What you must know
- TECNO held its annual Future Lens occasion, the place it unveils its newest imaging improvements.
- The corporate has proven off a smaller Twin-Mirror Mirror Telephoto module developed with Samsung.
- TECNO’s Freeform Continuum Telephoto module permits for steady optical zoom from 1x to 9x.
An excellent digicam could make or break a telephone, and TECNO is aware of this. It is turn into the main focus of the corporate’s Future Lens occasion, which it holds yearly, and this 12 months, TECNO is displaying off some attention-grabbing developments it is making in telephoto lenses.
The primary is a collaboration with Samsung and Largan, a producer of optical lenses, to create a compact telephoto digicam module. The Twin-Mirror Mirror Telephoto module incorporates a coaxial optical design that folds the optical path of the picture by reflecting gentle between lenses, enabling a smaller total design (see the video under for a visible breakdown of the way it works).
In keeping with TECNO, this ends in a 50% smaller telephoto digicam module that also retains picture high quality and produces a donut bokeh impact.
As we begin seeing thinner smartphones just like the Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air (and even TECNO’s personal Spark Slim), having a slim telephoto lens resembling this might tackle one of many essential shortcomings of a majority of these gadgets, which regularly ditch the telephoto lens to retain a design that is as slim as doable.
TECNO additionally confirmed off a fairly attention-grabbing telephoto module that may obtain steady zoom as much as 9x. This differs from how zoom works on most smartphones, which use digital zoom to fill within the gaps between optical lenses, resembling shifting from the first sensor (1x) to a 3x telephoto digicam. This may end up in noticeable “focal jumps” when shifting between sensors.
TECNO’s methodology makes use of an Alvarez optical structure to attain a smaller module than would sometimes be wanted for a way resembling this. The result’s the flexibility to maneuver freely between 1x and 9x zoom with out the “focal jumps.”
This is not the primary time we have seen steady zoom in a smartphone, however it stays fairly uncommon, seemingly as a result of dimension constraints. TECNO’s answer additionally seems to supply a wider zoom vary, which may doubtlessly get rid of the necessity for a devoted telephoto digicam, or no less than fewer than can be wanted on a tool just like the Galaxy S25 Extremely.
TECNO hasn’t acknowledged after we can count on to see these applied sciences in its smartphones, however we hope it is sooner fairly than later. The corporate has been on a campaign to enhance picture high quality on its smartphones, addressing different digicam ache factors resembling correct pores and skin tones, quick focus, and “faucet wherever” zoom.
Throughout the Future Lens 2025 occasion, TECNO additionally showcased its totally automated imaging laboratory, a collaboration with DXOMARK to assist advance imaging capabilities in real-world situations.
