Tecno unveils Freeform Continuum Telephoto and Dual-Mirror Reflect Telephoto | Infinium-tech

Today, TECNO held the 5th edition of TECNO Future Lens event, which aims to showcase the company’s imaging innovations to the media. This year’s highlights are the dual-mirror reflect telephoto and the freeform continuum telephoto.

The Freeform Continuum Telephoto is what it sounds like – a single periscope with smooth, continuous zoom. Tecno has created a design that covers the 1x to 9x range.

This means there is no need for a separate telephoto camera – this module acts as the main camera (at 1x) and then zooms further than most fixed focal length telephoto modules we have today.

This has other advantages too – some phones have a noticeable “bounce” as the digital zoom switches from one camera to the other. Manufacturers also have trouble rendering the same colors from different cameras, so there is sometimes a noticeable change in colors when switching between a phone’s cameras.

Having one camera that can do it all eliminates those problems – and it certainly produces a higher quality image in the intermediate steps than digital zoom.

The dual-mirror reflect telephoto is an interesting design – it’s 50% smaller than a traditional lens-based telephoto module. It apparently uses two mirrors to focus light, not just a lens. Techno also mentioned the distinctive donut-shaped Bokeh effects it produces.

It sounds a lot like the so-called mirror lens Which have long been available for DSLR and mirrorless cameras. They pack a lot of focal length into a relatively compact body and are also quite lightweight. As far as Bokeh goes, some people see it as a disadvantage, others as something unique (it’s sometimes called “iris blur”). Well, this design is effectively smaller catadioptric telescope,

A bigger potential issue is that the dual-mirror reflected telephoto module loses 1 stop of light. The technology is ready for use and Tecno hopes to introduce it in phones early next year (if the design gets approval from focus groups).

As far as the Freeform Continuum Telephoto is concerned, it is a more complex design and hence it is still under development. It will take at least a year for us to see its commercialization. TECNO has selected manufacturing partners – Samsung and Largan for these lenses.

Tecno also continues development of the Tecno Image Matrix or “TIM” for short. It is a complete technology stack consisting of four layers, each of which has different components. Here’s a high-level overview:

“We are transitioning from simply capturing light to intelligently understanding scenes. Our systems now analyze composition intent, subject characteristics, and even emotional tone to deliver technically accurate and emotionally resonant images. This represents the next frontier where computational photography meets creative empowerment,” explains Xiaohan Huang, director of TECNO’s Image R&D Center.

The video below gives more details and a better look at the Freeform Continuum telephoto and dual-mirror reflect telephoto modules: