Once upon a time, mobile photography was a matter of "technology."
In the early days, both the hardware and software technology of mobile cameras were very limited. The camera resolution was low, sensor size was small, and optical performance was poor, resulting in low image quality. Additionally, image processing algorithms were immature, unable to effectively handle issues like noise, dynamic range, and color reproduction. Therefore, the focus of early mobile photography was on how to improve hardware performance and image processing technology to achieve acceptable image quality.
However, when technology not only solves problems but also expresses creativity, evokes emotions, and reaches the pinnacle of aesthetics, it becomes art. With the popularization and evolution of imaging technology, in recent years, some mobile brands have overcome the challenges of imaging technology. Today, mobile photography has become an important tool for public creativity. It can not only record life but also express personal artistic perspectives, allowing everyone to become an artist of life.
For example, the recently released vivo X100 Ultra has elevated image performance to a whole new level with "Thanos"-level imaging prowess. In a truly versatile flagship collaboration with Zeiss, it has taken imaging representation to new heights in a way that can be described as "supercharged," creating a truly all-encompassing imaging flagship.
However, when it comes down to it, collaborating with traditional optical factories has become a standard practice in the smartphone market in recent years. What makes the vivo X100 Ultra so special?
To answer this question, we need to go back to the basics of art - technology.
Technological accumulation is the foundation of artistic creation.
Over the past decade, vivo has never stopped exploring imaging technology: In 2012, vivo made a name for itself in the audiovisual field with the X1. The Xshot in 2014 elevated mobile photography to a professional camera level with its large aperture and optical image stabilization. In 2017, the vivo X20 pioneered the use of AI dual cameras, opening up the exploration of AI imaging technology. Subsequently, vivo increased its investment in independent research and development, launching its self-developed V1 image chip and VCS bionic spectrum technology, significantly enhancing image processing capabilities and color reproduction performance, and ushering in a new era of imaging for vivo phones.
The newly released vivo X100 series, especially the vivo X100 Ultra, can be seen from a technological perspective as the culmination of vivo's self-developed imaging. Having its own technological reserves means that vivo can create software and hardware for mobile imaging based on its understanding of imaging technology. With integrated software and hardware design, vivo can elevate the level of its phones, showcasing its exploration of mobile photography.
Of course, like all other forms of art, mobile photography also relies on the collision and exchange of ideas. This is why vivo, while pursuing independent innovation, has actively collaborated with optical brands that possess rich technological expertise. Since 2018, vivo has been deeply engaged in cooperation with Zeiss, introducing innovative technologies such as Zeiss optical lenses, Zeiss T* coatings, and Zeiss APO chromatic aberration control standards to the mobile industry.
In March 2024, the two parties signed a new joint research and development contract, aiming not only to continue breakthroughs in the field of mobile imaging but also to explore the boundless possibilities of future imaging together in classic optics and future imaging directions.
Triggering Image Revolution with Technology
Based on the strategic pillars of independent innovation and collaborative innovation, the technological achievements of vivo and Zeiss have not only brought breakthroughs to vivo's imaging performance but also illuminated the path for the entire mobile photography industry, leading the evolution of imaging technology in the industry.
For instance, in optical design, the vivo X100 Ultra is equipped with fluorite-grade glass lens FCD100, with an Abbe number as high as 95, significantly improving chromatic aberration and enhancing color accuracy and detail representation in images. The Zeiss T* coating also exhibits excellent suppression of internal reflections, effectively eliminating glare and ghosting in photos. It's worth noting that even today, there are still flagship phones unable to address issues like camera ghosting and purple fringing. For the entire mobile industry, the X100 Ultra seems to be the "reference answer" for smartphone optical design.
In terms of sensor technology, vivo has introduced the concept of VCS Bionic Spectrum Technology:
VCS Bionic Spectrum Technology optimizes color filters and sensor microlens structures to enhance the sensor's "light utilization rate," ensuring more light effectively reaches the sensor, thereby improving image quality in low-light conditions. Additionally, VCS technology reduces light scattering and reflection during transmission, enhancing image clarity and contrast, which is particularly crucial for the X100 Ultra's telephoto performance. The improved sensor QE spectrum adjusts the sensor's conversion ratio for different wavelengths, resulting in colors that are closer to what the human eye perceives.
If hardware technology is something other brands can learn from, then Vivo's years of accumulated expertise in the field of imaging can be considered Vivo's unique secret sauce. Over the years, the Blue Light imaging algorithm matrix has built multiple self-developed algorithm systems: the "Super Sensing Portrait System" significantly enhances the portrait photography quality of smartphones by introducing advanced AI algorithms and image processing technologies.
The emergence of the "Super Sensing Portrait System" has transformed smartphones from simple tools for capturing landscapes or group photos into tools for serious creative work, sparking a wave of focus on portrait photography in the mobile industry. The "Starry Sky Handheld Shooting System" for capturing starry skies, the "Dynamic Video System" with excellent video capabilities, and the "Original Image Engine" based on AI large model capabilities, all bring new ideas to the mobile industry with their outstanding imaging capabilities.
At the chip level, starting from the X70 series, the self-developed imaging chip of the V series, a staple in every generation of X imaging flagships, has never been absent, helping smartphones overcome various extreme scenarios and serving as a guarantee of Vivo's imaging confidence. On the Vivo X100 Ultra, the Blue Light imaging chip V3+ has made further breakthroughs in stage video performance, combining the VSR algorithm to achieve industry-leading clarity and tonal range in stage videos.
Redefining the Ultra Standard with Power
By bringing together industry-changing innovations and leading-edge technologies into one smartphone, what we ultimately get is the true flagship of mobile photography that is powerful enough to reshape the industry and redefine the industry's limits. In terms of hardware, the X100 Ultra features the LYT 900 one-inch large bottom sensor and a 200-megapixel super periscope telephoto lens, coupled with ultra-sensitive technology, significantly increasing the amount of light entering the main camera and laying a solid foundation for all subsequent imaging technologies.
Thanks to the collaboration with Zeiss, vivo has introduced four types of T* coatings crafted with new processes for the X100 Ultra, enhancing hardness, scratch resistance, reflectivity, and light transmittance, significantly improving users' "output rate."
In vivo's expertise in portrait photography, the X100 Ultra is equipped with the industry's largest bottom telephoto HP9 85mm lens, enhancing image quality comprehensively. It also features human eye AF functionality, recognizing a minimum of 3 pixels, thus improving focusing accuracy.
To address common issues in the industry such as chromatic aberration and complex image quality degradation in the telephoto range, vivo has introduced a combination of fluorite-grade glass lens FCD100 and 4×4 HexBayer large format technology. Fluorite-grade glass offers high light transmittance and low dispersion, effectively reducing chromatic aberration and optical distortion, enhancing image clarity and accuracy.
The 4×4 HexBayer large model solves over 100 types of complex image quality degradation caused by optical crosstalk, backed by over 1 billion pieces of physical modeling data. The X100 Ultra's telephoto camera truly demonstrates the optical benefits brought by the 4×4 array. This self-developed optimization of hardware and software has led to outstanding telephoto performance in the vivo X100 Ultra—achieving image quality comparable to the main camera even at 10x zoom, and further evolving to the king of 20x zoom, rightfully earning its title as the second main camera of the vivo X100 Ultra.
The new self-developed V3+ chip by vivo is also utilized in the X100 Ultra: V3+ boasts a significant improvement in energy efficiency compared to V3, with reduced power consumption allowing vivo to allocate more resources to algorithm computation. This results in a range of functions such as 4K movie-level video recording and telephoto stage video recording.
For instance, addressing the need for video stabilization, the X100 Ultra is equipped with the industry's largest one-inch sensor stabilization angle, combined with active OIS frame-by-frame re-centering technology, increasing the stabilization angle to 2.0 degrees. In terms of image quality, vivo has achieved a 14-bit data stream at 4K60fps, further enhancing the video's dynamic range, providing rich details even in complex lighting conditions, comparable to Vlog cameras.
Moreover, based on the high pixel count of the main and telephoto lenses, the vivo X100 Ultra also achieves 2× and 7.4× sensor internal zoom during video recording, enabling the X100 Ultra to deliver video quality performance across 5 optical zoom levels and features such as full-range 2.8K super stabilization and full-range 4K time-lapse photography, allowing the vivo X100 Ultra to surpass even the iPhone in the field of cinematic portrait videos.
After solving technical challenges, vivo has not forgotten its pursuit of artistry. With the increasing emphasis on portrait photography in the industry, the vivo X100 Ultra features the industry's strongest 85mm portrait lens, supporting portrait photography across the entire focal range, while introducing various professional color styles, providing users with greater creative freedom.
For example, the newly added black and white color style allows you to bypass the color interference in the image, retaining only the most crucial light and shadow relationships, expressing the emotion of the creation through rich grayscale variations, higher color fidelity, and stronger contrast relationships.
The humanistic street snap camera mode enables users to easily capture emotionally rich moments in daily life: vivo has iterated on Zeiss' natural colors, focusing on improving shadow tones and overall brightness, significantly reducing deltaE to 3.44, reducing highlight overflow, lowering overall brightness of the image, and enhancing contrast. It also corrects the issue of overly intense red tones in traditional humanistic modes, bringing a more balanced color relationship and a sense of sophistication to the image.
Considering that humanistic photography often encounters fleeting "decisive moments," the X100 Ultra's humanistic street snap camera integrates zero-delay capture capability, allowing for quick captures at various focal lengths to ensure freezing the moment.
Recognizing that different users have varying understandings of photography, the X100 Ultra provides two different shooting schemes tailored to different user shooting habits. Novices unfamiliar with camera operations can use the Zeiss portrait lens pack to shoot, utilizing pre-configured scene-focused focal lengths, allowing photography beginners to create their own masterpieces.
For professional photographers who already have their own understanding of photography, the X100 Ultra's portrait mode allows for freely combining over 400 different lens styles to better convey the ideas and emotions users want to express.
The full focal range portrait master combination, equipped with top-notch portrait lenses and advanced algorithms, allows vivo to address traditional mobile photography technical issues, reshape the mobile photography experience, and elevate the artistic value of mobile photography.
The future blueprint of vivo's imaging technology
In fact, from the vivo X100 Ultra, we can see vivo's "ambition" in imaging: for vivo, mobile photography is not just a "selling point," but a "business" that can be developed in the long term. From the initial V1 chip to the fluorite-grade glass and VCS biomimetic spectrum in the X100 Ultra, vivo has been driving the development of imaging technology, combining the latest AI and deep learning algorithms to further enhance users' creative space.
Under the guidance of the two strategic pillars of independent innovation and collaborative innovation, vivo will further deepen its innovation in the field of imaging, exploring new areas such as classic optics and future imaging with top technology partners. This collaborative innovation will not only enhance the technological level of mobile imaging but also propel the entire industry towards higher standards.
When photography is no longer constrained by technological limitations, mobile photography naturally has the power to move hearts.
