Sony Reveals QX Camera Lenses; Converts Smartphones to Full Cameras

[dgstorm]

The above pics are of the lenses attached to the Xperia Z.​

There was actually another interesting product reveal today, especially for camera aficionados. It's called the Sony QX10 And QX100 smart camera lenses. These lenses are a pretty amazing and potentially versatile concept. The QX series are smart lenses that can "mate" up with your smartphone to give it more powerful camera capabilities, effectively converting your smartphone into a full-fledged camera. Sony Demoed the QX series lenses with their new Xperia Z flagship phone, but the best part is these devices will work with just about any smartphone, not just Sony products. In fact, they are platform agnostic as well and will work for either the iPhone or Android. Here's a quick quote with some of the details,

This system is more than just a lens. The QX10 and QX100 also pack an image sensor, thus allowing for much higher quality photographs. They simply clip onto a smartphone and communicate wirelessly.

The $250 QX10 features a 1/2.3-inch 18-megapixel sensor paired with an f/3.3-5.9 lens. The $500 QX100 has a high-quality 1-inch 20.2-megapixel Exmor R sensor and a f/1.8-4.9 Carl Zeiss lens. This line is based on fantastic Sony point-and-shoot cameras with the QX10 looking most like the WX150 and the QX100 grabbing most of the RX100m2′s magic.

The QX10 and QX100 are essentially two thirds of a camera. Each lens camera clips onto a phone and communicates through WiFi or NFC. Or, they can act as a wireless camera. They also have a microSD and Memory Stick slot, tripod mounts and include optional clips for the back of phones. The remaining bit is your phone, acting as the viewfinder, shutter trigger, and backup storage. And that makes a lot of sense.

Technically this isn't the first time this idea has been tried, but it is the first time a big name player like Sony is attempting to take the concept to a mass market audience. What do you guys think of this idea? Are there any amateur or professional photographers who think this could be worth investigating?

Source: TechCrunch

 

[nickb34]

I'm excited about the future of smartphone cameras and I'm glad that they are finally getting some attention. However, this is just another thing to carry around. If I was going to spend $250 or $500 for something that I had to carry around in addition to my phone, I would rather just get a comparable stand-alone camera.

 

[Hugh Jass]

I'm excited about the future of smartphone cameras and I'm glad that they are finally getting some attention. However, this is just another thing to carry around. If I was going to spend $250 or $500 for something that I had to carry around in addition to my phone, I would rather just get a comparable stand-alone camera.

I agree completely, but if the future of camera tech were to eliminate point-n-shoots in favor of this, I wouldn't find it appalling at all, and for a first go around I think they've done a very fine job setting the bar.

 

[akhenax]

THIS was my idea, but alas without the financial backing, and gift for gab, someone else will get rich from it.

I will buy this in a year or so, when the price goes down.

Edit: I looked at the picture again, and this is different than my idea. My idea was a attachable lens that can affix to the current smartphone camera lense given it an optical zoom feature far more than what the stock lense could accomplish. This is a full separate lense attachment. Why would I want that????

 

[Preach2k]

I really like this product. I will be getting this with my Note 3.

 

[mountainbikermark]

THIS was my idea, but alas without the financial backing, and gift for gab, someone else will get rich from it.

I will buy this in a year or so, when the price goes down.

Edit: I looked at the picture again, and this is different than my idea. My idea was a attachable lens that can affix to the current smartphone camera lense given it an optical zoom feature far more than what the stock lense could accomplish. This is a full separate lense attachment. Why would I want that????

I hate to say it but I've had one you describe for about 3 years. Bought it at Best Buy for $25. It has a universal adapter to make it fit just about any phone . It is a fixed optical zoom of 8x and does a marvelous job. I've got a very old Samsung digital camera that doesn't have any optical zoom and it works well on that also. The brand also has a website where you can get phone covers that the lens will attach to directly so you can skip the universal adapter part.

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[GeLopez]

ok ill say it... this is ugly