Recently Sony Corporation launched the Sony QX 10 and the QX 100 lenses. Both comes with different lengths and zoom, but both essentially revolutionary, but will they be dedicated camera replacements? Check out as we evaluate them.
Through out time, the photography market has always adjusted to convenience, sometimes even sacrificing image quality for convenience and portability. For example, the early digital cameras had worse image quality compared to the existing film cameras of the early 2000s. However, as the quality increased and cost of an image sensor decreased, suddenly everyone was shifting to a digital Camera. And suddenly the film camera faced a dramatic reduction in sales.
And in the same way, the rise of image quality of the smartphone camera, the rise of sharing on Instagram and Facebook with affordable 3G suddenly made smartphones a much viable alternative to dedicated point and shoot cameras, other than the prosumer range, which had large apertures, good bokeh and fast shutter speeds.
Would the Sony QX10 and QX100 lens replace DSLR as we know it? It’s hard to say but with the offered portability and convenience of a lightweight instant camera versus a heavy dedicated camera. While the QX100 comes with the RX100 sensor, a one inch, 20.2 megapixel sensor, the QX10 only comes with a 1/2.3″ sensor. Much smaller, and results in a much slower camera lens (f1.8 to f4.9 for the QX100 compared to f3.3 to f5.9 for the QX10)
For now however, it is a good attempt by Sony Corporation. While connecting both the QX lenses to our smartphones via Bluetooth is slow and has a lag time, this is bound to improve. And if they’ve patented their ideas, they’ve definitely stolen the march from their much bigger rivals, Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Samsung.
Should you buy a Sony QX10 or a QX100?
Our recommendation would be perhaps for the QX100, due to it’s fast shutter speed and well regarded Sony RX100 sensor. However, it’s bulky and the lag between pressing the shutter button and result might not be your cup of tea. However, if you’re a casual photographer who wants to try something on the cutting edge, or just prefer not to have so many devices, the QX100 lens might be just what you need.
Will this improve in the future? Definitely. Starting from Samsung’s NX10 and now Sony’s QX10 and QX100, the camera industry has shown convergence towards a camera smartphone device, instead of just a camera and a smartphone. Just like how our Sony Walkman was superseded by iPod, which then converged with the iPhone, as iPod sales begin to drop.
Also, with improving camera sensors due to Moore’s Law, perhaps in the near future we might not even need dedicated lenses for our smartphones. Perhaps just better sensors, better GPUs (Graphic Processing Units), better firing mode (rather than a laggy Bluetooth) and perhaps a dedicated shutter button on our smartphones?
Whatever it is, the future looks bright for the smartphone. Not as bright for the dedicated camera. But we might be wrong =)
Photos below.
