Konica Minolta patent shows off 2.8mm f/2.8 lens for curved mobile sensor

 

 

A new Konica Minolta patent has been published detailing an interesting 2.7mm (20mm equivalent) f/2.8 lens designed for a curved 1/3.2” sensor, the size found in a many mobile devices.

Discovered by Egami (translated), the patent doesn’t detail a manufacturer of the curved sensor. It’s worth noting though that Sony is already working on curved mobile sensors and the two companies have worked together in the past.

The patent also mentions the problem of strong vignetting, due to the design of the lens/sensor combo. Interestingly enough, just last week we shared a patent from Canon that could easily fix this issue using region-specific exposure on sensors.

 

From left to right, spherical aberration, astigmatism, distortion.

There’s no telling what device this lens may end up in or who Konica Minolta will be teaming up with, but it’s safe to say more and more companies are putting R&D money into curved sensors. Only time will tell whether it’ll be another fad or the next step in smaller imaging devices.