Ryan-Thomas Shaw / Android Authority
TL; DR
- Huawei has confirmed that it will offer a flexible opening camera on the Mate 50 series.
- This allows the phone’s camera to switch between aperture sizes.
- Aperture adjustments affect light capture and depth of field effects.
Samsung in 2010 In the late 2010s, it was one of the few smartphone brands to offer a flexible aperture camera on its phones, a departure from the fixed aperture seen on most phones up until then. Now, another brand has revealed that it will resurrect the feature for its new flagship range.
Huawei has announced on Weibo that its upcoming Mate 50 series, which is set to launch in China on September 6, will feature a dynamic aperture camera. And there are two reasons why you need this option on your smartphone.
Why is dynamic spacing important?
For one, variable aperture means you can adjust the amount of light captured by your phone’s camera. Photography at night? Then going wide open lets more light in and provides a brighter photo. Otherwise, you can stick to a narrow aperture on a day when there is no lack of light.
Adjusting the aperture size of the phone camera will also affect the depth of field. A wide aperture means a shallow depth of field effect, while a blurred background means a foreground. Meanwhile, a narrower aperture results in a deeper depth of field, with everything (including the background) in focus.
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Samsung and Oppo released phones with variable aperture cameras in 2018 and 2019, but these devices can only switch between two aperture sizes (f/1.5 and f/2.4). There is no word if Huawei will take this approach or offer the freely adjustable opening design on the Mate 50 series. Either way, the news comes nearly a year after Huawei’s patent for a flexible camera design first surfaced online.
This can be a useful addition to today’s smartphones due to the huge sensors they often carry. Smartphones with large sensors often have a shallow depth of field, which means you sometimes need to zoom back to get an image with everything in focus. So being able to adjust the aperture accordingly would be very welcome here.