In a week Oppo will present many novelties that we will see on the 2022 smartphones of the BBK Electronics group: one is the camera with retractable lens
December 14, 2021 will be an important day for Oppo: it will be the Oppo Inno Day and the Chinese brand of the BBK Electronics group (to which also belong the brands OnePlus, Realme, Vivo and iQOO) will in fact present several technological innovations that we will see, most likely, on smartphones 2022. One of them is a "retractable" camera.
Retractable in the true sense of the word: like on SLR cameras, the lens extends outward when in use, to move back when the camera is not in use. But if on SLRs this movement is used to increase or decrease magnification, apparently this will not be the case on Oppo's retractable camera. It is not very clear how this new lens will be used, but Oppo has published a video from which we can already get some useful information to understand it.
New Oppo camera: how it will be
From the video published by Oppo we can clearly see that the new camera is mounted in a rear module of an unprecedented smartphone, which groups together 3 sensors. In correspondence of the retractable camera we can read some interesting data: 1/1.56 inch, 50 mm and F/2.4.
We know for sure, then, that the photo sensor will be 1/1.56 inches, that the equivalent focal length will be 50 millimeters (so certainly not a very pushed zoom) and that the focal ratio will be f/2.4. These data, put together, suggest an optical zoom of about 2X.
That is not so much, if compared to other solutions of competitors, especially the periscope lenses of the latest generation. So it will most likely be a new hybrid zoom solution, part optical and part digital, but to know for sure the maximum magnification we should know the resolution of the sensor.
We have to wait half a month, then, but in the meantime we learn two other interesting things from the video: the camera will be splash-proof, so the phone could have a certification at least IPX5, and there will be a mechanism that automatically closes the lens in case of a fall, to protect it.
Oppo Inno Day: the other news
During the Oppo Inno Day on December 14, the Chinese manufacturer will also present other interesting news, in addition to the retractable camera. One is the first NPU (Neural Processing Unit, i.e. a processor dedicated to artificial intelligence) produced in house.
Another is a new model of smart glasses, which we still do not know if they will be used only for augmented reality or also for virtual reality. In any case, these glasses will tell us a lot about the vision that Oppo has today of the metaverse that will arrive tomorrow.