Optical industry competition from Huawei P30 series

Jiwei.com News: Even before the Huawei P30 series was released, it had already attracted great attention from the public. The most discussed topic is the powerful camera function of the Huawei P30 series. On the evening of March 26, Huawei held a new product launch conference for the P30 series in Paris, and the P30 and P30 PRO phones were officially released.

Looking back at the Huawei P30 series launch conference, the most amazing thing is its photography technology. Huawei Consumer Business CEO Yu Chengdong said, "We want to rewrite the rules of imaging." Among the two camera configurations of the Huawei P30 series, the P30 is equipped with a 40-megapixel ultra-sensitive Leica triple camera, supports 5x hybrid zoom, and a maximum of 30x digital zoom. In comparison, the parameters of the Huawei P30 Pro are even better. It is equipped with a 40-megapixel ultra-sensitive Leica quad camera, supports dual OIS optical image stabilization, periscope 10x hybrid zoom, and a maximum of 50x digital zoom.

Seeing these constantly upgraded hardware, I remembered that someone in the industry once said that the development direction of mobile phone photography is to continuously learn from cameras, and to realize the functions of cameras by upgrading the software and hardware of mobile phone cameras.

The best way to demonstrate this on Huawei's new phone is to increase the optical zoom multiple through the periscope lens.

Which supplier has a great harvest in photo upgrade?

In the past two years, optical zoom has successfully replaced pixel upgrades after the popularity of dual and triple cameras, becoming a new breakthrough for mobile phone photography to catch up with professional cameras. Initially, only 2-3 times optical zoom could be achieved through telephoto lenses, until the emergence of periscope structures, which increased the optical zoom to 5 to 10 times.

This time, Huawei also applied periscope optical zoom to the P30 PRO, which uses a four-camera combination of 20M ultra-wide-angle + 40M wide-angle + 8M five-times optical zoom periscope lens + TOF.

According to the operating principle of periscope reflection through prism, an average camera module has two more prisms than ordinary modules. The increase in quantity is definitely good for suppliers. According to Jiwei.com, the suppliers of periscope prisms used in Huawei P30 PRO are Sunny Optical, Lida Optoelectronics, Crystal Optech and Yaguang; among them, the main suppliers of lenses and filters are Sunny Optical and Lida Optoelectronics.

In addition, Sunny Optical also won orders for the P30 PRO's 8M lens, periscope module, triple-camera module, and TOF module, and is also one of the main suppliers of P30 camera-related components. With the launch of Huawei's two new phones, Sunny Optical can be said to have become the big winner in the supply chain.

It is worth noting that with the improvement of camera functions, other manufacturers have begun to be able to produce mature periscope lenses, which also marks the competition and development of the optical industry.

Optical industry: the outcome is unpredictable

According to a reporter from Jiwei.com, OFILM previously acquired the well-known domestic VCM manufacturer Xinsikao, and later acquired the Japanese lens manufacturer Fujifilm. Through cooperative development with its related companies, OFILM has made significant progress in the development of periscope lenses.

In addition, an insider revealed to the author: "O-Film Technology has acquired a number of optical-related technology patents through multiple acquisitions of overseas companies. At the same time, the number of Japanese and Korean technicians in its factories has also increased significantly. In this way, O-Film Technology has made rapid progress in the field of optics."

However, Largan's decision was different from that of domestic manufacturers. When domestic manufacturers were making great efforts, Largan did not seem to follow this trend.

In fact, according to information obtained by Jiwei.com reporters from Samsung Electro-Mechanics, the first generation of high-magnification (5x) periscope optical zoom they produced for domestic terminals was not achieved simply from hardware, but by superimposing software algorithms on hardware with 2-3x optical zoom effects to increase the zoom factor.

The insider also said: "In fact, periscope is not a new technology in the industry. Pure hardware can only achieve a 2-3x optical zoom effect at most. There are many ways to achieve periscope, but each company has different methods and the effects will vary. As far as I know, Largan has never launched a related product."

As the leader of the optical lens industry, Largan has long enjoyed the dividends of high-end products. Even though some high-quality companies have emerged in the industry, it has not had a substantial impact on it.

However, some industry insiders believe that whether periscope lenses can prevail in the market may bring some changes to the current optical industry landscape.

Although Largan may be developing customized terminals at this stage, it also means that the company has no intention of popularizing this product to the large-scale market.

In contrast, domestic companies have been actively promoting related products from the very beginning. It is worth noting that domestic companies represented by Sunny Optical are currently in the limelight and market changes are unpredictable. Once the market penetration rate of periscope lenses begins to increase significantly, these domestic companies may be able to grab the first share of the dividends.