The reason is this. Recently I discovered a very interesting phenomenon. Now if you go to a certain red book and enter keywords"Concert artifact", you will find that in addition to recommending physical plug-ins such as guns and cannons or telescopes and extenders, the most mentioned mobile phone is the Samsung S23 Ultra:
I even saw that many people have opened mobile phone rental services specifically for concerts.
The price of renting a Samsung S23Ultra for a day ranges from 100 to 200, and there are discounts for renting for several days. Moreover, their business seems to be quite booming, and sometimes you even have to queue up to rent it.
Oh, I’m not telling you, there are so many mobile phones equipped with telephoto lenses on the market now, why do so many people only recognize the Samsung S23 Ultra?
Is it that the Leica of Xiaomi Mi 13 Ultra is not German enough, or is the Hasselblad of OPPO Find X6 Pro not classy enough?
Speaking of which, a colleague in our company actually scolded me for this incident a while ago because he and his girlfriend grabbed two concert tickets, but the location...
In fact, it’s not too far from the stage, and taking a taxi was just the starting price. At that time, he took the FindX6Pro borrowed from the company and filmed from beginning to end.
Judging from the photos and videos he took back, the telephoto capabilities of FindX6Pro are indeed pretty impressive...
Not to mention the face, it’s a bit difficult to take a clear picture of the person. The main focus is “abstract”, sitting in a concert with others"Mountaintop"The effects taken with the S23 Ultra are completely incomparable...
Don’t rush to scold Find
Let’s take the telephoto solutions chosen by various companies as an example.
Telephoto lenses currently installed on mainstream mobile phones can be roughly divided into two types according to their structures, namelyUpright telephotoandPeriscope telephoto.
Upright telephoto,As the name suggests, its structure is straight up and down, and the lenses are stacked perpendicular to the surface of the phone, likeiPhone14Pro/14ProMax, 15Pro,besidesXiaomi 14/14ProThe telephoto lens on the camera adopts this upright form.
andperiscope telephoto,Its structure is a bit complicated, and each company currently implements it in different ways.But the basic principle is to use a reflector or prism to bend the originally straight light path once or multiple times, so that the thickness of the lens can be converted into length.
pictureiPhone15ProMax, Huawei Mate60 series, Xiaomi 13Ultra, OPPO FindX6 series and vivoX100 series,They are equipped with periscope telephoto lenses.
Speaking of which, why do mobile phone manufacturers put so much effort into giving their mobile phones a periscope structure?The main reason is to stuff a larger sensor into the phone without making it too thick, and at the same time make the telephoto focal length as long as possible.
Speaking of which, I have to mention"Equivalent focal length"concept.
Friends who have played with cameras should know that the focal length is usually marked on the camera lens.
The focal length here refers to the distance from the optical center of the lens to the image sensor.The longer the focal length, the farther the lens can shoot.
As we all know, the lenses installed on mobile phones can still capture angles of various focal lengths, but their physical focal lengths are obviously not as exaggerated as camera lenses, otherwise a mobile phone with a thickness of about 8mm would not even be able to fit a lens.
In order to look more intuitive,Mobile phone manufacturers generally do not directly mark their actual physical focal length on the lens, but give a focal length equivalent to the camera lens.
For example, the angle of view captured by a mobile phone with a 24mm equivalent focal length lens is the same as that of a full-frame camera with a 24mm physical focal length camera lens.
Moreover, there is such a formula between the equivalent focal length and the actual physical focal length:
"Equivalent focal length" = "Actual physical focal length" × 43.3÷ (16/18 × "CMOS size")
How this formula came about is a long story, so we won’t go into details here. In short, after understanding the equivalent focal length and knowing this formula, everything will be explained.
Let’s take a look at the upright telephoto first:
3.2X telephoto on Xiaomi 14/14Pro, equivalent focal length 75mm;
3X telephoto on iPhone14Pro/14ProMax/15Pro, equivalent focal length 77mm;
Then here’s the periscope telephoto side:
4.3X periscope telephoto on X100Pro, equivalent focal length 100mm;
OPPO Find X6 also has the 3X periscope telephoto on the X6 Pro, with an equivalent focal length of 65mm;
The 3X periscope telephoto on vivoX100 and iQOO12/12Pro has an equivalent focal length of 70mm;
The 5X periscope telephoto on iPhone 15 Pro Max and Xiaomi Mi 13 Ultra has an equivalent focal length of 120mm;
And the 10X periscope telephoto lens on Samsung S23 Ultra,Can you believe that its equivalent focal length is 230mm...
It can be seen that in terms of equivalent focal length alone,Samsung S23UltraIt can be said that it is directly second to other mobile phones.
This is also why this mobile phone can be called"Concert artifact"The most fundamental reason is,In terms of telephoto capabilities, other mobile phones equipped with telephoto are just a younger brother in front of it.
And by simply plugging it into the formula, we can calculate the 10X periscope telephoto lens of the S23Ultra phone.
Its actual physical focal length is about 27.2mm. If there is no periscope structure, the thickness of the phone is estimated to be 3cm, which is really like a brick...
Of course, having said that, other manufacturers have not made the telephoto focal length of mobile phones longer. It is not that they do not have this technology. After all, taking pictures is only one of the functions of mobile phones.
The mobile phone must not be made too thick, otherwise the hand feel will be too poor and other aspects of the experience will be sacrificed.
So in front of manufacturers, there are basically the following directions:
1. Either give a higher specification CMOS to your mobile phone, do not pursue how far you can shoot, and focus on telephoto image quality (large base + low magnification)
2. Either install a small bottom CMOS on the mobile phone and increase the zoom factor, focusing on telephoto capabilities (small bottom + high magnification)
3. Another option is to give the phone a telephoto focal length that is relatively sweet, and then take into account the image quality and focus on a balance.
Among them, the periscope telephoto lens on the OPPO Find X6 series is"Big bottom + low magnification"Representatives, the equivalent 65mm telephoto focal length they provide is not even as good as the Xiaomi Mi 14 series with upright telephoto.
However, the 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX890 sensor equipped on the Find
And Samsung S23Ultra is obviously"Small bottom + high multiple"Representative, the 230mm equivalent focal length it provides is indeed long enough.
But to be honest, the Sony IMX754 sensor used in this telephoto lens is really small, only 1/3.52 inches. When the light is sufficient, the film output is good, otherwise it will be compromised.
Other mobile phones such as vivoX100 series, iQOO12 series and Huawei Mate60 series obviously choose to do ""Captain America"The focal length is not particularly long but not short either.
If you don’t have the ultimate pursuit of the zoom capability and low-light image quality of the telephoto lens, then perhaps this type of phone is more suitable for you.
Of course, things are not so absolute. When we discussed telephoto earlier, there were still many factors that we did not take into consideration.
In fact, the telephoto performance of mobile phone lenses is actually a combination of three factors: physical focal length + sensor size + camera algorithm, and it is also related to aperture size.
I also found it hereXiaomi 13Ultra, Xiaomi 14Pro, OPPOFindX6ProbesidesiQOO12ProThese four mobile phones took some photos.
Among them, the Xiaomi Mi 13 Ultra is quite special. In addition to a periscope telephoto camera with a focal length equivalent to 120mm, it also has an upright telephoto camera with a focal length equivalent to 75mm. The focal length coverage is considered to be the most comprehensive among the four mobile phones.
Let’s look at the daytime scene first.
Under the respective native 3.Xiaomi 14ProbesidesXiaomi 13Ultra, the photos have a serious smearing effect.
And using periscope telephotoFindX6ProbesidesiQOO12Pro,The texture details of the photos they take are much richer:
And once you switch to the 5X focal length,Xiaomi 13UltraThe advantages of the native 5X periscope telephoto are immediately apparent, and it has the best image quality among these four phones:
When it comes to the 10X focal length, as expected, there is no periscope telephoto lens.Xiaomi 14ProIt became the most popular one, and the other three mobile phones were about the same:
However, once we get to the night scene, things change.
Under their respective native 3.X focal lengths, the one with the largest bottomFindX6Pro,The purity of the photos taken directly beats the other three mobile phones.
Following closely is the one using 1/2 inch ov64biQOO12Pro,As for they are all small bottomsXiaomi 13UltraandXiaomi 14Pro,The quality of the photos they take is very average:
And when it comes to the 5X focal length,Xiaomi 13UltraRelying on the advantage of the native 5X focal length, we regained the upper hand.Xiaomi 14ProThen continue to be at the bottom:
As for the 10X focal length, the one with the richest details isXiaomi 13Ultra,followed byiQOO12Pro,The most annoying thing isXiaomi 14Pro:
From the previous comparison, we can also see that compared to the upright telephoto, the mobile phone uses a larger sensor with the help of a periscope structure, which can indeed improve the image quality.
Especially at the native focal length, the gap between them is particularly obvious.
Among periscope telephoto lenses, the first thing to compete is the native focal length, which determines how many times of optical zoom they can support.
When the native focal lengths are similar, the main competition is the quality of their respective sensors. If you continue to increase the zoom factor, it depends on how well each company's algorithm is doing.
It sounds like it will be released next monthFindX7Ultra,It is said that dual periscope telephoto lenses will be used, one of which is a 3X periscope telephoto lens with an equivalent focal length of 65mm, and the other a 6X periscope telephoto lens with an equivalent focal length of 135mm.
This kind of dual periscope telephoto combination is definitely unique on a mobile phone.
It can be predicted that the next mobile phone images will continue to zoom in the telephoto direction.