Apple's Lens Supplier Confident in Triple-Camera Adoption in Upcoming Smartphones

Tuesday February 12, 2019 12:34 am PST by MacRumors Staff
DigiTimes reports that despite a sizable drop in fourth-quarter 2018 revenues and operating profits for lens-supplier Largan Precision, the company remains confident about "adoption of 3-lens or more modules for flagship smartphone models."

Rendering of possible 3-camera system in future iPhone

As a result, Largan is continuing to expand their production capacity, despite this recent dip in revenue.
Largan has also become a lens module supplier for China-based smartphone vendors including Huawei, Oppo and Vivo, and Korean giant Samsung Electronics. Among lens module makers, Largan stands a better chance of obtaining orders for 3-lens modules in 2019 due to competitiveness enabled by its economy of scale and technological capability.
Largan's confidence remains steady since back in July despite warnings from Apple that global sales may stall in 2018.
"Generally speaking, the smartphone industry may have started to slow, but the demand for more camera lenses does not stop there," Lin has told reporters after the company's annual general meeting on June 12. "The same smartphone shipment quantity would require more camera lenses than in the past."
Indeed, Apple is widely rumored to adopt a three lens system in their high end 2019 iPhones and beyond. A Triple-camera system could offer improved 3D-sensing, increased zoom, better low-light photos, and more.

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miflgr92
10 months ago
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The cameras are amazing already. I’d rather see the phone get a little thicker to eliminate the camera bump and add some extra battery life. Triple lens seems like a gimmick to me.
Rating: 22 Votes
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recoil80
10 months ago
Apple really needs to focus on low light pictures. In day light I can take amazing shots considering how tiny the lenses are, but indoor or after sunset I really struggle getting something barely usable. I can always pick my DSLR but that's not the point, other brands do perform better in low light. Maybe colors are not accurate, but being able to see something is better than having a pic with no details at all.
Some enhancements can be made via software taking advantage of their amazing SoC, but I wonder if a dedicated lens could improve low light pics, I guess Huawei did something similar with the monochrome lens
Rating: 12 Votes
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SuperDuperMan
10 months ago
The Apple Company wants 3 camera lenses more than we do.
Rating: 11 Votes
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GadgetBen
10 months ago
Apple, please don't become Gillette.
Rating: 10 Votes
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Judo
10 months ago
Mobile phone camera lenses, the new razor blades.
Rating: 7 Votes
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manu chao
10 months ago

Mobile phone camera lenses, the new razor blades.

If all those cameras would do the same thing, that analogy would be correct. But as long as they all have different focal lengths (angle-of-view), that's not quite applicable. Different focal lengths are far from a gimmick, in fact, actual cameras with only a single focal length (fixed-lens cameras with a prime lens) are pretty rare.
Rating: 5 Votes
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freddiebarnes
10 months ago
This looks terrible.
Rating: 5 Votes
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otternonsense
10 months ago

I agree, but in the words of Monty Python “It’s only a model”. I doubt Apple would have it look like that. At least I hope not.


Remember when we used to express the same skepticism about those leaks?

We all know what happened next.



Rating: 5 Votes
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Relentless Power
10 months ago

The Apple Company wants 3 camera lenses more than we do.


We? Yet, you don’t even know what the triple lens camera is capable of or what it will offer in new technology. You Can’t really speak for ‘We’, when you don’t even know yourself of this new technology.
Rating: 4 Votes
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MhaelK
10 months ago
Awesome, although the IPhone takes great picture, apple is lagging behind in the camera department. With 3 lenses I hope that they use the same setup as the H. Mate 20 Pro - a wideangle lens will be a fantastic and really usefull add-on.

For me personally, a better camera, is about the only reason to upgrade my phone - everything else works just fine and is plenty fast enough. I just hope that apple offer this setup on all their models, and not just the Plus/Max model as the in old days.
Rating: 3 Votes

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