Rumor: Sony Xperia Pro-II gets rotating camera ring
According to a Weibo report today, the Sony Xperia Pro-II will have a rotating camera ring that can control functions such as zoom, aperture and focus. We already know something similar from the world of DSLRs / mirrorless cameras. Unfortunately, the original post is in Chinese and was discussed in translated form on the Japanese site Sumahodigest. As far as we know, the camera setup will be similar to that of the Sony Xperia Pro-I, except that there will be a rotating ring surrounding the lenses.
This ring should apparently be able to control one of the three functions at a time. The Pro-I already has a variable aperture for the main camera and will apparently borrow the variable zoom lens from the Xperia 1 V. However, the report raises doubts that Sony will be able to build a system on the Xperia Pro-II that can continuously adjust the aperture. With the Pro-I you can switch between f/2.0 and f/4.0, but you can’t choose anything in between. According to an older rumor, the new Pro can switch between f/1.2 and f/4.0, which would suggest several steps in between.
Sony has long featured a two-stage hardware shutter release on its phones. It’s a holdover from a time when physical buttons were common. But even back then there was no system as complex as this one. However, the ring may not be just for the Sony Xperia Pro-II cameras. Sony smartphones (not just the Pro models) can serve as external displays for the company’s mirrorless cameras. The aperture control could therefore function as an additional control for a connected camera.
The release of the Sony Xperia Pro-II could happen next year, three years after the launch of the Pro-I. According to a previous leak, the new model will get updates for all three cameras. The Xperia 1 VI and 5 VI could be unveiled at MWC next year. And the new Pro model could join them. But a dedicated event would also be conceivable.
