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posted by martyb on Saturday September 08 2018, @05:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the Now-there-are-FIVE-lenses-that-I-got-to-try-and-keep-my-fingers-from-getting-in-front-of? dept.

Leaked image teases Nokia phone with five cameras

HMD appears to be working on an impressive camera array for a future Android-powered Nokia handset. Leaked design sketches and images hint that we could be about to see a Nokia-branded phone with five cameras on the rear. The penta-lens setup first appeared in rumors about a Nokia 10 device earlier this year, and now an alleged photo has leaked of the handset.

The camera module includes five lenses arranged in what looks like a circle, with prominent Zeiss branding. HMD Global, the Finnish company that licensed the rights to produce Nokia phones, teamed up with Zeiss last year to reunite the Nokia and Zeiss brands for the Android era. HMD has started to use Zeiss optics in its latest Android handsets, and the lens maker has even patented a miniaturized zoom camera system that looks very similar to this leak.

F*** Everything, We're Doing Five Rear Cameras.

But you still have a long way to go.

Also at Engadget.

Previously: Nokia (HMD Global) Partners with Zeiss for Optics Capabilities
LG's V40 Smartphone Could Include Five Cameras (total)

Related: Nokia Smartphones to Return in 2017
Nokia (HMD Global) Attempting U.S. Comeback With Midrange Android Smartphones


Original Submission

Related Stories

Nokia Smartphones to Return in 2017 23 comments

A company set up by former Nokia employees called HMD Global has licensed the Nokia brand name from Microsoft, struck partnerships with device manufacturer Foxconn and intends to launch an Android smartphone in the early part of 2017.

The head of HMD Global, Arto Nummela, said: "Consumers may be carrying different smartphones now, but are they really in love and loyal to those brands?"

HMD Global will be looking to stir nostalgia in an effort to challenge the big and small players of the highly competitive smartphone market, dominated by Samsung and Apple, as well as Chinese brands such as Huawei.


Original Submission

Nokia (HMD Global) Attempting U.S. Comeback With Midrange Android Smartphones 29 comments

The Nokia 6 will be available in early July:

HMD Global — the Finnish company that owns the rights to manufacture Nokia-branded smartphones — announced earlier this year that it would be releasing new midrange Nokia Android phones in the United States. We now have more information on the first Nokia phone to hit Stateside: the Nokia 6, which will be available in early July for $229.

The Nokia 6 is the largest of the three Android phones HMD Global announced at Mobile World Congress, featuring a 5.5-inch, 1920 x 1080 display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage (expandable by microSD). On the software side of things, the 6 runs Android Nougat in its purest, unadulterated form — that means no bundled apps or overlaid skins. Plus, while the specs are decidedly average, the Nokia 6 does stand out with a metal unibody design built out of a single block of aluminum, which adds a premium touch to the otherwise midrange device.

Amazon is subsidizing the Nokia 6 by slapping ads on the lock screen.

Also at Engadget and CNET.


Original Submission

Nokia (HMD Global) Partners with Zeiss for Optics Capabilities 6 comments

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11608/nokia-smartphones-to-exclusively-use-zeiss-optics

HMD Global and Zeiss on Thursday announced that they had signed an agreement under which upcoming Nokia-branded smartphones will use Zeiss-branded optics exclusively. The companies said that they would co-develop imaging capabilities of future handsets, but did not elaborate when to expect actual devices on the market.

The collaboration announcement between HMD and Zeiss has a number of layers, all of which seem to be significant. First off, Nokia's future phones will use optics co-developed with a renowned designer of lenses. The important upshot here is that HMD is actually investing in the development of custom capabilities for its Nokia phones. Second, the two companies are talking about "advancing the quality of the total imaging experience", involving optics, display quality, software, and services, but do not elaborate. From the announcement, it looks like HMD will put R&D efforts not only into optics but will design its own software enhancements to improve imaging capabilities beyond those offered by vanilla Android. A good news here is that certain future phones carrying the Nokia brand are not going to rely completely on off-the-shelf hardware, software, and reference designs. Third, HMD announced that imaging is one of the areas that it considers important for its future smartphones. Finally, Zeiss will be used on Nokia-branded devices exclusively, which means that future halo smartphones from Microsoft (if the company decides to launch them) will have to rely on other optics.

Previously: Nokia Smartphones to Return in 2017
Nokia (HMD Global) Attempting U.S. Comeback With Midrange Android Smartphones


Original Submission

LG's V40 Smartphone Could Include Five Cameras 23 comments

LG says screw everything, we're doing five cameras for the V40

It's tough to stand out in the premium smartphone world, but LG may have a solution for its upcoming V40 flagship. There's a rumor from Android Police that says the company is throwing caution to the wind and putting five cameras on its new phone, a device that will surely succeed where last year's V30's (and its V35 variant's) paltry three cameras did not.

According to Android Police's source, the V40 will feature three cameras on the back of the device. It's similar to the Huawei P20 Pro, which was the first major smartphone to offer a triple-camera system. The V40 will also feature dual cameras on the front of the device (like the HTC U12 Plus), in what's rumored be a stereo system to follow for 3D face mapping and unlocking. While both the dual-front camera and triple-rear camera configurations aren't new, the five-camera system would the first time we've seen both on a single device. If the rumor is correct, this would be the most cameras on a smartphone.


Original Submission

Oppo Smartphone Camera System Includes 10x "Hybrid Zoom" 1 comment

Oppo confirms 10x zoom camera for smartphones

Oppo has confirmed that it's developing a smartphone camera system with a 10x zoom lens, as rumored. The tech is similar to the 5x zoom prototype the company showed off a couple of years ago, making use of the phone's lateral width to enable the necessary physical depth through the use of a periscope-style prism.

This time around the camera is 15.9-159mm-equivalent, meaning it'll start with an ultrawide perspective and zoom into medium telephoto. It's essentially three prime lenses in one, so Oppo's claim of "lossless" zoom might not quite be accurate throughout the entire zoom range, but it should be considerably [more] flexible nonetheless.

The system has optical image stabilization, but so far Oppo isn't saying anything about aperture, which has been the drawback of previous experiments with zoom lenses on phones. The Asus Zenfone Zoom, for example, had a 3x f/2.7-4.8 lens, and the results weren't great. Even the 2x f/2.4 "telephoto" lens on the iPhone XS turns in worse results than simply cropping the wider, faster primary camera except in the very best of lighting conditions.

The camera will be shown off at Mobile World Congress 2019 in February.

Also at Engadget.

Related: Nokia (HMD Global) Partners with Zeiss for Optics Capabilities
LG's V40 Smartphone Could Include Five Cameras
Leaked Image Shows Nokia-Branded Smartphone With Five Rear Cameras


Original Submission

Xiaomi Teams Up with Light to Develop Multi-Module Cameras for Smartphones 7 comments

Xiaomi Teams Up with Light for Multi-Module Smartphone Cameras

Xiaomi and Light, a computational imaging firm, have announced at Mobile World Congress that the two companies will be working together to develop new multi-module cameras for smartphones. The two companies promised that the jointly-developed cameras will feature DSLR-level capabilities, but did not disclose when the first product from the joint project is expected to come to fruition.

Light specializes on computational imaging solutions using multiple camera arrays. The company has gone so far as to develop their own chip that can work with 6, 12, or 18-camera arrays. And while Xiaomi and Light aren't specifying just how big of a camera array they're looking to develop, we're likely looking at something in the lower-bounds of those number, if only due to the limited size of smartphones. For reference's sake, a 6-module camera would be very similar to what Nokia has done for their Nokia 9 PureView.

Cover the entire back of a smartphone with cameras, then gingerly hold it using the corners.

Related: Meta-Lens Works in the Visible Spectrum, Sees Smaller Than a Wavelength of Light
A Pocket Camera with Many Eyes - Inside the Development of Light
Caltech Replaces Lenses With Ultra-Thin Optical Phased Array
Nokia (HMD Global) Partners with Zeiss for Optics Capabilities
Google Reportedly Acquires Lytro, Which Made Refocusable Light Field Cameras
LG's V40 Smartphone Could Include Five Cameras
Leaked Image Shows Nokia-Branded Smartphone With Five Rear Cameras


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @04:51AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @04:51AM (#732050)

    Nokia sold its consumer brand. To HMD? What is HMD?

    • (Score: 2) by archfeld on Saturday September 08 2018, @05:05AM (2 children)

      by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Saturday September 08 2018, @05:05AM (#732054) Journal

      http://www.hmdglobal.com/about/ [hmdglobal.com]

      Here is an entire website about HMD global. After reading it I still can't begin to answer your very direct and simple question. Sigh...

      --
      For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
      • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday September 08 2018, @09:43AM (1 child)

        by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Saturday September 08 2018, @09:43AM (#732103)

        Here's a wiki: https://enwikipedia.org/wiki/HMD_Global [enwikipedia.org]

        I only skimmed it, but it almost appears HMD was created in 2015 for the express purpose of buying and relaunching Nokia.
        Maybe the Finns were upset MS had tarnished the Nokia name?

        --
        Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @06:31PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @06:31PM (#732271)

          No, Nokia has licensed Nokia brand for cell phones to HMD global. Nokia is still a big company, that makes network stuff.

    • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday September 08 2018, @05:16AM

      by MostCynical (2589) on Saturday September 08 2018, @05:16AM (#732059) Journal

      It seems HMD is attempting to be the Red Bull of mobile phones.

      Or maybe that is Nokia.
      Hmm.

      Marketing, it is all about marketing.
      And selling stuff (branding is apparently a saleable "thing")

      --
      "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 09 2018, @10:47AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 09 2018, @10:47AM (#732445)

      What's a nokia?

      • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday September 09 2018, @10:51AM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday September 09 2018, @10:51AM (#732447) Journal

        Well, obviously it's no Kia.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Saturday September 08 2018, @08:25AM

    by Dr Spin (5239) on Saturday September 08 2018, @08:25AM (#732085)

    Luckily, I still have 2 Nokia E63's with no cameras.

    --
    Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @08:46AM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @08:46AM (#732093)

    The article even says its unclear what the use is for 5 cameras. What is the demand for this?

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday September 08 2018, @09:10AM (4 children)

      by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Saturday September 08 2018, @09:10AM (#732097) Journal

      In general:

      • It increases the amount of light collected, which is better for dim settings
      • Allows for cameras with different focal lengths [digitalcameraworld.com], larger pixels, zoom levels, etc.
      • Could allow you to algorithmically fix up the image, possibly allowing you to "focus after the fact" (or in near real-time)
      • Could let you capture 3D imagery/depth mapping data, or a larger FOV (see VR180 cameras [theverge.com]).

      Smartphone reviewers are probably going to spend a lot of time on the camera and determine whether these multi-camera setups actually work in practice. But the idea is sound and there may be no limit [theverge.com] to the useful amount of cameras. Although maybe we will ditch lenses [soylentnews.org] eventually.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @09:45AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @09:45AM (#732104)

        there may be no limit to the useful amount of cameras.

        I guess it depends on what you call "useful". The cameras on phones are multiplying, meanwhile actually calling people is dying due to all the spam.

        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 08 2018, @10:02AM (1 child)

          by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Saturday September 08 2018, @10:02AM (#732112) Journal

          The smartphone is the perfect place for cameras. Most people carry their phone most of the time, and they can whip it out and take pics/video when something happens. WorldStarHipHop!

          If people have a problem with call spam, they could whitelist numbers.

          --
          [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
          • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @11:39AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @11:39AM (#732147)

            Whitelisting isnt good enough since they can spoof numbers in your contact list. When it happened to me I think it was just lucky, but eventually all the contact lists currently being harvested by apps will become cheap enough for spammers to buy.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @04:33PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @04:33PM (#732245)

        HDR

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @09:10AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @09:10AM (#732098)

      The same reason anyone buys any new gay smartphone with new useless features. More is better. New is better. Niggers eat this shit up. The last trend was that useless Siri piece of shit. They were literally shooting each other in the streets over this "feature".

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by c0lo on Saturday September 08 2018, @09:49AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 08 2018, @09:49AM (#732106) Journal

      With as single eye, you can see 2D.
      With 2 eyes, your visual perception becomes 3D.
      Maybe Nokia is onto something here, I wonder how large is the market segment of string-theorists?

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday September 08 2018, @09:53AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 08 2018, @09:53AM (#732108) Journal

    Now-there-are-FIVE-lenses-that-I-got-to-try-and-keep-my-fingers-from-getting-in-front-of? dept.

    How-to-use-a-selfie-stick dept at your service.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @08:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @08:31PM (#732304)

    Lets begin the race for more cameras.

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