The imaging industry is speckled with legends that have a near-mystic aura, and Hasselblad is the pinnacle of this. Naturally, when there’s talk of Hasselblad contributing its celestial expertise to a smartphone, to say we really cannot wait for it to come true is a drastic understatement. After Huawei partnering with Leica on the camera forefront on its P9 smartphone, it seems to be Moto’s turn to grab the spotlights with a camera mod for its Moto Z lineup of smartphones, which is either being built or co-engineered with Hasselblad.
Back in May this year, when Moto had unveiled the Moto Z lineup at Lenovo’s Tech World 2016, we’d spotted a number of mods including a speaker, a pico projector and a camera. These custom backplates, to be snapped on to the rear of a Moto Z with the magnetic connector, are supposed to enhance particular aspects of the smartphone. While the speaker mod (powered by JBL) and the projector mod were unveiled upon launch, Lenovo remained mum about the possibility of a camera mod and only elucidated on the Moto Z’s integrated primary camera capabilities.
Now, it seems, Moto may launch a custom camera backplate for the Moto Z, complete with a separate sensor, grip, flash and a 10X optical zoom lens, and Hasselblad’s logo on the edge. As of now, we do not have any information on whether Hasselblad is building the entire custom plate, or they are co-branding and contributing on certain aspects of it. There are no details on the sensor yet, so we are not sure if this will work in tandem with the native Moto Z camera or function as a standalone unit.
The camera mod is expected to debut at IFA 2016, so we should see it in action very soon. LG had attempted to provide a separate camera module, the LG Cam Plus, for its modular smartphone, the LG G5. The Cam Plus, however, did not have its own sensor, lens or flash, instead only providing grip and physical controls for the phone’s native camera. Moto seems to have taken a different approach, and if the partnership with Hasselblad indeed materialises, we may just be looking at a new high for smartphone photography.
We really hope this materialises, because not everyday do you really get to use a Hasselblad to shoot your surroundings!