Xiaomi’s 12S Ultra Concept Phone Supports Leica Camera Lens Attachments

Xiaomi revealed its latest concept smartphone which includes the novel feature of being able to attach full-size lenses usually reserved for digital cameras.

As WCCFTech reports(Opens in a new window), the Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept phone was developed in partnership with well-known German camera maker Leica. Around the camera module on the back of the handset is a ring that can be removed to reveal an attachment mechanism. This can be used to secure a Leica M-series lens to the phone.

Although such an attachment would make the smartphone more awkward to hold due to uneven weight distribution, it does open up the options considerably for the type and quality of images that can be captured.

(Credit: Xiaomi)

The 12S Ultra Concept uses two one-inch sensors, with one being center-mounted for the lenses to attach over. It’s believed Xiaomi is using Sony’s IMX989 camera sensor, just like it does in the 12S Ultra. The available lenses for the concept phone go from f/1.4 to f/16, and Xiaomi intends to include support for 10-bit RAW image capture, focus peaking, histogram. and zebra lines.

For now, this is just a concept handset, but one Xiaomi clearly feels confident could become a commercial phone based on the detailed video it posted on Weibo(Opens in a new window). It would also be very hard to compete with for image capture unless other phone manufacturers decided to introduce a similar lens attachment feature to their handsets.

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