After Xiaomi recently unveiled the Mi Mix Fold with the world’s first Liquid Lens on a smartphone, everyone is wondering what exactly is this new Liquid Lens Technology? Well, it’s not a new technology per se and has been in the works for more than a decade and a half. The Liquid Lens on the Mi Mix Fold is supposed to bring both telephoto and macro photo-capturing abilities with a single lens, but there is more to this tech. That’s why we have put together this article to help you understand what is Liquid Lens technology in great detail with comprehensive examples. So on that note, let’s go ahead and learn about the advantages and disadvantages of Liquid Lens Technology.
In this article, we have covered everything from the basic definition of Liquid Lens Technology to its working mechanism, pros and cons, and more. You can expand the table below and move to the relevant section at your convenience.
- What is Liquid Lens Technology?
- How Does a Liquid Lens Work?
- How is Liquid Lens Different From Traditional Optical Lens?
- Pros and Cons of Liquid Lenses
What is Liquid Lens Technology?
To understand Liquid Lens technology, you first need to know how the traditional camera system works. The traditional camera system, be it on smartphones or DSLRs, are mechanical in nature. By mechanical, I mean, if you want to zoom on a subject while using a DSLR, you need to change the lens first and zoom in using a motor which is a mechanical process.
The way Liquid Lenses work is quite ingenious. Unlike the mechanical camera system, Liquid lenses use electricity to change the focal length. That’s the major reason for Liquid lenses being so fast. It’s a fact that a stream of water changes its course when you bring it closer to an electric field. What’s happening here is that an electric field can bend the water stream to a different shape. Source: Applied Science / Youtube.com
Moreover, in a Liquid Lens system, the shape is changed electrically so that the alteration between different focal lengths is really fast. What is important to note is that it also improves the focus speed drastically. Unlike the mechanical camera system, Liquid Lenses can find the depth-of-field and calculate how farther or closer the object is in real-time, which improves the focus speed exponentially. Source: Edmund Optics / Youtube.com
Optical lenses found in traditional camera systems are made of glass, and have a fixed curvature radius. Whereas Liquid Lenses are small cells that contain an optical-grade liquid, which is a mixture of water and oil, and it can change its shape resulting in different curvature and focal lengths. So that is the principal difference between Liquid Lens and Optical Lens. Source: Varioptic
Pros and Cons of Liquid Lenses
- Pros
There are many advantages of Liquid Lenses over traditional optical lenses. For one, it’s quite small in size in comparison to bulky DSLR lenses. Next, it’s much quicker, offers multiple focal lengths, and consumes much less electricity than a motorized camera. What I particularly like about Liquid Lenses is that it’s a perfect solution for smartphone cameras.
Pros
- Cons
Coming to the cons of Liquid Lens technology, it’s still in the development phase and needs some key improvements for widespread adoption. The Liquid Lens technology was first invented by Bruno Berge in 2002, so the technology is relatively new. Berge now runs Varioptic, which is owned by Corning, the maker of Gorilla Glass. Experts say that scattering of light is one issue that needs to be fixed in this camera technology. Also, the researchers must prevent the flow of liquid in narrow spaces. Mi Mix Fold with Liquid Lens
