Samsung ISOCELL's All Lenses on Prism (ALoP) is a new and better periscope design
Samsung's imaging team has come up with a new design for a folded telephoto camera module that would allow for a brighter lens (f/2.58 at 80mm) and a thinner overall footprint.
Called ALoP (All Lenses on Prism), it essentially moves the lens array on top of the periscope prism, instead of in between the prism and the imaging sensor, as it is in a conventional folded design.
This is because in a typical folded telephoto module design, increasing the pupil diameter of the lens (making it wider and brighter) would increase the module's height. With ALoP technology, you can have a wider lens diameter without making the entire module bigger.
So with ALoP, periscope cameras can have brighter lenses, leading to better low-light performance.
A conventional folded telephoto vs Samsung's ALoP design
Samsung's ICOCELL team says this design is 22% shorter than a conventional periscope and it uses a 40˚-tilted prism reflection surface and 10˚-tilted sensor assembly.
You can see in the images below the drastic reduction in module length and the reduction in the thickness of the module.
The thickness show in the images may not seem huge, but it allows for a smaller camera bump, which is a priority for many buyers.
A conventional periscope vs Samsung's ALoP design
Samsung isn't saying when we'll see this new tech in action but a fair guess is on the Galaxy S25 series.
Reader comments
- AnonD-1185368
- 84G
I think the solution here is better on-sensor processing. E.g dual slope gain, Dual vertical transfer gate, etcetera. Take a look at the Oppo find X8 and X8 pro. The X8 has a smaller sensor, but the image quality is shockingly similar on all lenses...
- Ottonis
- JHh
I totally agree, Google's Pixel, in particular the early iterations, did have fairly small sensors but revolutionary computational capabilities, which resulted in great photos. The problem is that computational photography can only go so far, ...
- AnonD-1185368
- 84G
Apple uses a 1/3.06" sensor for its 5x telephoto, and in broad daylight, images come out looking amazing. Sensor size is important, yes, but with amazing processing, even a tiny sensor can give shocking results.
