Samsung Receives Prisms for 5x Optical Zoom Cameras on Galaxy S20 lineup

2 min read

Early reports suggested that the Samsung Galaxy S20 will have telephoto sensor capable of 10x optical zoom. While the most recent evidence indicates that the company will offer 5X optical zoom as a report out of Korea mention that Samsung has taken delivery of prisms for 5x optical zoom.

These are built by a Korean company Optron-Tec, that has previously supplied the prisms for the Oppo Reno 10x zoom (which despite its name is commonly considered to have 5x optical zoom).

The known Leakster Ice Universe has also recently tweeted that the Galaxy S20 Ultra will have 5x optical zoom and will offer a pixel cropping mode to reach 10x zoom. As the S20 series will use 48MP and 64MP sensors for their zoom cameras which means they will end up with 12MP and 16MP shots post crop while the Reno had a 13MP sensor. Samsung is rumored to be working on a “Space Zoom” feature which digitally reach up to 100x magnification.

Although the S20U is only a 5x optical zoom, please note that it uses a 48MP sensor, which means that a 10X zoom can be generated by pixel cropping, and this is better than a true 10X optical zoom in many ways. Samsung is right to do so.
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) January 16, 2020

This Korean report comes through The Elec and claims that Optron-Tec makes the prisms, Actro integrates them into 5x zoom modules and Samsung Electro-Mechanics finishes the complete camera module before sending them off to Samsung Electronics.

While the Optron-Tec is reportedly interested in supplying Huawei and Vivo with prisms too. As 5x zoom cameras become more popular in future premium phones, the manufacturer predicts a growth in demand and revenue.

As Optron-Tec only creates the components and it is Samsung Electro-Mechanics that builds the finished product, so the company may find it much easier to talk Oppo and Vivo to sell its products than Samsung's rival Huawei which has its own supplies.
Source