Vivo sfida apple con un kit di fotocamere esterne

Le fotocamere dei smartphone hanno raggiunto livelli tecnologici incredibili, che sembrano quasi defire le leggi della fisica. Nonostante gli sensori e le lenti siano estremamente piccoli, i nostri dispositivi riescono a catturare fotografie meravigliose in ogni condizione.

La ragione di questo successo sta nell'elaborazione fotografica, o tecnica di imaging digitale, che migliora e estende le capacità delle telecamere digitali. Nell'industria dei dispositivi mobili, si tratta delle tecniche di stacking delle immagini, degli algoritmi e della gestione dei dati che le case produttrici amano vantare.

La sfida di migliorare la fotocamera dei smartphone

Thanks a lot for your support! Apple's rumored approach to this challenge is to equip the iPhone 18 Pro with a mechanical variable aperture, while Vivo opted for an external camera kit on the X300 Ultra.

Those are two very different solutions united by the idea that mobile photography needs to finally comply with physics to improve. I believe only one of those approaches can lead to actual progress.

Apple seems to be doing too little, too late. The iPhone 18 Pro camera lens will feature tiny mechanical elements that allow you to control how much light reaches the sensor. This setting will affect the exposure and depth of field of the images you take.

Of course, this new setting will add some level of control over the camera, but it will likely be useful mostly for specific cases when shooting video, given that Apple doesn't plan other significant upgrades. In practical terms, any image quality improvements will probably rely mostly on software.

Vivo, on the other hand, is running circles around Apple with the X300 Ultra, which pushes the limits of mobile photography through pure physics. The phone features three cameras:

Main: 35mm, f/1.85 aperture lens, 200 MP, 1/1.12” Sony LYT-901 sensor
Telephoto: 85mm, f/2.7 aperture lens, 200 MP, 1/1.4” Samsung HP0 sensor
Ultra-wide: 14mm, f/2.0 aperture lens, 50 MP, 1/1.28” Sony LYT-818 sensor

The highlight here is the 35mm lens on the main camera, which is in front of a 200MP sensor, quite large for a smartphone. Using a 35mm focal length leads to a narrower view compared to the 24mm lenses on most other phones, including iPhones.

Things get really interesting with the external Zeiss telephoto extenders that help the X300 Ultra zoom beyond the 85mm on its telephoto camera and reach up to 400mm or 200mm. These lenses go in front of the second 200MP sensor and allow you to take photos practically impossible to take with other phones.

Instead of relying on algorithmic tricks to salvage usable images from digital zoom, Vivo lets you enjoy physics. When you put high-quality lenses in front of high-quality sensors, you get high-quality images.

Of course, the X300 Ultra still uses computational photography and algorithms, but they have one less physics-based hurdle to deal with.

Apple's problem is that with two very different approaches to solving mobile photography's physics problems, Apple and Vivo are likely to achieve very different results. We can't judge yet, but I'm ready to bet that Vivo's attempt is the better one, and I can only hope that Apple starts taking notes.