Canon has filed a patent for a camera clip that you can “pinch” to your smartphone. The telephoto sensor has a design that allows you to use different lenses. Which they seem to be held magnetically. This could even allow you to combine different lenses, for macro or for super-wide.
Canon patents a smartphone clip camera
The design of this patent seems to have been discovered already in October 2020 but the patent is published in Japan only this July. The document describes a device that offers a system that it can operate both alone and instead improve the photographic sensors of the smartphone to which it sticks. In addition, the foldable shape allows you to carry it with ease when not in use.
According to the patent, this system uses a sensore CMOS and a processor capable of many technical improvements. It can adjust gamma and color space conversion, balance whites and correct flash. The device can photograph or record video in 4: 2: 2. It also seems that the camera can orient itself independently according to the position of the smartphone to stay straight while shooting.
It also appears that the system will have a internal system for storing JPEG and video files. The patent does not specify how much memory or what objectives will be available. But this is a rather common practice, it serves to leave more room for maneuver in the implementation phase.
Smartphone accessories for mobile photography are not an absolute novelty, quite the contrary. But the ability to switch lenses with a magnetic mechanism can take mobile photography to the next level.
You can find the entire patent here.