Samsung’s imaging team has come up with a new design for a folded telephoto camera module that would allow for a brighter lens (f/2.58 at 80mm) and a thinner overall footprint.
Called ALoP (All Lenses on Prism), it essentially moves the lens array on top of the periscope prism, instead of in between the prism and the imaging sensor, as it is in a conventional folded design.
This is because in a typical folded telephoto module design, increasing the pupil diameter of the lens (making it wider and brighter) would increase the module’s height. With ALoP technology, you can have a wider lens diameter without making the entire module bigger.
So with ALoP, periscope cameras can have brighter lenses, leading to better low-light performance.
A conventional folded telephoto vs Samsung’s ALoP design
Samsung’s ICOCELL team says this design is 22% shorter than a conventional periscope and it uses a 40˚-tilted prism reflection surface and 10˚-tilted sensor assembly.
You can see in the images below the drastic reduction in module length and the reduction in the thickness of the module.
The thickness show in the images may not seem huge, but it allows for a smaller camera bump, which is a priority for many buyers.
A conventional periscope vs Samsung’s ALoP design
Samsung isn’t saying when we’ll see this new tech in action but a fair guess is on the Galaxy S25 series.
