-focus camera with no moving parts, in order to make things at different distances clearly on the lens, the auto-focus camera must have a focusing lens group that can move forward and backward. In order to provide sufficient travel for the focus module, the size of the camera module also needs to be “thickened” proportionally. In addition, the increase in the size of cell phone sensors also drives the size of camera modules.
The second is the change in the thickness of the mobile phone. From the general trend, smart phones have always been developing in the direction of portability, and thickness is an important part of portability. Even if the size of the mobile phone camera remains the same, as the thickness of the mobile phone is getting thinner today, the lens module will “emerge” on the back of the mobile phone like a rock at low tide.
As for “module stacking”, in my opinion, it is actually a brand feature in a specific period. Modern smart phones are composed of multiple modules with different functions. Because the overall size of the phone is limited, the location of each module has become a focus for manufacturers to study. For example, in the past iPhone X, because the Face ID module occupies a lot of space on the top of the phone, it is necessary to put the phone’s multi-camera module vertically to make it look like a “traffic light”.
Especially in the early days of the full-screen era, in order to make way for the huge “bangs”, many brands moved their camera modules out of the fuselage as much as possible, and stepped rear cameras are not uncommon. This stepped rear camera module gradually deviated from the mainstream until the full-screen technology of digging holes became mature.
In order to smooth the crater, what efforts have the mobile phone brands made?
Does the improvement of image quality necessarily come at the expense of camera protrusion? the answer is negative.
Just now we introduced three reasons why mobile phone cameras will protrude. Brands can also start from here to solve the problem of camera protruding. The method of optimizing the layout of the fuselage has already been mentioned. Many brands have also begun to increase the battery capacity and hide the camera behind the camera by increasing the thickness of the fuselage. So how to further reduce the size of the mobile phone camera module?
The answer given by many brands in the past is a periscope lens. There is a saying that placing the light path horizontally can indeed reduce the thickness of the mobile phone camera module, but the problem is that the periscope lens is usually only suitable for small-sized sensors. In 2021, when the “one-inch outsole” is about to land on mobile phones, the periscope design It can only be said to be a temporary cure, not a permanent cure.
In the previous period of XiaomiThe “liquid lens” released in the interim is another direction for the mobile phone to smooth the crater.
As I said just now, the focus module is “indispensable” for the reason why the mobile phone camera module is so large. In order to reduce the impact of the focus module on the size of the mobile phone camera, Xiaomi’s “liquid lens” replaces the traditional focus module and uses a new “liquid lens” to achieve focusing. Driven by the servo motor, the “lens” simulated by the transparent fluid can quickly change its shape, thereby changing its own optical parameters to complete the focusing process.
Compared with traditional camera modules, although the liquid lens has higher technical difficulty and cost, it can achieve a larger focus range in a smaller volume. For example, the telephoto lens can also be used for macro Shoot. If combined with multiple liquid lenses, it is even more possible to use a single photosensitive element to cover all focal lengths of the phone. That is to say, the focal length coverage that we can only achieve by using three-camera modules in the future can be replaced by only one camera in the future. The so-called round-up lens will also lose its significance, and mobile photography technology will also turn to a new chapter.
At that time, the so-called “depth-of-field camera” is also time to withdraw from the stage of history.