iPhone camera idea

It's been done on compact digital cameras. Very poor results with complicated mechanicals. Not Apple's style anyway.

 

Take a look at the sensor, that would hardly create more room. Much easier said than done!

 

Wouldn't work. The width of the optics already excees the width of the device so turning them 45 degrees wouldn't help. Besides, not all of us find the nub problematic.

 

Yes, you're right. I'm sure all the MIT grads making $200,000 a year at Apple haven't tried every possible solution to keep the camera lens inside the casing.

If you think it's that easy you're clearly not an engineer or a designer. Just because you can drive a car doesn't mean you can build one.

 

Ha that made my day, brilliant analogy!

 

Because there's no reason the electronics are around the chip, right?

 

That's a pretty bold statement, and one that I'm positive will be proven wrong.

 

Actually, there's a much more important reason the electronics are around the camera sensor: more distance equals more noise. The less distance you have between sensor and processors, the less noise is introduced.

Your scheme risks really grainy photos. But being the awesome and talented engineer that you are, you should already know this.


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Well, you best get to work on that patent, then!

By the way: What are you going to do, in your awesome, never-before-thought of idea, about mechanical Optical Image stabilization, as exists on the 6 Plus? And I assume you've already confirmed that the optics themselves aren't accounting for the some of the thickness?

 

This is exactly what Sony did with their T-series of Cyber-Shot cameras. I have a DSC-TX1 that has an internal vertically-oriented zoom lens. The problem is that the individual elements in the iPhone camera lens are wider than the phone is thick. And for its complexity, you'd only get a huge benefit if like the Sony T-series, you also had a zoom lens.

 

Forget the camera, I would have just preferred a large capacity battery and a slightly thicker phone. Like your style though OP

 

Not really. The physics with light and their interaction with optics cannot be altered, only controlled.

The key point is a "quality" camera. And when it comes to cameras, size does matter based on physics. Easiest examples would be professional camera equipment. Even when expense is of no consequence it's still large.

 

iPhone camera idea

I don't think a 1mm ring around the lens is such a big issue. According to this review the iPhone 6 plus is at the top of the list!
http://www.cnet.com/topics/phones/best-phones/camera/

Notice the huge Samsung lens phone is rated lower. If you are serious about photography you would use a dedicated full frame camera!