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 smaller overall footprint.
Called ALoP (All Lenses on Prism), it essentially moves the lens array on top of the periscope prism, rather than between the prism and the image sensor as 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 height of the module. ALoP technology allows you to have a larger lens diameter without increasing the size of the entire module.
So ALoP allows periscope cameras to have brighter lenses, leading to better low-light performance.
A conventional folded telephoto versus Samsung’s ALoP design
According to Samsung’s ICOCELL team, this design is 22% shorter than a conventional periscope and uses a 40˚ tilted prism reflection surface and a 10˚ tilted sensor assembly.
In the images below you can see the drastic reduction in module length and the reduction in module thickness.
The thickness shown in the images may not seem huge, but it does allow for a smaller camera bump, which is a priority for many buyers.
A conventional periscope versus Samsung’s ALoP design
Samsung isn’t saying when we’ll see this new technology in action, but a good guess is the Galaxy S25 series.