Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The iPhone Pro Mirrorless Camera Holy Grail Doesn’t Exist”.
When it comes to phone cameras, Apple’s iPhones tend to have some of the best. Now, don’t don’t get me wrong. Phones, like the Google pixel 7 Pro Samsung’s Galaxy s22 Ultra go Toe to Toe with apple. In terms of Photography, though, I still think video from the iPhone is a step ahead, but really none of that matters, because, for over a decade, professional photographers enthusiasts filmmakers have had a Holy Grail. What, if you could have a truly large image sensor, like you’d, find in a high-end, mirrorless camera and a lens mount that could attack to a phone? Now that sounds familiar it’s because everyone from Samsung, Panasonic, Motorola and others have in part flirted with this idea.
Xiaomi. The world’s third largest phonemaker behind Samsung and Apple, is the latest to rekindle the Quest for the phone camera Holy Grail, a Grail, yes, xiaomi, put a lens mount on a phone prototype that lets you mount a Leica M lens. Now let me emphasize it’s just a prototype because of course it is, but what would it take for such a high-end camera phone setup to become a reality? My answer Apple, so you might be saying, Patrick. I see you’re passionate about this, but what are you talking about exactly? Okay? First inside your phone’s cameras are super tiny image: sensors they’re, usually smaller than a single Lego, brick. Now sometimes you see headlines that Sony or sharp or years ago, Panasonic put a one inch sensor and a phone now, sadly, that name doesn’t refer to the actual dimensions of the sensor and in reality, is about 0.6 of an inch diagonally or in our approximation to Lego bricks: now, though, that’s big for a phone, it’s rather small for a dedicated camera.
Larger cameras have sensors that are closer in size to this 12 Lego bricks. So the dream – the Holy Grail, is to have a big sensor closer to this, a full frame sensor that you find in a mirrorless camera than this, something that is minuscule now. Of course, these large image sensors are much more expensive than the little ones.
Also, there are space considerations. A lens for a phone camera sensor is relatively small all, but lends it for full frame. Sensors are much bigger and need more space between the back of the lens and the sensor.
This is room that phones simply don’t have. There are two approaches to improving a phone camera. The main one is using computational photography to overcome the limitations of a tiny sensor. Google Apple Samsung, all use machine, learning, algorithms and even artificial intelligence to improve the photos you take with your phone. The other approach is something we saw years ago from Sony which took an image sensor and a lens and made a grip that attaches to the back of a phone.
Now the idea was, you could put this on your phone and use the screen as a viewfinder to control it using an app in Bluetooth. Essentially, you completely bypass the cameras on your phone. Now Sony made several different versions with sensors that were just a bit bigger than those found in phone cameras, but Sony also made the qx1 which had an aps-c size sensor, which is about six Lego bricks, big now, that’s not as large as a full frame sensor. But it is still much bigger than the image sensors found inside a phone.
The qx1 also had a Sony e-mount, meaning you could put different lenses on it or use adapters and use Canon or Nikon lenses, and because you control it with Bluetooth, you could either attach it to the back of your phone or find different places. To put it and take photos remotely, the qx1 came out in 2014 and costs 350 dollars. Imagine having something like that today I mean I would definitely buy a 2022 version of the qx1. If Sony made it I mean, would you let me know in the comments? Sadly, Sony discontinued the qx1 a few years after it went on sale and that’s around the time red the company that makes Cinema cameras used to film shows and movies, like The Hobbit, The Witcher midsomar and the boys made a phone called the red hydrogen one. Look. I’M not going to get into the whole 3D screen thing, but just know that, despite being a phone made by one of the best camera companies in the world, the red hydrogen ones camera as we’re on par with those from a 700 Android phone.
But the back of the phone had pogo pins that were designed to be used to connect different modules, kind of like Moto mods, including a cinema, camera module that houses a large image sensor and a lens mount essentially turning the phone into a mini red camera. Well that never happened, the red hydrogen one was discontinued, and now it shows up as a phone prop in films like F9 on the dashboard of Dominic toretto’s car or in the hands of Leonardo DiCaprio. The film don’t look up, and that brings us to xiaomi. So basically, xiaomi took their 12s Ultra phone and made a special prototype.
This is like seeing a concept car from an auto show, no matter how cool it is. You’Ll never get to drive it. The regular xiaomi 12s Ultra has a circular camera bump and what they did for their concept was build in a removable ring around the camera bump. That exposes a thread to which you can attach a Leica M mount adapter, meaning you can mount Leica M lenses to the 12s Ultra I mean come on because most M out lenses are manual focused only you get compatibility with some of the smallest and best full-frame Lenses in the world and while the Leica lens might cost thousands of dollars, since the M Mount has been around for decades, it can use third-party lenses, which cost a lot less. A few caveats: the xiaomi 12s Ultra concept uses an exposed one-inch sensor which, as I mentioned earlier, isn’t actually one inch despite its misleading name. It’S like the hoverboard of camera sensors.
Next, this is purely a concept. I imagine if something like this actually went on sale. It would cost thousands of dollars which is about the same price. You’D pay for a very nice dedicated mirrorless camera, but one with a much bigger sensor last is that xiaomi’s office in the video I mean: are these guys working on a spaceship? If so, it puts the scene at office in well everyone else’s office to shame.
So how does Apple enter into this? Well, they don’t really I mean there aren’t any rumors. That apple is making an iPhone with a camera lens mount. There aren’t murmurs. That apple is working on its own dedicated mirrorless camera, but if xiaomi made a prototype of a phone with a professional lens mount, you have to imagine that somewhere in the basement of Apple Park, sits an old concept. Camera that runs an ios-like interface is powered by an iPhone a series chip and able to use the same computational photography, processing, and you have to wonder how amazing would photos be from a camera that uses some of the same processing tricks that Apple or Google use. In their phones, I mean you’d be starting with a much better image that had much more detail and data to use and how nice would it be to have a phone like OS to share those photos and videos to Instagram or Tick Tock directly from your camera? Well turns out: Samsung tried that about 10 years ago, when it released a series of cameras that run on Android.
So are we noticing a theme here? Most of these ideas or approaches to this phone camera Holy Grail were tried eight, nine ten years ago. A few of these, like that Sony qx1 were far ahead of their time, but I don’t think Apple will ever release a standalone, iOS powered camera or make an iPhone with a Leica lens mount the truth be told. Over the past decade, professional cameras have gotten smaller, for example, the most recent Leica M11 is about the width of a Galaxy s22 Ultra. Look, it’s definitely thicker than a phone, but think of this way, if you have a lens you’re going to put on your phone you’re, probably carrying that lens in a bag and that bag could probably just carry an M11 body and it too right and yes, Leica Cameras and lenses are ridiculously expensive, but the same idea applies to other smaller camera bodies like from Sony. They have an aps-c line of cameras and lenses that are much more affordable. Their Journey towards a phone camera Holy Grail is a decade long and has produced some of the wildest products and prototypes you could imagine.
It’S also been a decade of hyped up. Promises that end up being huge disappointments, like the red hydrogen one phone in its modular camera system. But if there is a takeaway from all of this, it’s just a reminder of how good the cameras on our phones have gotten in that time. And if you do want that step up into a professional camera, you can find one like the Fujifilm X100 that packs a large image sensor, A sharp lens and can fit inside a coat pocket.
Look. That’S all my heart can take on this topic, but I want to hear from you: do you think phone cameras need to be more like Pro cameras, or do pro cameras need to be more like phone cameras? Let me know in the comments also, if you like this video, give it a thumbs up. If you want to see more videos like this subscribe to CNET, and thank you for watching. .