Chalk this under the rumor mill but according to recent chatter from the ever elusive anonymous sources, Sony is looking to expand its presence in the camera and smartphone world with a single product. Well, two to be exact as it is one product with two different models but I’m getting ahead of myself. It seems that Sony is interested in expanding the capabilities of smartphone cameras by attaching a new camera lens to the given camera. It remains to be seen if this is a product that will be Xperia-exclusive or compatible on a range of products. With small smartphone marketshare and a huge upside from selling to the masses, it’s more likely the latter, especially when you hear how their looking to do this.

The idea of an external camera for smartphones to hear greater zoom isn’t that far fetched. You can already tell by such accessories for the iPhone. What Sony poses, however, fully bypasses the internal smartphone camera. Instead, the given product will house image sensor, battery, and memory. Attachment to the phone will be done via small magnetic mounts. With its own internal memory, your smartphone instead turns into a fancy viewfinder with controls, thanks to an accompanying app which pairs the two via NFC and Wi-Fi.

Again, our elusive friends point that the camera will have the same 1-Inch 20.2-megapixel Exmor R sensor and  f/1.8 Carl Zeiss lens that can be found on the recently announced Sony DSC-RX100 II Cyber-shot camera. A second model is then expected to offer lower megapixel count though in return, you’ll get a higher zoom. No other information is available at this time, which begs the question:

Discuss:

Are you interested in a external camera for your smartphone?

[Via SonyAlphaRumors]