The iPhone Pro Mirrorless Camera Holy Grail Will Never Be Found
Phones
Speaker 1: When it comes to phone cameras, apple's, iPhones tend to have some of the best. Now don't <laugh>, don't get me wrong, phones like the Google Pixel seven Pro Samsung's Galaxy S 22 Ultra go toe to toe with apple. In terms of photography, though, mm, 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 [00:00:30] 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 <laugh>? Now that sounds familiar. It's because everyone from Samsung, Panasonic, Motorola, and others have in part flirted with this idea. [inaudible] the world's third largest phone maker behind Samsung, and Apple is the latest to rekindle the quest for the phone camera. Holy grail,
Speaker 2: I [00:01:00] got I Gotk.
Speaker 1: Yes, jammy. Put a lens mount on a phone prototype that lets you mount a like a 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.
Speaker 1: So you might be saying, Patrick, I see you're passionate [00:01:30] 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, um, 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 [00:02:00] or an hour approximation, two 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 [00:02:30] little ones. Also, there are space considerations. A lens for a phone camera sensor is relatively small, but lenses 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.
Speaker 1: 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 [00:03:00] 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 you finder 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 [00:03:30] bit bigger than those found in phone cameras. But Sony also made the QX one, which had an APSC size sensor, which is about six Lego bricks big.
Speaker 1: 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 QX one also had a Sony email, 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 [00:04:00] or find different places to put it and take photos remotely. The QX one came out in 2014 and cost $350. Imagine having something like that today. I mean, I would definitely buy a 2022 version of the QX one. If Sony made it, I mean, would you let me know in the comments? Sadly, Sony discontinued the QX one 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, [00:04:30] the Witcher, mid Somar, and the boys made a phone called the Red Hydrogen one.
Speaker 1: Look, I'm not gonna 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 cameras were on par with those from a $700 Android phone. But the back of the phone had pogo pens that were designed to be used to connect different modules, kind of like moto mods, including a cinema camera [00:05:00] module that housed 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 F nine on the dashboard of Dominic Trio's car or the hands of Leonardo DiCaprio in the film Don't Look Up. And that brings us to Jai. So basically Jai took their 12 s Ultra [00:05:30] phone and made a special prototype.
Speaker 1: 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 Xmi 12 S 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 12 S Ultra. Come on, because most M Mount lenses are manual [00:06:00] 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 Jammy 12 S Ultra concept uses an exposed one-inch sensor, which as I mentioned earlier, isn't actually one inch despite its misleading name.
Speaker 1: It's like the hoverboard of camera sensors. Next, this is purely a [00:06:30] 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 NAMI'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 <laugh>. I mean, [00:07:00] 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 Xmi 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 [00:07:30] processing.
Speaker 1: 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 TikTok directly from your camera? Well, turns out Samsung tried that about 10 years ago when it released a series of cameras that run [00:08:00] on Android. So are we noticing a theme here? Most of these ideas or approaches to this phone camera, holy grail, were tried 8, 9, 10 years ago. A few of these like that, Sony QX one 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 like a lens mount.
Speaker 1: The truth be told, over the past decade, professional cameras have gotten smaller. For example, the most recent like [00:08:30] a M 11, is about the width of a Galaxy S 22 Ultra. Look, it's definitely thicker than a phone, but think of this way, if you have a lens you're gonna put on your phone, you're probably carrying that lens in a bag, and that bag could probably just carry an M 11 body in it too, right? And yes, like a cameras and lenses are ridiculously expensive. But the same idea applies to other smaller camera bodies like from Sony. They have an APSC line of cameras and lenses that are much more affordable.
Speaker 1: The journey towards a phone camera [00:09:00] 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 Fuji Film X 100 that packs a [00:09:30] large image sensor, a sharp lens, and can fit inside a coat pocket <laugh>. 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 wanna see more videos like this, subscribe to CNET and thank you for watching.
