The short, strange life of mechanical smartphone cameras

When you think of a camera, you probably think of a device that is at least partly mechanical. The zoom lens, shutter, and small buttons and dials are all moving parts that exist even in a DSLR.

Modern phone cameras, on the other hand, are more solid-state. Technically, they have MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) which are considered moving parts, but you need a microscope to see them. As part of the drive to bring better camera quality and features to phones, some models featured large moving parts with varying degrees of success.

The Swivel Camera Experience

One goal to rule them all

You wouldn’t think it, but there was a time when phones didn’t have more than one camera. I don’t mean they only had one rear camera. I mean there was only one camera total. As video calls and the selfie craze grew, one solution was to put this camera on a swivel system, so you could point it forward or backward.

In fact, my first camera phone had a flip camera, a Samsung V200.

That was 2003, but in 2013 we got the Oppo N1, reviewed here by a very young Marques Brownlee.

Having that pivot at the top of the phone meant you could use the phone’s best camera for everything, but it clearly never took off, given that most modern phones look like a spider face on the back for all purposes.

Pop-up selfie cameras

Before the era of brand acceptance

Right now I’m using an iPhone 14 Pro, which no longer has a screen “notch” but its evolved form as Apple’s “dynamic island”. My last few phones have all had notches or punch holes to allow the camera to see clearly while keeping the bezels as thin as possible. There has been some progress with under-screen cameras, but the picture quality so far is terrible and that spot on the screen is distracting. Frankly, a cut is easier to ignore.

But before all this high-tech experimentation to minimize those hated bezels, we got phones with a simpler solution: pop-up selfie cameras. Check out the Vivo NEX S in action below to see how it performed.

It was a good idea in theory, and a few other phones have tried it, like the Mi 9T Pro and OnePlus 7 Pro. This solved the screen bezel issue and is even a side benefit for privacy. However, just like pop-up headlights on cars, these looked cool but had mechanical failures.

I think the engineers underestimated how often some people take selfies!

The Shark Fin and Other Weird Pop-Up Variations

Dare to be different

Even though pop-up cameras didn’t become mainstream or popular, enough companies were interested that we had some weird variations on the idea. For example, the Oppo Reno 10x Zoom makes its camera appear with this wedge shape that apparently resembles a shark fin. But only if you’ve never seen a real shark, I guess.

This is partly explained by the need to make these mechanisms less complex and more reliable. For example, the Honor Magic 2 had no engine at all. Its sliding mechanism is driven by good old muscular force.

However, these phones were more fragile, more expensive to assemble, and difficult to waterproof. Given that moving to OLED and camera notches is possible, it’s not hard to see why we abandoned this approach.

Mechanical optics inside a smartphone

More camera, less phone

The main reason our phones now have so many cameras is the laws of optics. In a dedicated camera, you either have prime lenses that you can swap, or a zoom lens that can change its focal length over a specific range. There is a limit to how much you can produce without moving mechanical parts.

Modern phones have developed tiny magnet optical zoom mechanisms inside the camera assembly and innovative periscope systems, in which the camera sensor uses mirrors and an internal channel to increase its focal length.

However, in 2013, the crazy engineers at Samsung released a phone that had its back replaced with a full compact camera in the form of the Galaxy S4 Zoom.

Credit: Samsung

It’s a true mechanical optical zoom on the back, making it truly the best camera phone of its generation in terms of image quality and versatility.

Samsung released a successor called the “K Zoom” and Panasonic attempted something similar with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-CM1, although it only had a huge sensor and lens.

Today, mechanical camera solutions are virtually non-existent, but thanks to foldable phones, we once again have handsets that include complex mechanical components without an obvious advantage outweighing the disadvantages. Well, that’s my opinion. My wife loves her Z Flip which, like my old V200, allows her to take selfies using the main camera. It does this simply by folding the entire phone in half instead of rotating the camera. That’s progress!

SoC

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

Display

6.9-inch 2X Dynamic Super AMOLED