Sony Alpha engineers explain why the Xperia 1 III camera is so good

Sony officially unveiled its new Xperia lineup last week and it quickly became clear that the Japanese company has been focusing on camera development extensively in the Xperia 1 III and Xperia 5 III.

Both models feature a unique telephoto system with two distinct focal lengths, achieved by physically moving the lenses inside the camera module. In a new video, posted on Xperia’s official YouTube channel, engineers from the Alpha camera department explain how they developed the camera modules in Sony’s new flagship phones.



Hiroyuki Chiba, the optical engineer responsible for developing the lenses for the RX and G Master series Sony cameras, explains that the team focused on the “cameraness” of the system in the Xperia 1 III and Xperia 5 III. Under this vague term, the Japanese engineers put several key camera features - high image quality, high precision, small size, and great speed.

The variable telephoto system uses a very precise actuator

Chiba san says that everything has been developed in-house, from the sensors to the lenses, despite the ZEISS branding on the optics. The world’s first variable telephoto camera in a smartphone is arguably the most interesting piece of technology in Sony’s new phones.

Unsurprisingly, Sony engineers are reluctant to go into much detail about how this system works. Apparently, the variable telephoto camera uses an actuator that can move the lenses inside by submicrons. Unfortunately, there’s no information about the type of the actuator - whether it’s piezoelectric or purely mechanical.

Color reproduction unaffected by trends