Apple Explores Adding a Lens Mounting System to the iPhone

[garylapointe]

"Magnets can be strong as hell"

I really can't see Apple doing this with a bayonet. They would be the ones to use magnets, as it doesn't affect the way the device looks. Magnets can be strong as hell for such small objects.

I agree. But they need something to make sure the lens is precisely centered properly (right?). A pinhole (2) to make sure the lens is aligned properly? Close to the edge of the camera so something to align along the edge? (no, since that would stop many cases/bumpers from working). Not sure.

Maybe the magnets, made to Apple's precision, would have no choice but to hold it precisely....

If the bayonet passed controls and power to the zoom lens, I could see the benefit, but I still don't see it. They're too fussy with stuff like this.

Gary

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

The iPhone 7 needs to have a 24 MP full-frame sensor and a large selection of Carl Zeiss lenses. Otherwise, Apple is doomed.

No =>

No, 64 MP!

Anyone for 128?

That would mean a Sony tie in? Don't they do work with Zeiss? Some people say the NIKKOR lenses are better... I have both a Canon and a Nikon, and aside from some minor issues, I'd probably never know the difference.

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I don't know about you but I don't have metal shavings around me everywhere I go.

I used to work with a number of metal shops and was amazed at the number of very sharp shavings I'd find in the strangest places. Shoes were common, but pants, shirts, gloves, Magsafe ports/cables, hair, hats... But for the average person, you are correct. I keep forgetting that I'm not 'average'...

 

[Lesser Evets]

FINALLY: Apple is doing something worthwhile instead of futzing around with peripheral nonsense. The lenses would be ideal for a variety of functions and makes the iPhone into a semi-professional camera rig.

 

[torturegarden]

Camera quality

First they need top make a usable camera in the phone. EVERY photo I take with my 5C needs to have the white balance corrected. Some degree of manual control and a halfway decent sensor would be a good start.

 

[StyxMaker]

A patent for bayonet mount for lenses? How is there not previous art? They had bayonet mounts for lenses long before I was born (I'm 64). Or is it new because it's built onto a smart phone?

 

[mono1980]

I've been saying Apple should do this for years! I hope this rumor comes true!

 

[Menneisyys2]

Or another Time-wasting-bait for Samsung, for all we know.

Apple hasn't really done anything substantial for the niche market or the power user for a very long time now, with the sole unapologetic exception of Mac Pro.

Even that seems like an attempt to try and convert Professionals into Prosumers. (Really who does that?? Apple!)

Absolutely agreed. See the fate of the 17" MBP.

 

[JHankwitz]

A macro lens would be epic.

It already is a macro lens. Normal lenses can't do better than 4:1 or more. iPhone 5s is almost able to do 1:1, which is considered macro.

 

[JHankwitz]

Bad Idea

Overall, a bad idea.
1. Won't work with cases,
2. will break off easily,
3. will get hung up in pockets or purses,
4. will look ugly,
5. would become too bulky and not fit in shirt pockets
6. would have continual dirt and dust problems,
7. would add additional cost for those that don't want it, and
8. the iPhone is still primarily a phone, not a camera.

 

[ActionableMango]

do you carry keys? how about a wallet that contains cards that use magnetic stripes or pins?

How about change in your pocket?

Interesting, are Canadian coins magnetic?

 

[winston1236]

If we can have a iPhone SLR mount system, that will be fantastic.

You obviously know nothing about cameras so I won't bother educating you since you can google it but there is a reason DSLR's and SLR's are so large and your phone will never equal them.

 

[taptic]

It already is a macro lens. Normal lenses can't do better than 4:1 or more. iPhone 5s is almost able to do 1:1, which is considered macro.

Yeah, but I'm talking real macro here...

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Overall, a bad idea.
1. Won't work with cases,
2. will break off easily,
3. will get hung up in pockets or purses,
4. will look ugly,
5. would become too bulky and not fit in shirt pockets
6. would have continual dirt and dust problems,
7. would add additional cost for those that don't want it, and
8. the iPhone is still primarily a phone, not a camera.

I may be wrong, but I think they would make it an attachment that people could buy separately.

 

[winston1236]

iPhone owners buy a separate camera if they think the iPhone isn't good enough. And it is quite pointless to buy a separate camera that is only slightly better than the iPhone, so they buy an expensive camera.

Every time the iPhone camera improves, the number of people thinking the iPhone isn't good enough shrinks. If Apple built an "iPhone 5 with camera" which doesn't look as nice as an iPhone 5 but takes a lot better photos, that would hurt Canon, Nikon etc. And Apple has the advantage that a new iPhone has a very powerful processor which can do things that a camera can't do.

Things like what? I'm sorry but your phone equals high end photography equipment in not a single way.

 

[ohbrilliance]

Yeah I don't see the DSLR market caring too much about phone cameras.

Canon and Nikon also make a lot of P&S cameras.

 

[JHankwitz]

I don't know about you but I don't have metal shavings around me everywhere I go.

That's what you think. Carry around a small neodymium magnet in your pocket for a few weeks and check it out. You'll have all kinds of crud stuck to it.

Stick the magnet in the same pocket as your credit cards for a few days and then try to buy gas or dinner. A salesman once gave me a thin magnetic business card to stick on my fridge. I didn't know it was magnetic at the time. After 3 days I had to replace all my credit cards.

 

[Lazy]

First they need top make a usable camera in the phone. EVERY photo I take with my 5C needs to have the white balance corrected. Some degree of manual control and a halfway decent sensor would be a good start.

Maybe you're holding it wrong. There are plenty of great iPhone photos in existence so it can't be that it doesn't have "a useable camera".

Not to say it doesn't get the white balance wrong sometimes or manual controls wouldn't be useful.

What would be really nice, and only require a small amount of software (thus meaning it's feasible and easily done) would be a RAW format option. That would completely fix getting the white balance wrong (by deferring the choice of what to set it to until later).

 

[nepalisherpa]

I posted this about two months ago: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1701198/ Catch up, Macrumors!

 

[JHankwitz]

I may be wrong, but I think they would make it an attachment that people could buy separately.

Attachment or not, it would all still apply:

Overall, a bad idea.
1. Won't work with cases,
2. will break off easily,
3. will get hung up in pockets or purses,
4. will look ugly,
5. would become too bulky and not fit in shirt pockets
6. would have continual dirt and dust problems,
7. would add additional cost for those that don't want it, and
8. the iPhone is still primarily a phone, not a camera.

 

[Qaanol]

If you take a jewelers eye loop , and put the iphone lens on it you get really sharp and good looking macro pictures.

Takes a bit to figure it out, but I do it all the time to show close ups.

Not an every day solution, but works

What I did is take an old disposable camera, cut out the lens piece, and mount it on a piece of wire bent to let it slide over the corner of my phone. Heat-shrink tubing on the wire, glue the ends of the wire into holes I drilled in the plastic around the lens, and it works like a charm.

Or if you are super cheap, and will only be taking macro pictures with the phone pointing straight down, you can put a drop of water on the lens of the phone camera. I've done it a few times and it works great, but it's a bit tricky to get just right. The water beads up and that's what makes it a lens, but you have to get it in exactly the right spot and make sure it doesn't drip off when you flip the phone over.

But yeah, a built-in lens mounting system would be grand. I just hope Apple doesn't make it a proprietary connector and charge exorbitantly when other companies want to make compatible lenses.

 

[sparkydale]

only if they're L series...

iSeries surely...

 

[bigpics]

So does this open up possibilities of true optical zoom or not?

As that would finally make phone cams good enough to be true daily drivers for photogs who want to control all the traditional variables of pespective and depth of field, etc., going back to film SLR's.

 

[dilbert99]

No. They don't care at all. People don't choose DSLR's over phones. They choose both. One has no effect on the other. Even hobbyist photographers are going to buy actual cameras. Hell, most parents will buy a camera for shots of their kids. This is in no way any threat to DSLR's.

They care, they don't just make DSLR cameras. Point and shoot cameras are in decline and that will hurt their bottom line

 

[joejoejoe]

Yeah I don't see the DSLR market caring too much about phone cameras.

Trust me, they do.

Phones are better for photography in every single way, other than the most important aspect, image capture.

Phones already have better screens, more portability, instant editing, instant sharing and processing.

It's only a matter of time before phones capture images of quality matching today's prosumer DSLR's. And this patent seems to be a step in that direction.

Phones already killed point and shoots.

 

[dilbert99]

Overall, a bad idea.
1. Won't work with cases,
-- with the kind of cases you are thinking about
2. will break off easily,
-- says who?
3. will get hung up in pockets or purses,
-- not if its done right
4. will look ugly,
-- perhaps, but the bayonet could be flush with the lens 'bump'
5. would become too bulky and not fit in shirt pockets
-- I'm assuming it would protrude 0.5-1.5mm, hardly bulky, the lens would be removable
6. would have continual dirt and dust problems,
-- perhaps, but could be mitigated
7. would add additional cost for those that don't want it, and
-- probably about less than the cost of a big mac to the user
8. the iPhone is still primarily a phone, not a camera.
-- not for a LOT of people

The best camera is the one you have with you...

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if you EVER have to rely on Digital zoom to get a camera feature, then the camera is bad and designed wrong.

Digital zoom is the devil. DEVIL!

Only in the sense of how digital zoom is implemented by 99.9% of current cameras that can be achieved in the same way by cropping in software.

A system such as Fuji's 40+ megapixel camera allows digital zoom that is better than just cropping doesn't it?

 

[peteullo]

do you carry keys? how about a wallet that contains cards that use magnetic stripes or pins?

How about change in your pocket?

You've never seen wallets with magnetic money clips? There are ways to use a magnet safely so that it won't cause the problems that you're mentioning.

More concerning though, you walk around with pins in your pocket?