It was the French company Varioptic that pioneered liquid lenses and came up with a design that switched from a normal view to 2.5-times magnification. But this time around the Germans seen to march ahead. A German Research team has designed the first liquid camera lens that features no moving parts. It can even move between two levels of magnification. This an important stepping stone in their endeavor to make liquid zoom lenses that can sweep through a range of magnifications. The thing with liquid lens is that it can bend light using the curved boundary between watery and oily liquids. And when the two liquids are held in the right container, the boundary between them can be made to curve in a way that focuses light simply by applying a voltage. The clear advantage stems from the fact that liquid lenses are smaller than conventional optics and are cost effective. Samsung has already built them into some cellphones.
(Pictured is a standard lens)

To cut on costs and size, making of zoom lenses this way is more profitable. This is how it would work: "Altering the focusing power of a set of liquid lenses should provide the same effect as changing the distance between solid, fixed-focus lenses in a traditional zoom lens." Amongst the various hurdles in the development of this lens, the most prominent one seems to be: "Changing a zoom lens's magnification also affects its focus, and causes problems such as pincushion distortion and chromatic aberration." Therefore the initial stage focuses to design a lens that offers different levels of magnification rather than a continuous range.