vivo X100 series explores the "futuristic" of mobile imaging, what exactly has vivo done right?
"The rapid development of mobile imaging technology has made it possible for anyone to become a photographer and record their lives with their mobile phones at any time. Martin Parr, the famous British photographer, once said. The phone in our hands is actually easier to use and more convenient than shooting with a professional camera, the direct color of the mobile phone lens is usually bright and vivid, the backlight HDR effect is excellent, the OIS stabilization avoids blur, and the night scene algorithm assists in low-light shooting, and even the flash becomes dispensable. Known as "China's best portrait photographer", Xiao Quan is widely loved by photography enthusiasts because of his unique portrait style, and later in the vivo X60 series mobile phones, there is a filter named after Xiao Quan, vivo hopes that both ordinary users and image enthusiasts can feel the joy of creation through mobile phones.
In the past three years, vivo and ZEISS have continued to break the boundaries of mobile imaging, from the X60 series for the first time to reproduce the portrait style of ZEISS Biotar lenses, the X70 series for the first time to realize the dual-core linkage of self-developed image chip V1+ and SoC chips, the X80 series to meet the ZEISS T* coating standard, and the X90 series to be equipped with a one-inch ultra-large bottom camera. It can be said that vivo is an "explorer" in the field of mobile imaging, and every time a new device is announced, it can always bring something new to the industry, instead of repeating the mistakes of the past and following the old path of its friends.
With the countdown to the release of the vivo X100 series on November 13, the interest of users has once again been aroused, and everyone undoubtedly has higher expectations for how this new flagship and vivo will once again break its own limits. Next, the author uses the popular "soul torture" method to unveil the "three-layer" mystery of the new machine in advance.
Soul torture question 1: After the one-inch outsole, where should the mobile phone image go?
Objectively speaking, photography is a technical job, and excellent photographers can take "blockbuster" photos with ordinary equipment, but for non-professional users, how to easily and easily shoot good photos with ordinary equipment is a big problem. In the past few years, mobile phone manufacturers have tried to continuously improve the pixels to meet the needs of ordinary users for clarity. So it took a whole decade for the Android phone lens to go from 3.2 million pixels to 48 million pixels, but it only took 1 year to go from 48 million pixels to 100 million pixels. As a result, people suddenly found that doubling the pixel value did not translate the experience of "doubling".
For this reason, all mobile phone manufacturers quietly corrected the path error, from the competition of pixel value into the competition of sensor size, combined with the eternal golden rule of the photography circle, last year vivo brought the X90 Pro+ equipped with a one-inch outsole sensor, and with the newly upgraded Zeiss T* coating to improve the light transmittance, making the sample transparent, gorgeous and highly delicate. As a result, many review media believe that the X90 Pro+ is the "ceiling" of moving images.
So after the one-inch outsole, can vivo surpass the height created by itself? Whether it is to use a larger CMOS to achieve a "hardware breakthrough", or to achieve a "reinvention peak" through software and hardware tuning, it is obvious that vivo will choose the latter. According to industry insiders, the Pro version of the vivo X100 series continues to use the IMX989, a mature one-inch main camera, through the Zeiss T* coating and the new precision jump technology, to achieve more accurate correction of low light, and then further improve the shooting quality.
As the name suggests, the main role of the precision transition technology is to compensate for the directional correction of the offset light. Through the underlying optimization at the software and algorithm level, the vivo X100 series may unleash the greater potential of the one-inch outsole, and software and hardware tuning will also become the main tone of mobile phone images in the future.
Soul torture question 2: What technology does the periscope telephoto of chicken ribs need to rely on to save it?
In addition to shooting well, it is also necessary to shoot far, and the emergence of periscope lenses has solved the problem of "shooting far" for users. As early as 2004, Japanese mobile phone manufacturer Sharp launched the world's first mobile phone equipped with a periscope lens, the V602SH, but unfortunately it only has a 2x optical zoom capability, which can only be regarded as a test of the waters. Fifteen years later, the Huawei P30 Pro, with its practical ability of 5x optical zoom and 50x digital zoom, really made the periscope lens a useful configuration, and also set off a "periscope craze" in the entire mobile phone industry, and telephoto gradually became the standard.
However, with the passage of time, there has been controversy about periscope telephoto lenses in the past two years, and the practicality has also been questioned. For example, in low-light or complex light environments, the image quality of the periscope telephoto lens decreases, or it simply cannot be turned on. This is due to the special structure of the reflective prism, which will affect the amount of light entering and cause a large attenuation of light. Therefore, the same sensor has relatively poor night shooting performance under the periscope lens structure.
Behind vivo stands Zeiss as a strong partner, and the "big optical strategy" jointly initiated by the two parties has ushered in a cooperation upgrade. At the CIIE on November 6, Yu Meng, vice president of vivo imaging, revealed that the upcoming vivo X100 Pro will be equipped with the ZEISS Vario-APO-Sonnar macro telephoto lens jointly developed by vivo and Zeiss for the first time, becoming the first product in the mobile imaging industry to obtain ZEISS APO certification.
Those familiar with the ZEISS certification system know that APO represents the highest level of judging of color performance by ZEISS, requiring that the width of the color fringe should be less than 2 pixel pitches or 2 diffraction spots, whichever is smaller. It is not difficult to see that the ZEISS APO super telephoto lens equipped with vivo X100 Pro will once again set a new industry record in chromatic aberration control, which also indicates that the joint innovation between vivo and Zeiss in the field of mobile imaging in the past four years will "blossom", and will bring a revolutionary experience of telephoto lenses in the mobile phone industry.
At present, the official has clearly pointed out that the new ZEISS APO super telephoto will bring a new breakthrough in mobile photography shooting scenes - shooting the sun, achieving unprecedented telephoto shooting days!
Soul torture question 3: In addition to covering the whole scene, can the full focal length advance to the professional?
In the past few years, in addition to the higher pixels and larger sensor sizes, mobile phone images have also been accompanied by a change in appearance, that is, there are more and more lenses. From the original single camera, to a dual camera with one main and one wide, to a quad camera covering the needs of multi-scene shooting, and even a five-camera freak like the Nokia9 PureView has appeared. However, after market verification, the cameras of flagship imaging mobile phones are basically fixed at three, each of which is enough to cope with one or more shooting scenarios.
On the new X100 series, vivo will use a more powerful triple camera combination to cover the needs of telephoto, wide-angle, ultra-wide-angle, portrait selfie and other scenarios in an all-round way. The bottom layer relies on the perfect synergy of the announced self-developed image chip V3 and the Dimensity 9300 flagship chip, and then integrates vivo's full set of algorithm matrix into it, promoting mobile photography to a professional-level level through technological innovation and integration. Looking back on the past two generations of self-developed chips, V1+ brings "night vision" into mobile imaging, and V2 integrates FIT technology to ensure the efficient interconnection of SoC chips and AI-ISP chips.
Just like vivo's own tone, they are guided by the needs of user images, and achieve their goals through the two-wheel drive of user scenarios and self-developed technology. On the new generation of V3 self-developed core, vivo will give smartphones the ability to shoot and edit 4K movie portrait videos and full-focal length portrait shooting for the first time, so that ordinary users can shoot excellent works comparable to professional photographers, lowering the threshold for full-scene shooting, so that everyone can enjoy the fun of shooting.
As the vivo X100 series gains momentum, the mystery surrounding this imaging flagship will be revealed. But what is certain is that this is a sincere work that takes vivo's mobile imaging to the next level, and many technical concepts and innovations are directed at the trend of mobile imaging. The alliance with Zeiss has formed a unique differentiated competitiveness, and it has gone further and further in the strategic development of the combination of the mobile phone industry and professional imaging brands.