Samsung Patents a Smartphone with a Modular Lens Mount System

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Google’s ongoing Project Ara effort features a modular smartphone with interchangeable camera add-ons. It looks like Samsung is thinking about taking modular smartphone photography a step further: a new patent shows a smartphone with a modular lens mount that can be added to support interchangeable lenses.

The patent was spotted and shared by the Dutch website GalaxyClub, which says the patent shows a modular system with “an oversized lens.”

It appears that the phone has a large rectangular camera space on the backside that can ordinarily be filled with a casing if you’d like to use the built-in camera and flash.

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But if you’d like to upgrade the photos you capture with your phone, you can remove that casing and insert a separate module that features a different sensor and lens mount.

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There have been rumors swirling around in recent months that Samsung is withdrawing from the standalone camera business, so it’s interesting to see new patents that suggest a new direction for Samsung in the area of digital photography.

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