Dubai
Sony is taking mobile photography to the next level with Cyber-shot DSC-QX100 smart lens. The large sensor with social sharing features for Android and Apple smartphones gives better photos than a normal handset can achieve.
Users can shoot in creative ways than you do with your normal camera. The lens has all the features of a normal digital camera without a display. The smartphone or tablet act as a viewfinder for the digital lens.
First, the Sony PlayMemories Mobile app has to be downloaded into the smartphone from the app store. After entering the password, the device connects to the smartphone via NFC or WiFi. Paring is pretty easily and straight forward.
The device has one-inch sensor with a large 20.2-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens and a 10 x optical zoom. The body is made of plastic. The power button is on top of the device while the zoom lever and shutter button on the left side and the battery indicator on the other. Underneath the device, there is screw for the standard tripod. It does not have a flash, which is a disappointment.
Turning the lens and connecting it to the handset and taking photos take long time than taking on the handset. So taking an instant snap is ruled out.
The device has a clip where the lens can be mounted on to your handset but its feels awkward as the balancing of the device is not right. The full weight lands on the device as most smartphone are very thin. It weighs 170 grams.
When capturing an image, a smaller version is saved on the smartphone and users can either share the image or return to the camera app. Even though it takes time to save images, users can continuously click photos without waiting for the image to be saved.
The lens can also be used as a standalone device for recording videos or taking snaps. The advantage is, because of WiFi the lens can be held in any awkward angles like low level or high level to take photos.
The lens has a slot for microSD (upto 64GB) or M2 memory stick which means that the photos taken can either be stored automatically on the SD card or on the phone memory and micro USB for charging.
There are four shooting modes to choose from - intelligent auto, superior auto, program auto and aperture priority shooting. The disadvantage is there is no indication of the difference between the three auto modes. There are no options for panorama or HDR but I believe Superior auto mode handles the HDR function.
Aperture priority mode ranges from f1/8 to f4.9 for taking snaps is low-light conditions. It taken decent snaps in very low-light conditions with appropriate colours and details but zero-light visibility is ruled out due to lack of LED flash. The ISO shooting range on QX100 is from ISO 3200 to ISO 12800.
The images can be copied on to the smartphone in original size, 2MP or in VGA.
The device takes pictures only in JPEG mode and RAW is not supported. HD video recording is at 1920 x 1080 resolution at 30 frames per second in MP4 mode. Videos will not be recorded on to the smartphone automatically but a SD is needed. After recording, it can be transferred to the phone using “Copy from Connected Device” feature.
Users have an option to take 20MP (3:2), 5MP (3:2), 17MP (16:9), 4.2MP (16:9), 18MP (4:3), 5MP (4:3), 13MP (1:1) and 3.7MP (1:1) images.
The removable battery can take 215 photos from a single charge which is not impressive. It is priced at Dh1,699.
