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iPhone camera idea

S

samiznaetekto

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 26, 2009
1,016
24
High-quality camera cannot be made thinner any more, while the phone can, and so we have this pure ugliness - protruding camera.

So, instead of all optics elements and sensor being on the same axis, why not simply have a mirror at 45 degrees beneath the front element and put the rest of the optics and the sensor at 90 degree angle with plenty of room?! Now the focal length is not limited by the thickness of the phone, and ugliness is no more.

Why does it take a MR poster to do all the hard work??? Apple engineers, can you even read? :rolleyes: Sheesh!
 
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.
 
samiznaetekto said:
High-quality camera cannot be made thinner any more, while the phone can, and so we have this pure ugliness - protruding camera.

So, instead of all optics elements and sensor being on the same axis, why not simply have a mirror at 45 degrees beneath the front element and put the rest of the optics and the sensor at 90 degree angle with plenty of room?! Now the focal length is not limited by the thickness of the phone, and ugliness is no more.

Why does it take a MR poster to do all the hard work??? Apple engineers, can you even read? :rolleyes: Sheesh!
Click to expand...

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.
 
3264x2448 sensor with 1.5µ pixels is 4.9x3.7mm, which should easily fit inside at 90-degree angle. The only reason the electronics is built around the chip (making the assembly much wider) is the thickness constraint. With 90-degree scheme this constraint is gone.

cU1OAoQWnSYov1PO.medium
 
samiznaetekto said:
3264x2448 sensor with 1.5µ pixels is 4.9x3.7mm, which should easily fit inside at 90-degree angle. The only reason the electronics is built around the chip (making the assembly much wider) is the thickness constraint. With 90-degree scheme this constraint is gone.

Image
Click to expand...

Because there's no reason the electronics are around the chip, right?
 
Anyway, mark my words: Apple will steal this idea from this forum and introduce it with great fanfare in iPhone 7... or 8... or 9... It's not a question of if, but when.
 
samiznaetekto said:
3264x2448 sensor with 1.5µ pixels is 4.9x3.7mm, which should easily fit inside at 90-degree angle. The only reason the electronics is built around the chip (making the assembly much wider) is the thickness constraint. With 90-degree scheme this constraint is gone.
Click to expand...

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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samiznaetekto said:
Anyway, mark my words: Apple will steal this idea from this forum and introduce it with great fanfare in iPhone 7... or 8... or 9... It's not a question of if, but when.
Click to expand...

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?
 
samiznaetekto said:
High-quality camera cannot be made thinner any more, while the phone can, and so we have this pure ugliness - protruding camera.

So, instead of all optics elements and sensor being on the same axis, why not simply have a mirror at 45 degrees beneath the front element and put the rest of the optics and the sensor at 90 degree angle with plenty of room?! Now the focal length is not limited by the thickness of the phone, and ugliness is no more.

Why does it take a MR poster to do all the hard work??? Apple engineers, can you even read? :rolleyes: Sheesh!
Click to expand...
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.
 
Mr Hands said:
That's a pretty bold statement, and one that I'm positive will be proven wrong.
Click to expand...


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.
 
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