OnePlus has recently filed a new patent dealing with an innovative solution for the smartphone’s main camera. A single camera is at stake, breaking with the current trend of implementing various photographic modules, but there is a good reason for it.
A single camera that can rotate and move as needed to not only focus, but also change the focal length and zoom in or out on the subject. That is, a system similar to that of the compact cameras themselves, as well as the old Nokia PureView dedicated to photography.
OnePlus patent introduces rotating camera system for smartphones
Featured in China at the end of 2020, the solution has now been discovered by the publication LetsGoDigital in which we see a module capable of rotating up to 180 degrees along the horizontal axis. Therefore, it allows the lens to deliver different focal lengths.
Such an implementation will allow a single camera to fulfill the ultra wide angle and/or telephoto role that we currently have in various smartphones. In other words, to concentrate the different ways of photographing in a single camera.
According to the source in question, the patent was filed under the name “Camera module and electronic equipment”. That is, a camera module and electronic equipment.
The system would allow a camera to provide multiple focal lengths
This implementation would be able to rotate the camera thanks to a magnetic mechanism that, through magnetism, would allow the desired focal length to be obtained. Its operation is better illustrated in the following video:
Also according to the same source, this system will also improve image stabilization. In fact, in principle it would be similar to the Sensor Shift mechanism present in the latest Apple iPhone.
However, so far we don’t know if OnePlus intends to go from theory to practice with such an implementation. Until then, we have the concept video based on the filed patent demonstrating how such a system could work.
Above we also see several examples and illustrations of what such a mobile device would look like with this system. The highlight would necessarily go to the large photographic module present there.
In short, do you prefer multiple cameras on the back of the smartphone or a single (big) camera?