In the distant pre-smartphone era, cameras in phones were very mediocre in terms of image quality and resolution. However, the technology did not stand still and in order to emphasize the similarity with "adult" cameras with a foundation for the future, the Finns from Nokia came up with the idea to enlist the support of the famous optics manufacturer Carl Zeiss.

Nokia and Carl Zeiss

The first collaboration of mobile device manufacturers and photo industry giants happened in 2005. The cherished "Carl Zeiss" badge was displayed near the camera module of the Nokia N90 phone. This unusual "clamshell" with a rotating screen became one of the debut camera phones. The technological know-how in the design of the device's camera is glass optics.

The unusual Nokia N90 has become the first fruit of cooperation between manufacturers of phones and photographic equipment.

The Nokia N90 camera was armed with a huge "eye" of the object and had a resolution of 2 MP. The public positively perceived the partnership and the Carl Zeiss label henceforth began to meet in all top Nokia devices. And with the departure of the Finnish brand under the wing of Microsoft, he migrated to Lumia smartphones. The apogee of the collaboration between Nokia and Carl Zeiss was the advanced Lumia 1020 camera phone. The smartphone was equipped with a 41 MP image sensor, revolutionary by the standards of 2013, with a physical size of 1/1.5". The cherry on the cake in the model was optical image stabilization.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 smartphone has a revolutionary camera with a high resolution of 41 MP.

Even today, Lumia smartphones produce beautiful pictures. But the brand itself has long gone to the dustbin of history. Nokia's revival under the leadership of HMD Global was marked by the continuation of cooperation with Zeiss (without Karl). The re-signing of the agreement between them took place in 2017 and the ZEISS inscription is still found next to the cameras of Nokia smartphones. Specialists of the German manufacturer of photographic equipment are involved in technical cooperation in the field of cameras and optics.

Huawei and Leica

The next major partnership was announced by Huawei and Leica Camera in 2015. The fruit of their collaboration was the Huawei P9 smartphone with a dual main camera. By the way, it was in his era that the mass "reproduction" of rear camera modules was initiated.

In the era of the Huawei P9 with the Leica camera, the march of multimodule image sensors on board smartphones began.

The Leica symbol is located on a die with two objects of the main camera of the device, next to it the type of optics used was indicated (Summarit H 1:2.2/27 ASPH). Leica engineers had a hand in the development of the optical scheme of the object. In the future, such inscriptions could be seen on all Huawei photo banners. And there were practically no equals to them in the photographic path. Until now, Huawei and Honor smartphones are leading the tops of the best in the ranking of the authoritative publication DxOMark. Their success is due to a winning combination of advanced image processing algorithms, high-quality optics and advanced sensors in the camera design of mobile devices.

Huawei and Honor smartphones are regulars of the TOP 10 best mobile devices in terms of photo and video capabilities.

Due to the sanctions against Huawei, the collaboration with Leica ended on March 31, 2022. But the German manufacturer of photographic equipment has found a new partner for itself. It will be discussed a little further.

Motorola and Hasselblad

At about the same time as the beginning of the previous cooperation, a partnership between Motorola and Hasselblad took place. As a result, a smartphone with interchangeable Moto Z modules appeared on store shelves. One of the mods for the mobile device was the Hasselblad camera with a 12-megapixel sensor and 10x optical magnification.

The replaceable Hasselblad mod turned the Moto Z series smartphones into a kind of compact cameras.

The "patch" on the back of the case turned the smartphone into a kind of compact camera. The shutter release button was duplicated on it, there was an object with a retractable zoom zoom and there was a built-in flash. However, the module did not provide a significant increase in the quality of filming. In addition, it cost a lot and took up extra space in your pocket. By inertia, modules for the Moto Z family were produced for a couple of generations, after which the cooperation gradually slipped to nothing.

OnePlus and Hasselblad

Hasselblad's name surfaced again in collaborations with smartphone manufacturers in 2021, when the OnePlus 9 flagship was announced. Swedish photo technicians shared the proprietary "recipe" of the lens coating and added a characteristic shutter click sound to the phone. In Pro mode, when shooting on a standard camera, the menu interface looked like Hasselblad cameras.

The partnership with Hasselblad has brought the photo capabilities of OnePlus smartphones to a new qualitative level.

In flagships from OnePlus, the Hasselblad label is applied to this day. And since the beginning of 2022, the parent company OPPO has also become a partner of the Swedish brand. Cameras with the Hasselblad label are reserved for top OPPO smartphones from the Find X line.

Sony and Zeiss

Zeiss and Nokia are not the only fruit of cooperation between the German manufacturer of photographic equipment and smartphone vendors. In 2020, ZEISS optics surfaced in the flagship Sony Xperia 1 II. However, this is not surprising, since the objects for many Sony cameras have been produced in close cooperation with the German brand for many years.

Sony's flagships from the Xperia line have some of the best cameras installed in partnership with Zeiss.

Zeiss in Sony smartphones is responsible for optics. The belonging of their cameras to the professional segment is emphasized by the shutter release button with a grooved surface. In general, the ZEISS nameplate solves the problem of promoting phones, distinguishing them from many similar ones.

Vivo and Zeiss

In 2021, the ZEISS logo was seen on board the Vivo X60 Pro+ smartphone. If you dig deeper, the detailed specifications of the model mentioned the multilayer coating of Zeiss T* lenses and an advanced image stabilization system. By inheritance, Zeiss optics also went to the Vivo X80 Pro smartphone.

Xiaomi and Leica

A very recent cooperation happened between Xiaomi and Leica. In May 2022, a long-term cooperation between the companies was announced. At the time of publication of the material, there was no reliable information about the specific implementation of the partnership yet. But with a competent approach, in the near future Xiaomi photoflagmans with Leica optics will be ready to compete for the palm in the genre of mobile photography.

Cooperation with Leica is designed to pump cameras from top Xiaomi smartphones.

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The joint work between smartphone manufacturers and venerable giants from the world of photographic equipment has been very conditional for a long time. After all, it is very difficult to radically reshape something in the optics of cameras for a phone because of the limited free space. In fact, these are mostly marketing tricks aimed at increasing the recognition of individual copies of photoflagmans. However, the experience of Zeiss, Leica and Hasselblad is difficult to overestimate. To a certain extent, their technologies have migrated to mobile devices, which gives photographers a boost in terms of image quality.