Vivitar Working on Interchangeable Lens Smartphone Add-On
Whatever you want to call the emerging category of camera/lens assemblies that snap onto a smartphone, there no doubt it’s growing. Case in point: Sony’s QX line and JK Imaging/Kodak’s SL series will soon by joined by a Vivitar model that made a very quiet debut last week at CES.
Vivitar hasn’t released any information about the IU680 unit on display at the show, so all we know is what we can see — which is that this will be the first smartphone accessory thingie that will let you switch out lenses.
The unit has a lens mount (no word on the type of mount, but Vivitar tends to favor the manufacturer-agnostic T mount), presumably with image sensor and related circuitry between it and the clamps that attach the device to your phone. There’s also a removable pop-up flash on top with its own battery.
“Svelte” or “elegant” are not the first words that come to mind to describe the design, but there’s an undeniable appeal to being able to use lenses you already own and not having to pay for a whole new lens/camera assembly (will somebody please come up with a name for these?) just to cover a different focal length.
Price, specs and delivery date are all TBA.
(via Softpedia)
Image credit: Photo courtesy of digitalcamera.jp
