Individuals are using smartphones to snap and share photos more than ever. Thisrise of smartphone photography – driven by greater camera developments in this area – has begun to eat away at the digital imaging business, particularly the compact camera market whose sales have continued to fall at a record pace.
In its innovative efforts to adjust to this new trend, Sony Corp. unveiled a device that attaches the lens of a high-end compact camera to smartphones. This could up the game for both compact cameras and smartphone photos.
"I tasked my digital-imaging team to achieve something that seemed impossible at the time," Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai said at a news conference during the IFA consumer-electronics show in Berlin. "And this is what they came up with."
The Company is also looking to rekindle its mojo that transformed the Japanese electronics company into a global powerhouse decades ago. At the same time, Sony is rushing to build up its standing in smartphones that are competing with digital photography.
Sony introduced its Cyber-shot QX10 and QX100 lens-style camera at IFA in Berlin. They look like lenses, but are, in fact, full-blown digital cameras. They basically look like someone chopped the lens off a regular camera.
The lenses can be attached to any Android or iOS smartphone , or could be just kept separate – to try out new and ever-more-hipster angles to take your pictures.These devices can connect to a smartphone wirelessly to take higher-res pictures with better optical zoom and allows you to instantly share images. The photos are stored on the device itself, and also on your phone - either at 2MP or in full resolution.
While they do have brackets on their rear so they can be attached to your phone, they don't need a phone to operate. That means you can hold the lens get the perfect shot, all without the bulk of a traditional camera body.
Both cameras have a shutter button and zoom rocker on the side, allowing them to be used just like any other camera, independent of a phone.
When you do want to connect your phone, pairing is done with just a tap using NFC (provided your phone has NFC. iPhones will use Wi-Fi).
"With the new QX100 and QX10 cameras, we are making it easier for the ever-growing population of 'mobile photographers' to capture far superior, higher-quality content without sacrificing the convenience and accessibility of their existing mobile network or the familiar 'phone-style' shooting experience that they've grown accustomed to."
Using the PlayMemories app, you can trigger the shutter, zoom in and out, and change basic settings on the lens attachment to snap their favourite image.
Sony Cyber-shot QX100 and QX10 Key Features:
- QX10 has 18-megapixel sensor.
- QX100 is 20-megapixels.
- Both lens-style cameras’ batteries allow 230 shots each. (or 55-65 minutes of video recording).
- Neither have a flash; both work with microSD cards.
The QX100 will cost you $500 and the QX10 costs at $250 and both will ship later in September.
Other big camera makers have, of course, tried bridging the gap between phones and digital cameras — think the Samsung Galaxy Camera, or the Nikon Coolpix S800c. There’s also the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom smartphone/camera. And Nokia has added large, high-megapixel sensors to its newer premium smartphones.
But Sony didn’t want to “make an RX100 that can text and browse,” as a Sony executive said in a media pre-briefing.
While smartphone cameras have developed significantly over the past few years, their ability in terms of image quality is still limited because their image sensors, the eyes of a camera are tiny compared to the sensors used in dedicated cameras.
That consumer is one "who doesn't want to buy a camera -- for whatever reason -- but does want to take much better pictures than they can with their current smartphone," said an analyst.
You can have a lot of fun with these cybershot devices and carrying them is a small price to pay for great photographs on-the-go. They’re certainly for those who like to travel light but still come home with some beautiful photos.
Take a look at the video below:
Sony Mobile also unveiled a new Xperia Z1 smartphone equipped with a 20.7-megapixel image sensor equal to the quality of most compact cameras.