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Dual-lens smartphone camera offers wide angle and 3X optics

by Mark Tyson on 26 February 2014, 13:30

Tags: HTC (TPE:2498), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), PC

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Corephotonics has been showing off its dual-lens smartphone camera system at MWC. The system sounds very interesting and might please a lot of smartphone photography enthusiasts with its features. However, depending upon the source, this is or is not the camera unit that will be part of the next HTC flagship phone the HTC One 2. If it isn't the HTC build-in solution is going to be similar.

With its last flagship device, the HTC One, the Taiwanese smartphone maker went big on image quality and users of that smartphone do seem to be pleased with the 'Ultrapixel' cameras results. The HTC One 2 is confirmed to have a new dual lens camera on its rear which Pocket Lint say is a collaborative design between Corephotonics and Qualcomm.

On the demonstration unit at MWC the Corephotonics 6mm deep dual lens unit employed a wide angle lens and a 3X telephoto lens. Most people can understand the benefits of optical zoom over digital zoom which will be yielded from this dual-lens, dual focal length design. However less obvious is that the two parallel lenses, each with its own sensor provides improved low-light performance. Corephotonics also says that its system helps minimise missed focus and motion blur.

Digital zoom vs optical zoom

The dual lens system offers a number of other imaging opportunities. Having two lenses, side by side, offers the camera/computer depth sensing ability – just like using two eyes gives you more accurate depth sensing.

The system to make the most out of the dual lens system shown by Corephotonics is called 'Computational Photography' which utilises 'image fusion'. You can read about and see the benefits of its sharper, more accurate and clearer images here.

These dual lens systems really do look like good competition for the Nokia PureView solutions. The HTC One 2 won't appear at MWC but is expected to debut in London in March.



HEXUS Forums :: 11 Comments

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The HTC One 2… they really couldn't think of a better name?!
Trying to name your products like apple does not make it ‘cool’, just confusing for consumers.
Just call it the HTC Two.

Regarding the camera, 3x optical zoom is a nice improvement, I'm sure optical zoom will become a standard feature of future phones.

The single/dual aperture image comparisons neither look great imo. Probably wouldn't be far off just doing a curves adjustment on the single to get a similar image to the dual one.
Odeas
The HTC One 2… they really couldn't think of a better name?!
Trying to name your products like apple does not make it ‘cool’, just confusing for consumers.
Just call it the HTC Two.
Does this mean their next phone after will be the One Two Three? :-P
In all seriousness, how many photographers actually use a phone as a camera. The only people who use phones as cameras aren't that bothered about how well it looks beyond it looking good.
Devastater6194
In all seriousness, how many photographers actually use a phone as a camera. The only people who use phones as cameras aren't that bothered about how well it looks beyond it looking good.
I can't see any serious photographer using their phone's camera - true. But then again it's long overdue for the phone/camera-module makers to focus on image quality rather than quantity.

They (the manufacturers and assorted “experts”) keep telling us that the smartphone is a “convergence” device. Well, that's fine if we get to the point where your HTC/Samsung/Nokia/Apple phone's pictures actually look better than a budget digital camera. At the moment the phones (with a few exceptions perhaps - Galaxy S4 Zoom?) are ideal for a quick party snap, but that's about it.

I've often said that my old Xperia X10 was capable of producing much more pleasing pictures than the Galaxy S3 that replaced it. Maybe it's not purely down to the sensor, but also down to the camera software - but that's something I'll leave for those more knowledgeable to comment on. I've certainly seen comments elsewhere that the iPhone4S and Galaxy S3 use very comparable camera modules, (one report said it was actually the same one), but my S3 pictures tend to look less pleasing than a similar picture taken with an iPhone4S.
crossy
I can't see any serious photographer using their phone's camera - true. But then again it's long overdue for the phone/camera-module makers to focus on image quality rather than quantity.

They (the manufacturers and assorted “experts”) keep telling us that the smartphone is a “convergence” device. Well, that's fine if we get to the point where your HTC/Samsung/Nokia/Apple phone's pictures actually look better than a budget digital camera. At the moment the phones (with a few exceptions perhaps - Galaxy S4 Zoom?) are ideal for a quick party snap, but that's about it.

I've often said that my old Xperia X10 was capable of producing much more pleasing pictures than the Galaxy S3 that replaced it. Maybe it's not purely down to the sensor, but also down to the camera software - but that's something I'll leave for those more knowledgeable to comment on. I've certainly seen comments elsewhere that the iPhone4S and Galaxy S3 use very comparable camera modules, (one report said it was actually the same one), but my S3 pictures tend to look less pleasing than a similar picture taken with an iPhone4S.

I am pretty impressed by the Nokia Lumia 1020 in lower MP modes though.

OTH,such a tiny zoom in the HTC One 2 is a great feat on its own IMHO:

http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2014/2/a85f573d-7020-45e6-b210-eeda9d8a5410.jpg

Its not a zoom but a dual lens unit. Meh.