TECH REVIEW ............Sony QX100

TECH REVIEW Sony QX100

Price Rs.24,990/

When you first see the QX100, it looks like a lens that you would attach to a camera. But it’s actually a complete camera in itself, minus a viewfinder or screen. It has its own power button, a micro SD slot for storage, a battery, shutter button, zoom lever, tripod socket and dual microphones.
The QX100 is actually designed as a companion camera for your Android or iOS smartphone. With the space and weight limitations that smartphones have, their built in cameras are naturally limited: in the size of lens they can offer, the size of sensor and much-wanted extras like optical zoom. Sony’s idea is to move all these things to a separate device outside the smartphone – while the large touchscreen in your phone can serve as the viewfinder.
Pairing it with a phone is fairly straightforward with Android smartphones – connects using WiFi Direct and if you have an NFC phone, just tap to connect. For iPhones, you have to pair manually using the provided password.
The QX100 shares its primary picture-taking components with the excellent CyberShot RX100 II camera: it has the same f1.8, 3x optical zoom Carl Zeiss lens, 1-inch backlit CMOS sensor and the same image processing electronics. All of this makes for some excellent photographs – photographs that you could never achieve with your smartphone camera or even a basic point and shoot. But there’s a catch. There’s very little control available: you can manually set aperture (Aperture Priority), white balance or exposure levels. But you can’t control ISO settings or shutter speed. The process of taking a photo takes a lot of time: first, you attach the lens to the phone & switch it on. Next switch on WiFi on the phone, start the app and wait for a connection. In the right hands and with a little bit of practice, the QX100 can deliver stunning results. Casual users will be better off going with Sony’s other smartphone lens, the QX10 that has a 10x optical zoom, smaller size and affordable price.

SPECIFICATIONS 

 20 MP, 1-inch Exmor R CMOS sensor, 3.6x optical zoom, f1.8, Carl Zeiss lens, Bionz image processor, optical image stabilization, WiFi, NFC, tripod mount, Li-ion battery, 179 grams
Great new concept in photography, solidly built, excellent f1.8 lens and sensor, great low light images
long start up & shot-to-shot times, no manual exposure, no continuous shooting, no RAW shooting 

HITESH RAJ BHAGAT