According to MacRumors, Apple is set to unveil the latest telephoto camera featuring an innovative tetraprism design in the pro models of the iPhone 16 series. Following its debut in the iPhone 15 Pro Max, this technology is anticipated to grace both the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max in 2024.
The documentation also reveals that the camera module design for the iPhone 16 Pro closely resembles the one used in the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and confirms the presence of the tetraprism components.
However, it’s crucial to note that the provided information is pre-production, and the hardware on final mass-production units may differ. After all, if you look at the date, you will see that September 2024, when the iPhone 16 is expected to debut, is still months away, so changes are always possible.
Tetraprism lens
The iPhone 15 Pro Max marked a significant milestone as the first iPhone equipped with a periscope lens (a type of telephoto lens). Traditional telephoto lenses achieve their zoom capabilities by extending their focal length. This, however, can make them bulky and impractical for smartphones. The tetraprism lens, on the other hand, uses a clever optical design that allows for significant zoom without increasing its physical length.
Inside the tetraprism lens, light enters a series of four prisms that bend and redirect it toward the image sensor. This arrangement effectively doubles the lens’s focal length, allowing for a 5x optical zoom without the need for a bulky design.
The tetraprism lens also offers several other advantages over traditional telephoto ones. It can reduce chromatic aberration, a type of lens distortion that causes color fringing around objects. Additionally, it can allow more light to reach the image sensor, resulting in sharper and more detailed images, especially in low-light conditions.
In short, the tetraprism lens is a game-changer for smartphone photography, offering significant zoom capabilities without compromising image quality. It’s an exciting technology that is poised to revolutionize mobile photography in the years to come.
