Forging the future of smartphone cameras with 3D printing

Posted by FIT THAI on July 31, 2026

A mockup of Glass Inc.'s camera. This company's camera technology is designed to fit inside a standard smartphone.

The Formlabs team spoke with Glass Imaging Inc., a startup striving to transform the photography industry. Tom Bishop, the company's co-founder, stated, "Essentially, nothing has changed since cameras were invented. If we leverage the processing capabilities of smartphones, we can rebuild something better from the ground up."

Glass Imaging Inc. was founded by Tom Bishop and Ziv Attar to focus on the future of computational photography. The two met while working on mobile photography at Apple. After years of incremental improvements to smartphone cameras, they started Glass Imaging Inc. to rethink camera mechanisms from their foundation. The team believes they have a unique opportunity to design a camera that can produce perfect photos using hardware like lenses and sensors, as well as the AI processing capabilities of the latest smartphones. By packing wide anamorphic lenses and extra-wide sensors into a standard smartphone body, the team aims to put DSLR-level cameras in your pocket.

To persuade mobile phone manufacturers to abandon decades-old technology, Glass Imaging Inc. needed to create functional prototypes. This is where in-house SLA (stereolithography) 3D printers played a crucial role. In recent years, many innovative startups have continuously adopted SLA 3D printers for prototyping parts, creating final product components, and molding, which significantly reduces costs and increases their competitiveness against existing companies. At Glass Imaging Inc., both Black Resin and Rigid 4000 Resin are used to produce demo mounts and lens cases, among other things. In this article, we spoke with co-founders Tom Bishop and Ziv Attar, as well as Cole Cogswell, Head of Mechanical Design, about how they plan to revolutionize mobile photography.

3D Printing Innovation

In the early days of 3D printing, Attar invested in an FDM 3D printer. FDM has the advantage of a low cost per print, but for many business applications, the material properties are often insufficient.

While looking for something better, the company initially purchased a cheap SLA 3D printer from Amazon. Attar stated, "It was very cumbersome. Even though it could print large parts like phone cases, material handling was very difficult." At that point, the company invested in a Form 3+ because material handling was also easier.

Cogswell immediately started printing and testing various holders and lens cases. He stated, "From design concept to print, it was incredibly easy. We didn't have to worry about designing for manufacturing. The learning curve was very fast, and within a few days, modules could be printed." The ability for innovative startups to bring new products to market is increasingly growing, partly due to in-house additive manufacturing. The low barrier to market entry is a significant advantage for small and medium-sized companies like Glass Imaging Inc., allowing them to challenge larger companies, even in advanced technology fields like mobile cameras.

3D-printed prototype camera case components and lens housings from Glass Imaging Inc.

Cogswell said that small-scale prototyping is "very difficult without 3D printing." He explained, "When I first started working here, we had parts CNC machined, but it would take days to a week at the fastest to get them back, and if further adjustments were needed, they had to be sent back again. With 3D printing, we can incorporate small changes and new functions, and the reliability of our demos has greatly improved."

"If you were to do this with machining, it could cost thousands of dollars and take more than a week. Now, we start printing on Friday afternoon, and when we come to work on Monday morning, the print is finished."

For early-stage startups, prototypes are crucial not only for testing designs but also for showcasing what they're doing to investors and companies. Bishop told us, "The team's big vision is to put this technology into actual smartphones. Most importantly, 3D printing allows us to continuously improve our product."

To achieve this, Cogswell prepares two types of resin: Black Resin and Rigid 4000 Resin. Black Resin is suitable for larger parts, demo mounts, and equipment the team uses when presenting to the media and investors. Rigid 4000 Resin, according to Cogswell, "is very reliable and allows us to get more consistent results in the lens housing."

The Future of Photography

Currently, the team is printing lens housings with Black Resin and Rigid 4000 Resin for optical assemblies. The precision and repeatability of alignment are critical for achieving high-quality images, and the team is impressed with what these materials make possible.

Bishop told us this is the best opportunity to change the smartphone camera market.

"Our team has been in this industry since the early days of smartphone cameras. Because it requires a foundation in manufacturing, optics, and AI software, as well as an understanding of international supply chains, it's a truly niche market that's hard to compete in. However, the need for improvement and change is very high, and we are building a team with unparalleled experience."

The research team believes that by packing an extra-wide sensor into an ultra-thin module and fitting it snugly into mobile devices without a camera bump, smartphone cameras can rival or even surpass DSLR cameras. In this way, by designing the entire device to work seamlessly with software algorithms, the quality of smartphone cameras can take a generational leap.

When asked for advice for fellow designers considering in-house 3D printing, Cogswell said, "The one thing I would recommend is to just try it. Regardless, once you print your own parts, you'll understand what you need, and it's a lot of fun. Plus, having parts created in CAD arrive in your hands within a day is also fun. There's still so much you can do with CAD, and so many ways to think about design."