Samsung unveiled ISOCELL All Lenses on Prism (ALoP) Telephoto camera technology. It will allow smartphone makers to equip products with advanced zoom capabilities without worrying about thick and large camera bumps.
The ISOCELL ALoP Telephoto camera by Samsung intends to replace the conventional folded telephoto camera structure that uses a prism and places the lens set between the prism and image sensor. Image quality relies solely on lens diameter, impacting module height and length.
Samsung’s ALoP Telephoto camera aims to overcome these technical hurdles. The company says it is a future Telephoto camera solution, which enables users to capture clear portraits both day and night by rearranging the structure of the lens and prism.
What is ALoP (All Lenses on Prism)
Samsung’s new ALoP Telephoto camera employs a clever optical structure in which lenses sit horizontally upon the prism, remaining in the plane of the smartphone body.
Using this approach, increasing the effective lens size (EPD) by increasing lens diameter brings a brighter image yet does not affect the camera module shoulder height.
The best part, it provides a shorter module length by reducing the space needed for lenses in the folded camera module. There are many features and benefits of this technology.
ALoP Features and Benefits
Brightness:
The novel optics design of ALoP accommodates an f/2.58 lens aperture at a focal length of 80mm.
Differing from conventional folded camera optics, the lens in this case is placed ahead of the prism.
In this way, ALoP can use a large aperture lens that promises low-noise portrait images in night shots.
Compact size:
Thanks to the ALoP architecture, the module length can be shortened by 22% with respect to conventional folded camera optics.
ALoP takes up an especially low module height because it employs a 40˚-tilted prism reflection surface and 10˚-tilted sensor assembly.
Taken together, these reduced dimensions make for a lower-profile camera bump and slimmer smartphone.
Aesthetics and ergonomics:
In a smartphone using the conventional folded camera, users see a rectangular prism that is cosmetically somewhat jarring to an otherwise sleek camera appearance. By contrast, in a smartphone adopting ALoP optics, users see only the expected circular lens shapes.
Samsung is constantly trying to provide users with better quality photos and enhanced user experiences and aims to present new standards for telephoto cameras by introducing solutions such as ALoP.
