SLR or DSLR cameras utilize mirrors or prisms to reflect or refract the light from the camera lens to the optical viewfinder. There is another interesting and rather common utility of periscopes we see in cameras.
This prevents smartphones with periscopic telephoto cameras from being ludicrously thick than they would imaginably be if the lenses were to be placed in the same plane as other cameras on the smartphone. This means that the prism can move freely along multiple axes responding to gravity changes and, therefore, accommodate any sudden jerky movement.īy arranging the lenses and the right-angle prism perpendicular to the camera opening, smartphone manufacturers can save a lot of space. To avoid this exaggerated shift from the intended frame, periscope cameras are built with OIS or optical stabilization - usually in the prism. This is demonstrated in the following video by Samsung:įurthermore, at 5x or higher zoom, even subtle jolts are magnified and appear like significant movements. To ensure that the images taken with 5X or 10X magnification are sharp, periscopic telephoto cameras are equipped with autofocus support in which the lenses move forward or backward to focus on a far off object on the sensor. Light enters through the rectangular opening for a periscope camera, is refracted at a right angle, and then passes through the lenses and reaches the sensor. The use of a right-angle prism is why periscope cameras have square or rectangular cutouts instead of traditional circular ones. At the end, opposite to the camera sensor, lies a prism that changes the direction of light perpendicular to the sensor. In the case of a periscopic setup, however, the sensor and the lenses lie on the XZ plane and intersect the Y-axis at a right angle. Traditional camera sensors and the attached lenses also lie in the YZ plane, perpendicular to the Z-axis. The smartphone lies with the screen flat on the YZ plane, while its thickness can be measured along the X-axis. To understand the role of a periscope inside a camera module, visualize the smartphone in a 3D arrangement with different axes represented by X, Y, and Z coordinates.
A periscope’s role is to help accommodate the array of lenses without drastically increasing the smartphone’s thickness. As opposed to standard telephoto cameras that offer 2X or 3X optical zoom, periscopic cameras typically offer 5X or 10X zoom by using more than a single lens along with the camera sensor. The application isn’t much different when it comes to smartphone cameras.
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