The new zoom advancement in Samsung's smartphone promises to enhance your portrait photos in low light conditions.
And all without a huge bulge in the camera.
Samsung has unveiled an innovative design for telephoto cameras that allows for a combination of bright apertures and a slim format. This new technology is particularly useful for capturing portraits in low-light conditions. Over the past few years, high-end smartphones have significantly improved their telephoto cameras, but Samsung's recent revelation promises to take these capabilities even further without increasing the thickness of the back of the device.
In a statement published on its semiconductor website, Samsung introduced the technology called 'ALoP' (All Lenses on Prism), which reorganizes the current design of periscope cameras. The main benefit of this innovation is that it allows for the incorporation of lenses with brighter maximum apertures, which can result in photographs with less noise in dark environments, all without increasing the camera bump size.
Traditionally, the lenses in Samsung's 'folded' telephoto camera modules are aligned vertically, which limits the ability to add wider lenses without making the bump thicker. Instead, the 'ALoP' system places the lenses in a horizontal arrangement, reflecting light toward the camera sensor through a prism, making it possible to include wider and brighter lenses without affecting the phone's thickness.
Although this development is promising, miracles should not be expected. According to the company, 'ALoP' creates the necessary space for a lens with an aperture of f/2.58 at a focal length of 80mm, equivalent to a 3x telephoto camera. This aperture is better than the f/2.8 of the 77mm telephoto on the iPhone 15; however, it is still far from the f/1.2 apertures found in top professional cameras. Nevertheless, Samsung assures that this system will enable high-quality low-light portrait images, a type of photography that is very popular among smartphone users.
The new 'ALoP' technology could also enable the design of smartphones with enough space to incorporate two periscope telephoto cameras. This advancement could mark the beginning of a new era, especially after the Oppo Find X7 Ultra became the first phone to feature dual telephoto cameras. The upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra is expected to include both a 3x and a 5x telephoto, and the new design could allow for the addition of even more impressive optics.
A good 3x telephoto is considered more useful for most users compared to 5x or 10x options. This is because a 3x lens offers a focal length in the 75mm-80mm range, ideal for portraits, creating natural bokeh and a favorable representation of subjects. If Samsung manages to improve the quality of its 3x periscope system with 'ALoP' while also leaving space for longer-range telephoto cameras, it could develop a phone with a comprehensive photographic experience and no weaknesses.
Although Samsung has not provided details on a release date for this telephoto camera solution, the publication of this information suggests we might see it in a device in 2025.
