LG Innotek presents a camera module with an appropriate optical zoom

Today’s flagship phones are equipped with appropriate camera modules which often include some sort of hybrid solution for telephoto shooting. Most often it concerns solutions in which a zoom of up to 100 times is offered thanks to the combined digital and optical zoom working together. Now, LG’s Innotek has introduced a camera module for mobile phones that offers stepless optical zoom, from 4 to 9 times, without taking up much space.

To offer stepless magnification, a periscope-like solution is used with lenses that can be adjusted as needed with a minimum movement of 1 μm. On paper, this should result in more detailed images, compared to stepless zooms where digital zoom is used. With the difference in magnification, phones with the module can reduce the number of camera sensors on the back of the phones, in addition to just offering a decent zoom.

LG Innotek is not the first to have a similar solution. In Samsung’s latest flagships, Periscope solutions are used to provide users with convenient zoom without compromising image quality. However, Samsung’s solution is that it’s a fixed lens with 10x zoom. According to rumors, Apple also plans to equip the next iPhone with a similar zoom solution.

The new camera module from LG Innotek will have a proper presentation in connection with CES 2023 and perhaps after that we will find out which phones will be the first to come out with this solution. However, the wait seems to be relatively short. The company is working with Qualcomm to supply phones running the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with the camera module, which could mean it will appear in phones released as early as the first half of 2023.

How often do you use zoom with a mobile camera?