Xiaomi Gives a Glimpse Into the Smartphone Camera Future

During CP+ and the announcement of the Xiaomi 15, including the very camera-styled Xiaomi 15 Ultra, they also talked about one of their concept phones.

But first we should talk about what got us here.

Sony QX and Olympus Air

What Xiaomi showed off was something that Olympus and Sony tried in the past: It provided a camera and lens module that attached to or communicated with a smartphone and that a user could use in conjunction with a smartphone.

However, these units were large and very laggy because they relied on Wi-Fi connections between the camera unit and the smartphone. The camera unit had to have everything, including storage and a battery. The software integration was simply lacking as users would have to go into a different app to access the camera module, and of course, that was never going to be optimal.

So, after several attempts, these units stopped being developed and were pretty much a dismal failure. The Sony and Olympus units were certainly ahead of their times, being developed in the early 2010s, with the last device coming out in 2015.

Samsung S4 Zoom

Samsung took a different approach, by marrying a compact camera with a smartphone. They created a compact camera and smartphone in one body with the Samsung S4 Zoom.

However, it’s compact camera shape, size and weight made it undesirable when smartphones were still small.

The funny thing now is that this Samsung Zoom would probably sell a lot better in today’s climate than it did back in 2013.

The Chinese Smartphone and Camera Market

I remember talking to Craig last year and musing about when a Chinese smartphone manufacturer would step into the camera space. We had figured that DJI would be the serious contender, or maybe Hauwai. DJI seemed especially likely after DJI purchased Hasselblad.

I had thought a Chinese company might do something because they wouldn’t have the traditional blind spots that the Japanese camera companies have. The Chinese manufacturers also have a very large domestic market that now loves purchasing domestic products over foreign ones.

Xiaomi’s Look at the “Future of Mobile Imaging”

Now, since camera companies have made similar devices and failed, it stands to reason that Xiaomi would learn from their mistakes, and they did.

The magnetic attachment pins between the camera and the smartphone contain both data and power. Xiaomi calls this their “Modular Optical System” – almost sounds the same as another well-known system, the “Electro Optical System” or Canon’s EOS.

This MOS interface allows the lens device to be much smaller and have power on, with no fussing with wifi or external applications to use the camera. You snap the camera module on your phone, and the smartphone sees the camera module as another lens in your normal camera application.

There are huge benefits to this. Users get a seamless, immediate interface with absolutely no lag. You also don’t need to worry about charging the camera lens attachment or storage on the camera lens. Any fussing or problems with the Sony or Olympus solutions almost vanish. The imaging is backed by the computational capability of the smartphone, not to mention the ease of image workflow. With the direct connection of the external camera into the smartphone, the integration is as seamless as any existing and built in smartphone camera.

There are Limits Though

This solution will have its limits. It’s still governed by physics, so it’s most likely will need to use smaller than full-frame sensors and the lenses will have shorter focal lengths. Someone in the comments somewhere mentioned a 70-200mm lens. I think that is impractical.

It also still provides clunky ergonomics of a smartphone while trying to be a camera with a larger lens. Since the camera module uses the phone power, this device will also drain the phone battery faster.

Will this Spur Japanese Innovation?

In 2007, the late Steve Jobs said eight words that really defined the future smartphone industry: “If you don’t cannibalize yourself, someone else will.”. With this, Apple started the iPhone and killed off its hugely popular iPod lineup, and the rest is history.

This had better be a lesson learned by the Japanese camera companies as well. Xiaomi has given them a glimpse of what they feel is the future.

I hope it should push the Japanese companies to quickly change their practices, especially around fairly slow software and communication enhancements, and embrace far faster and more agile development. It should even spur partnerships with smartphone brands to work on shared mobile devices.

Will it? I’m not sure, but it should keep Canon and others up at night, but maybe not Sony (who really should have been the one to do this).

This is only a Concept Smartphone Camera – For Now

The world has not ended, your mirrorless camera (or DSLR) still works.

I know some of you will be thinking, yes, this is all very neat, but this is only a smartphone concept. Xiaomi may not bring it to market. Well, if they are this far along in interface and design, then they are already to the point of bringing it to the market sooner than later. I suspect they wanted to judge the response.

Being from the west, and only really recently residing full time in southeast Asia, it’s understandable to me if many just don’t realize just how big and diverse Xiaomi is. I honestly had no idea until I came out here. So, if there’s a company that could do this and throw a lot of R&D and resources at it, it’s Xiaomi.

But if Xiaomi does not bring this to market, given the innovative nature of Chinese smartphone manufacturers, then someone else will. Huawei with its insanely impressive ecosystem support and framework would have a field day with a device like this.

It will be very interesting to see how well it works and if it takes off. If Xiaomi can get buy-in from other manufacturers to support the MOS interface, I’d say the Japanese manufacturers could even face an existential threat.

One thing that long time readers of our forums will understand and appreciate, this takes us much closer to the fabled devices that HarryFilm promised us all in our canonrumors forums.