Varioptic has finally made its Arctic 320 liquid lens—something we mentioned over two years ago—available for camera makers to use in their products. A zoom and auto-focus lens, the 320 has no moving parts, so it changes shape without any fragile mechanics. It uses electricity to change the focus of the lens by altering the border between two drops of liquid, working somewhat like the human eye. Though Philips announced a similar technology last year, Varioptic says its new lens has made leaps in minimizing power consumption, miniaturization and modular footprints (meaning it can be used for cameraphones as well).

Cameraphones have needed a good zoom lens with autofocus for quite a while. We trust that Varioptic's PR folks will let us know the instant a phone manufacturer decides to use their technology.

Liquid Camera Lens Ready For Phones [Phonescoop]

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