OPPO announces dual-cam 5x optical zoom technology for smartphones
(Digital Photography Review)

OPPO is not showing any new smartphone models at the Mobile World Congress but, as teased last week, the Chinese company has announced 5x Dual Camera Zoom system for smartphones. The system uses a periscope-style design and fits into a module that is only 5.7mm tall. Light is diverted through a prism and into the dual-camera`s telephoto lens which is arranged at  a 90-degree angle to the accompanying wide-angle. By shifting the path of the entering light Oppo is able to achieve a 3x optical zoom which is combined with a proprietary image fusion technology for digital zoom. The end results is a total 5x lossless zoom factor.  At longer focal lengths camera shake becomes more of a limiting factor which is why OPPO has also integrated optical image stabilization into the system. Both the prism and tele lens can sense vibrations and compensate for them in real time. The mechanism dynamically adjusts its angle at increments of 0.0025 degree and OPPO promises 40 percent better performance than previous OIS generations for stable shots even at the 5x zoom setting.  OPPO has not provided any information on sensor sizes and apertures, which would be critical to the image quality of the system, but nonetheless the technology looks like a very innovative approach to zooming on smartphones and we are looking forward to seeing it implemented in a device.