Sony partnering with Zeiss and Samsung on the Xperia 1 cameras

Sony has had a tough time of it over the past few years in the smartphone market in no small part to the quality of its cameras. It is an ironic situation given that most major OEM’s utilize Sony’s sensors as the first choice when it comes to imaging. It’s a crazy situation made worse by the fact that Sony’s Alpha camera division wasn’t interested in collaborating with its smartphone team on cameras that could potentially undermine sales in its division.

Apparently, this mind boggling situation looks to have finally been resolved for the Xperia 1 with Sony throwing everything it can to make this the best all-round flagship smartphone. This includes partnering with Zeiss optics, a longstanding Sony partner. An eagle-eyed Twitter spotter has found the word MILVUS written on two of the Xperia 1’s three rear camera sensors. Zeiss lens fans will know immediately that this is a Zeiss lens product line.

The two Zeiss lenses sit atop two 12MP Sony Exmor RS sensors, one with a 26mm focal length and the other with a 16mm focal length. Interestingly, Sony’s camera team is rumored to have partnered with Samsung on the third 12MP ISOCELL sensor which has a 52mm focal length, although it is using a Sunny Optical lens for this sensor. The whole thing will be powered by Sony’s first Bionz X for mobile post-processing software that draws heavily on Sony’s Alpha camera technology.

All of which makes for some intriguing possibilities. The Xperia 1 could be the dark horse in the race to deliver the best smartphone in 2019.