Oppo’s new 5x dual-camera uses periscope technology to offer lossless zoom

Oppo teased a new smartphone technology in an official media invite for its press conference at Mobile World Congress. The invite referenced something called ‘5x’, which we now know refers to a 5x dual-camera zoom.

• Mobile World Congress 2017: Nokia, LG, Samsung, Huawei, Sony, smartphones and more

Oppo hasn’t said when the new technology will come to market, but it will no doubt feature in the company’s newest flagship, whenever that may be.

The new technology will let you zoom in on subjects and landscapes further than any other smartphone can offer, including the iPhone 7 Plus with its 2x zoom. And to make sure your pictures don’t suffer from motion blur when zoomed in, Oppo has managed to implement a clever optical image stabilisation technology.

Chief among the tech that’s made it possible for Oppo to produce such a camera is a design inspired by periscopes. While the structure inside the camera module isn’t quite the same as periscopes used in tanks for example, it takes the telephoto lens and moves it by 90 degrees, so rather than face outwards, it instead faces a prism.

The prism takes light that enters the camera and send its to the lens when you want to zoom in on a subject. The other lens in the Oppo’s dual-camera setup is a more standard wide angle lens.

The camera can only physically provide 3x optical zoom, but Oppo’s own processing technology is able to provide digital zoom to bring it up to 5x zoom overall. Considering the module is built the way it is, you may be surprised to find out it’s only 5.7mm thick, some 10 per cent slimmer than a typical 2x optical zoom lens on other smartphones.

As mentioned earlier, Oppo has implemented optical image stabilisation to the telephoto lens, rather than the wide angle, a practice commonly used by other manufacturers. Oppo says the lens itself and the prism that directs light are able to detect any minute vibrations and compensate for them in real time.

It certainly sounds like an intriguing proposition, we’re now just looking forward to the first phone to use it arrive on the scene.