According to The Elec, industry insiders revealed that Apple plans to introduce periscope/folding zoom lenses in the iPhone 15 series released in the second half of this year, which will be supplied by LG Innotek and Jahwa Electronics. The companies accounted for 70% and 30% of the shares respectively.
In addition, Japan Alps, an existing iPhone camera partner, is expected to struggle to secure orders from Apple this year. It is worth mentioning that Korean media also stated that the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max will be the only lens equipped with a periscope lens this year, but next year the periscope lens will become the standard configuration of the Pro series.
In April last year, South Korea’s Jahwa Electronics said it would invest 191 billion won (approximately 991 million RMB) to build a factory to produce new OIS optical stabilizer devices.
At that time, some people in the industry pointed out that Apple visited Korean companies last year to find a supplier of periscope lenses. Therefore, foreign media believe that this new factory will exclusively supply Apple with the periscope zoom lens module required for the iPhone, and will be commercially available for the first time in 2023.
Interestingly, there are rumors that Apple has removed Samsung from its telephoto lens supply chain because the latter’s patents prevent Apple from using this technology in the 2023 iPhone. Therefore, Apple seems to have finally bypassed Samsung and reached a supply agreement with Jahwa Electronics.
Previously, sources said that Jahwa Electronics’ OIS patent has done a good job in creating foldable zoom technology. The technology would allow a periscope camera system to use prisms to fold the light entering the image sensor, enabling smaller camera modules to increase the iPhone’s optical zoom range.
Periscope lenses rely on prisms that bounce light to multiple internal lenses positioned 90 degrees from the camera sensor. This makes the lens much longer than a telephoto lens for better optical zoom. The telephoto lens on the iPhone 13 Pro models only offers 3x optical zoom and 15x digital zoom.
For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is equipped with a periscope lens that can achieve 10x optical zoom and up to 100x digital zoom. Rumor has it that Apple may opt for 5x optical zoom.
Information about Apple’s introduction of periscope lenses for the iPhone 15 series is actually very transparent in the supply chain.
Guo Mingchi previously pointed out that the iPhone 15 Pro Max released in 2023 and the iPhone 16 Pro / Pro Max released in 2024 will all use periscope telephoto lenses, of which the specifications of the periscope telephoto lenses of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 are similar. The detailed parameters are 12-megapixel 1/3-inch outsole, f/2.8 aperture, support for sensor shift (Sensor shift) anti-shake, and 5-6x optical zoom.
