Technological power starts with upgrading lenses

Yanjing, Xiaomi Technology Park.

Fang Qiming took the prototype and drove to Xiaomi's headquarters with his assistant. After explaining his purpose to the front desk, he was immediately taken to a conference room.

Soon, Mai Yongxiang walked in wearing black business attire and a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

After he glanced at Fang Qiming, he immediately stretched out his hand and said, "Hello, Mr. Fang, I've seen you for a long time. I'm Mai Yongxiang, the product manager of Xiaomi."

"Hello, Mr. Mai."

After Fang Qiming shook hands with him, he introduced his assistant to him.

After the three of them sat down, Mai Yongxiang went straight to the point and asked curiously: "You said on the phone that you have successfully developed a mobile phone lens?"

"Well, we brought the prototype too."

After Fang Qiming finished speaking, his assistant immediately took out his mobile phone from his bag and handed it to Mai Yongxiang.

Mai Yongxiang took the phone and first looked at the lens module behind it.

There are three lenses and a flash. Apart from the fact that the lens is slightly larger than the average mobile phone lens, there is nothing special about it.

Then he unlocked it and turned on the camera function.

Nowadays, the imaging quality of all the better mobile phone lenses is actually very different. It is obviously impossible to make people feel that the image quality is amazing at a glance.

When Mai Yongxiang looked at the picture on the screen, his first impression was that it was indeed quite clear.

At a meeting a year ago, he once mentioned Daqin Optics. Unexpectedly, Daqin Optics would develop its own mobile phone lens so quickly and quietly.

He pointed the camera at a pot of flowers in the reception room. He first took a picture with a standard lens, then played back and zoomed in on the picture. After observing the details, he felt a little surprised.

The light in the conference room was actually not bright. He actually shook his hands intentionally when he was taking the photo, and the resulting picture turned out to be very clear.

This shows that when this photo was just taken, the exposure time was not long, and the shutter speed was at least 1/200 seconds or less.

"Mr. Fang, what are the specific parameters of this lens?"

"The main camera is a 1.2-inch 12-megapixel sensor, and the secondary camera..."

"Wait...12 million pixels?"

"Yes, but don't worry, although the pixels are only 1200W, the area utilization rate of cmos is as high as 92%. The light that each pixel can receive is no less than that of many card machines, and its digital circuit is a 7-nanometer process. The image Data processing is very fast.”

"But after all, it only has 12 million pixels."

Mai Yongxiang said with some regret,

"Although it is a large base, it is definitely not possible to put it on our high-end models. I can try it with Red Honey first. If the effect is OK, I will apply to Mr. Lei... By the way, you are planning to sell this camera. How much?"

"699."

"How many?"

"699!"

"..."

Mai Yongxiang was speechless.

They only sell a red honey for over a thousand dollars.

Spend 699 to purchase a camera?

Go crazy!

"I'm very sorry." Mai Yongxiang immediately shook his head and said, "The pricing of your camera is really different from our product positioning..."

"Mr. Mai, please don't rush to a conclusion. The performance of our camera is better than that of Sony's Exmor Rs, especially the 1.2-inch periscope telephoto lens with the same outsole as the main camera. The imaging effect is amazing! How about you try again?"

Mai Yongxiang was a little surprised after hearing this.

Periscope telephoto lens?

Or use the same 1.2-inch outsole as the main camera?

The common problem of telephoto lenses has always been poor image quality. The reason is that the optical structure of telephoto lenses is usually relatively complex. For example, the telephoto lenses on professional cameras are like barrels.

The trend of mobile phones is becoming thinner and thinner, so the space left for the lens is limited, especially the telephoto lens, which cannot highlight a lens for you.

So there is the design of a periscope telephoto lens. Its principle is somewhat similar to the Z-type periscope on a submarine. By folding the long lens, the thickness is reduced.

This kind of structure is much more complicated than a normal lens, especially the requirements for reflectors are very high, and the cost is naturally much higher.

The telephoto lens of Daqin Optics can actually use the same 1.2-inch outsole as the main camera. This undoubtedly puts forward more stringent requirements for the design of the mechanical structure.

but……

Even if your telephoto image quality is comparable to that of a mirrorless camera, so what?

If it was a low-end camera, he could still find a way to get it.

But at this flagship price point...

He, Mai Yongxiang, has no right to speak at all.

At least at last year's year-end meeting, it was obvious that Mr. Lei was firm about cooperating with Laika. There was no need for him to get into trouble with his boss.

Mai Yongxiang returned the phone to Fang Qiming apologetically and sighed:

"I'm sorry, the main reason is that the design plan for our flagship phone was finalized last year, and the company has no idea of ​​changing the lens supply chain for flagship phones in the short term... And the mid- to low-end models obviously cannot use this high-end Camera, we can only cooperate if we have the opportunity in the future.”

"..."

When Fang Qiming saw this, he also knew that the cooperation with Xiaomi was basically dead, so he had no choice but to shake hands with him and say goodbye.

In the next week, Fang Qiming kept flying around the country with his prototype, visiting almost every mobile phone manufacturer that could be named.

But all the responses I got were that I would have the opportunity to collaborate again in the future.

In this environment where everyone is crazy about their paper strength, using a 12-megapixel camera on a flagship phone is too risky for them.

They have been boasting about high pixels for so long, and they have finally educated the market, making users think that high pixels are high technology and a guarantee of high image quality.

Now they are suddenly asked to admit that their previous publicity was wrong, and it is difficult to imagine how difficult it is to reverse course and re-educate the market.

"No intention of cooperation?"

Kang Chi was also a little surprised after hearing Fang Qiming's return.

The market response would not be very good at the beginning. This was something he could foresee before, but he did not expect that not even one would dare to take advantage of it...

With such a pattern and courage, you can’t handle the wealth and honor showered upon you!

Do we have to force him to make his own mobile phones and eat up the entire industry chain?

Kang Chi couldn't help but feel a little entangled in his heart. Although the mobile phone market is indeed huge, Kang Chi still hopes to open up markets monopolized by foreign capital, or technology markets that don't exist in the first place, and try to avoid fighting with his own people for food.

"Actually, it's not that the whole family has no intention." Just when Kang Chi was thinking a lot, Fang Qiming quickly explained, "I saved the most promising Warwick until the end. They also showed a certain interest just now, but In fact, I didn’t make my position clear, I just said that I would go to Dongyang to visit you personally in two days.”

"Visit me?"

Kang Chi couldn't help but become curious.

Logically speaking, Warwick's chip inventory should be almost exhausted, and they are the ones most looking forward to the breakthrough of domestic lithography machines.

But after Daqin Optics released Qin Guang No. 1, they remained calm and never contacted Kang Chi.

But then Kang Chi thought about it. Although he had built an EUV lithography machine, for Huawei, he did not have wafer manufacturing capabilities and could not directly help them.

What they are looking forward to most is for Kangchi to quickly deliver the lithography machine so that domestic fabs can "blatantly" help them produce high-end chips.

Therefore, from a profit perspective, it is better to lick Kangchi directly than those fabs that purchased Qinguang No. 1, such as Shencheng Silicon Industry...

But now he suddenly said that he wanted to visit him. What was he doing?

In fact, according to the time point of the story, the P60 should have been released, but this matter is relatively MG, and it is estimated that it will be in progress after analysis. Let’s just pretend that the P60 does not exist. In fact, no one can really explain this matter.

In fact, I deliberately messed up the time points of many product releases in the book to emphasize that this is a parallel world. I hope everyone can understand~