One of the big factors for choosing a mobile phone these days is “how is the camera?”. Many a time, manufacturers will focus super hard on the camera tech on the device and come up with monstrosities that look like they are just phones with point and shoot cameras rubberbanded to them. Sony have decided that instead of JUST creating the smartphone with a fantastic built in camera, why not create a lens that will make any modern smartphone just as good as their point and shoots. Back when this was just a rumour and they were just patent and concept images, we thought they couldn’t be working on something so outlandish and absurd. The good thing is, that we were wrong.
At IFA 2013, Sony unveiled their DSC-QX100 and QX10 external lens attachments for just about any modern smartphone. Essentially what these 2 are, are standalone lens/sensor attachments for your phone, creating a point and shoot camera on your phone. Starting with the lower end QX10, it features a 10x zoom and 18.2MP sensor with limited manual controls and is targeted at the entry level shooter. The QX100 though is a very different thing altogether; Stacked with a 1inch 20.2MP sensor, 3.6x zoom f1.8 – f4.9 lens and more manual controls, this sounds quite familiar. That’s right, the QX100 is the RX100mk2, for your smartphone.
The units both connect to your phone via WiFi or NFC and if you don’t pair it, you can still take pictures with the standalone shutter on the lens, saving the images to memory card. While connected, it will be saved on your phone, ready to instagram. Local availability and pricing is slim at the moment, but a rough estimate puts it at US$249 for the QX10 and US$499 for the QX100. Head on over to our source links for more details and images.
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