Professional cameras must have three basic hardware functions: adjustable shutter speed, aperture size and focal length to truly meet the needs of photographers in various shooting environments. Due to the limitations of the thickness and weight of the mobile phone, various mobile phone manufacturers have put forward more stringent requirements on the imaging quality of the camera module while is pursuing the miniaturization of mobile phone camera modules. For example, through the periscope principle, the ten times the optical zoom of the mobile phone lens is realized.
However, the aperture index of most mobile phone camera modules is fixed and unchangeable, which affects the improvement of the quality of mobile phone photography. In early August, , the Mate50 series released by Huawei , launched a 10-speed variable aperture function to obtain better imaging effects. However, some netizens also questioned that the variable aperture of Mate50 is a marketing gimmick, not a fresh black technology, and the variable aperture is of little significance to mobile phone photography. Is this really the case? Facts are better than words, let’s take a few photos taken with Mate50pro first!
1. The functions and effects of variable aperture of Mate50pro
Before launching the sample of Mate50pro, let’s talk about what variable aperture is and its functions. For SLR photography enthusiasts, this is the most basic photography knowledge, but it is not certain for mobile photography enthusiasts. Because the aperture of most mobile phone cameras is fixed and unadjustable, there is no concept of variable aperture in mobile photography.
aperture is a device used to control the amount of light passing through the lens and entering the light-sensitive surface of the body. It is usually installed inside the lens. cannot change the diameter of the lens at will for a lens that has been manufactured, but the aperture device is generally composed of a number of overlapping arc-shaped thin metal blades. The clutch of the blades can change the size of the center circular aperture, which can control the light transmission amount of the lens .
pictures are from the network
The aperture size is expressed using the f value, and its value is the focal length of the lens / the diameter of the lens diameter. This involves a lot of professional knowledge in photography, and I will not explain it in detail here. We just need to remember that the smaller the aperture f value, the larger the aperture, the more light it enters in the same time, and the brighter the picture; the larger the aperture f value, the smaller the aperture, the less light it enters, and the darker the picture. For consumer digital cameras, the aperture f value is often between f2.8 - f16.
has two main functions: one is that can change the shutter speed. Generally speaking, the exposure of the camera at the same sensitivity is determined by the aperture size (aperture F value) and the shutter speed. The smaller the aperture F value, the larger the aperture aperture, and the larger the amount of light entering, so we can increase the shutter speed by increasing the aperture, or reduce the aperture to reduce the shutter speed. Large aperture lenses usually perform well in environments with weak light. You can take a look at the night scene photos I took in the same environment with Huawei Mate50pro and Mate40pro+ respectively:
Mate50pro The picture taken is bright and detailed. Due to the large aperture of F1.4, the sensitivity is 125 and the shutter speed is 1/100 seconds. The picture below is darker. Since it uses F2.4 fixed aperture, the sensitivity needs to be increased to 200 and the shutter speed is reduced to 1/33 seconds. The effect of the Mate50pro variable aperture is revealed. Due to the large aperture, the image quality is significantly better than that of Mate40pro+.
The second is to change the depth of field. In addition to changing the shutter speed, the aperture also has the function of changing the depth of field. The so-called depth of field is generally the clarity of the front and back background of the object focused on the focus point in a photo. The objects before and after are clear, which means the depth of field. For example, when shooting landscape films, you need to have a deep depth of field. In addition to the clear focus position, the objects before and after are blurred, which means the depth of field. For example, when shooting flowers and portraits, you need to have a blurred background. The smaller the aperture F value, the larger the aperture aperture, the shallower the depth of field, the blurry the background, the larger the aperture F value, the smaller the aperture aperture, the deeper the depth of field, and the clearer the background. Please see the photos taken with different apertures in Mate50 Pro professional mode.
From top to bottom, use the four apertures of F1.4, F2, F2.8, and F4 to shoot side by side pencils. It can be seen that the larger the aperture, the larger the range of the pencil's blurring, and the smaller the aperture, the smaller the range of the pencil's blurring. According to the sample, the Huawei Mate50 Pro has a natural blur effect, the edges of objects in the foreground are sharp, and the visual effect is very good.
2. How to use Mate50 Pro variable aperture
If you are in a dark environment and there was no variable aperture before, you just need to slow down the shutter speed and increase the sensitivity, but this may cause slow shutter speed and unstable holding, which makes the photos blurry and the picture quality poor. When shooting with Mate50 Pro, you only need to turn the aperture a little larger to make the amount of light incoming, so that the brightness of the photos will be brighter and clearer. If you want to shoot flowers and portraits in , you need to make the background blur. variable aperture adjustment can help you take pictures of flowers and characters clearly while taking into account the background blur and adapt to different scene needs.
So how to adjust the aperture size? The Mate50 Pro has three modes to adjust the aperture size. One is to have a smart aperture in normal automatic mode. The mobile phone can intelligently identify and match the four apertures of F1.4, F2, F2.8, and F4 according to different scenes. There are two methods for manual adjustment:
1. Adjust
in professional mode to open Huawei Mate50 Pro Professional mode, click the A aperture adjustment icon, and the aperture adjustment mark appears on the page. You can slide left and right to adjust the range between F1.4 and F4 according to your needs. This is like the aperture priority mode in the SLR camera. Shutter speed and sensitivity will be adjusted accordingly according to the change in aperture.
2. Adjust
in large aperture mode. The phone before Huawei Mate50 Pro had a large aperture mode. Its principle is to rely on the TOF camera and cooperate with the depth of field relationship calculated by the main camera to achieve depth of field adjustment and blur the background effect. How to use it can be seen in my headline article "
to turn on the large aperture mode, click on the icon with aperture, two aperture modes appear on the page, select the physical aperture, and there are four apertures to adjust.
It should be noted that the variable aperture can only be adjusted between 0.9 and 3.3 times the focal range. At this time, only the main camera is equipped with a variable aperture, and the focal range of 0.9 and 3.3 times is the focal range of the main camera.
The ten-speed adjustable physical aperture used by Huawei Mate50 Pro can be controlled by rotating the blades and adjusting the angle between the blades to control the amount of light inlet. expresses the aperture size we use f value. Some cameras can change the aperture size by rotating the ring on the lens barrel, while some cameras use microprocessor chips to control micromotor to automatically change the aperture size of the aperture. The arc-shaped thin metal blades can have up to eighteen. The more arc-shaped thin metal blades, the closer the aperture is to round. By designing the shape of thin metal blades by electronic computers, you can only use 7 thin metal blades to obtain a nearly circular aperture.
3. Huawei mobile variable aperture is an outdated technology?
Some netizens think that variable aperture technology is a frying leftover rice, an outdated technology. It is undeniable that variable aperture technology has long been a mature technology in the field of cameras. However, it is quite difficult to install the variable aperture device on the mobile phone camera module. Before Huawei, the Nokia N86 released by in 2009 provided the three-speed automatic aperture selection function. At that time, everyone knows the thickness of the simulated mobile phone.
In 2018, Samsung launched Galaxy S9 that supports two variable aperture adjustments with f1.5/f2.4; in the same year, OPPO also launched OPPOR17Pro that supports two variable aperture adjustments with f1.5/f2.4; the Sony XperiaPRO-I released last year supports two-speed aperture adjustments with f2.0/f4.0. However, the adjustment device for the two-speed aperture is relatively simple, and the adjustment range is too small, so the reason why variable aperture has not been popularized is that it is too difficult to develop a small but thin and supporting variable aperture equipment.
In order to achieve multi-level variable aperture of mobile phone camera module, there must be more blades, the materials need to be thin and durable. To achieve rotation and closing of blades, a brand new driving device is also needed. For a type of camera module that integrates variable aperture and drive motor at the same time, how to ensure the shooting quality of the camera module and reduce the volume of the camera module is a key area of research and development of Huawei Technology Co., Ltd. has been searching for according to patent literature. With variable aperture as the keyword, Huawei has applied for related invention patents at the China Patent Office since 2018. So far, Huawei has disclosed 8 invention patents related to variable aperture, and 2 utility model patents have been authorized. These patents involve the shape of the variable aperture blade, the overall structure, the driving device, the coordination between the aperture and the lens lens, and other technical aspects.
The variable aperture structure shown to you at the Huawei press conference. The blade adopts eccentric hole-like rotation to achieve aperture opening and closing. This is the traditional method of opening and closing. In fact, Huawei has also invented another method of rotating the blades of gears, see the patent in the figure below.
variable aperture device and camera module, application number CN201880100251.3
blade driving also requires new methods. Huawei is now using a high-precision loop magnetic field microcontroller motor. In fact, Huawei has also developed another driving method, using piezoelectric ceramics for deformation under signal control to drive the rotation ring of the variable aperture to rotate relative to the base of the variable aperture, see the patent in the figure below.
drive device and electronic equipment, application number CN202110121812.1
The variable aperture used by Huawei this time is placed in front of the lens. In fact, Huawei also applied to place integrated electric field control aperture in the middle of the lens group to achieve can not only achieve wide-angle imaging, but also adjust the aperture of the aperture.
A wide-angle lens and terminal device, application number CN202011379647.1
Just from these three invention patents, we can see Huawei's innovation and technology reserve capabilities and the strength of intellectual property protection . We can believe that Huawei will innovate in mobile phone photography, and the remarks that Huawei's variable aperture is a fried leftover rice can be stopped. @Huawei terminal @flagship darling
