“The lens you can always carry with you”
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-QX10 is the new inventive lens of Sony (in fact a camera without a real display) which has to compete with the Samsung camera/ phone. In my opinion this Sony is the winner, but still there’s room for improvement. Thanks to my partner Camex I could do this review, because they sell this lens in their store along with loots of other great brands. I went to Amsterdam with fashion blogger Fabuliciousgirl to check it out …unfortunately my phone battery was dead in no time because I forgot to charge it.
This lens connects with your smartphone through WiFi, only thing needed is a free-to-download app and of you go! When taking pictures or video (full HD!) it directly saves a small version on your smartphone and the larger file on the Micro-SD card within the lens. The great advantage of this lens above the Samsung, besides the Carl Zeis lens, is the fact that it connect with every smartphone out there and you can use it both mounted on the phone as separated (for instance in your other hand). When buying a new phone you can still use this awesome lens.
Design
It’s visual appearance is great: small, good built, stealth and practical. On the side of the lens there’s the shutter/ focus button and an optical zoom button. Even though you can use your smartphone app to take pictures, focus and zoom it’s nice to have an physical button for even more candid action.
Connection
Okay, there’s a downside for me …the connection is quite poor. By this I don’t mean the distance but the connection itself. Often I lost connection when walking on the streets while holding the lens in my left hand and my iPhone in the other. Maybe this has something to do with my iPhone 4 (iOS 7), I’m not sure. But a firmware should easily fix this problem.
Losing connection is annoying when doing video, but luckily the lens continues capturing even though the connection is lost few a second or longer. So the final video (both Micro-SD card and phone) won’t show anytime of this moment of no connection (really great!). Look below for a video sample, in which the connection was lost for a 1 or 2 second during shooting …not visible on this video:
Usability
Shooting with this lens separated for your phone needs practice. When shooting candid in cafes or on the street I had difficulties with framing my shot, because you hold this camera often in a totally different way than a normal camera. I’m missing an extra grip you can attach when using it separate.
Price/ Quality
Looking at it price of €199 and the quality of this 18MP Carl Zeis optical zoom lens, it’s a great buy! The photos look great and you instantly have a small copy on your smartphone.
Conclusion
This lens is great, no doubt about it but not suitable for everyone. You should definitely try this lens, because it’s a great experience and maybe perfect for you. This Sony lens is available at Camex in Arnhem, a great store serviced by pro-photographers.
The Sony lens is perfect for:
- – doing seflies
- – photographing fashion drinks/ events (at daylight)
- – shooting candid
- – for upgrading your in-phone camera
- – instantly photo sharing on social media
Not so perfect for:
- – shooting a light-poor environment (there’ll be visible noise and there’s no flash)
- – shooting with manual settings (it’s almost full automatic)