As the race to improve smartphone optics flares up, we’ve also seen a variety of interesting offshoots. These range from cameras with built in Android case in point being the Galaxy Camera, Nikon S800C or phones with a more full featured captured module. The Galaxy S4 Zoom and the Nokia 808, 1020 would fall in this category. The problem however is the size and thickness tradeoff being made here.
Sony is trying to change things up a bit by introducing a brand new category of products into the mix. The QX10 and QX100 are Sony’s attempts at letting you have a point and shoot camera that works with your phone and fits in your palm but isn’t permanently attached to the back of your phone. If that sounds weird, you’re right. But we decided keep our reservations about the product aside and give it a proper spin. Read on to find out what we think about the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-QX10 smart lens.
Hardware
The QX10 is a fairly diminutive little lens that has a few essential buttons on it and little else. There’a slot for an adaptor to latch on and under the camera lens is a tripod mount.
Other buttons include the power button, zoom rocker and the shutter key. Over on the back, you can snap off the cover and under it is where you place the battery pack. A combined micro SD and Memory Stick Micro card slot is also present here.
The backplate of the QX10 has grooves built into it where the smartphone adapter latches on. The adapter has extensible arms that can fit a device as large as the Note 2 or even the Note 3. For larger devices like the Z Ultra, Sony does have an accessory available that you can buy separately.
The bottom of the lens is flattened out so that you can place it fairly easily and the tripod mount that we mentioned earlier also comes in handy. The right side of the QX10 lens has a small display unit that reads out the battery levels.
Software & Functioning
While it is possible to use the QX10 without pairing it with your phone, it is more or less impossible to frame your shot. Indeed, the QX10 will take a photograph when you press the shutter button on it but the lack of a display means that you can’t actually see what’s being captured. This is where Sony’s Play Memories app comes into action. You can grab it from the Play Store and iOS Store for free and use it to pair your device with the lens.
The functioning is pretty simple. The lens creates a WiFi connection to which you connect your phone. Pairing the camera with the application on your phone is a simple enough process. Press the power button on top of the camera lens, this’ll switch on a green LED and the lens will pop out. You will now have to enter the WiFi password for your QX10 unit, this is printed under the battery flap. Once the initial pairing is done, you just have to switch on the QX10 and then tap the Play Memories app icon. Within a few seconds the phone will ‘see’ the lens and connect to it. You’ll now be able to see the view finder on the screen along with the basic controls.. Of course this means that you lose internet connectivity the moment you connect to the smart lens. The entire connection procedure is less than optimal and takes a few more seconds than it really should. NFC pairing exists to make it easier to connect the phone with the lens but it doesn’t have much of an effect on the actual amount of time it takes to get started with the QX10. The application interface is minimalist in looks as well as functions.
In the middle of the interface is the viewfinder window. The camera constantly pushes downscaled images from the lens to the phone over the WiFi connection. In our extensive experience with the QX10, the viewfinder suffered from dropped and occasionally, stuck frames when shooting in very windy situations or in conditions where WiFi connectivity was suffering from interference. It is possible to control the zoom levels, switch between Intelligent Auto, Superior Auto and Program modes. Selecting Program Mode lets you adjust the exposure. Beyond that, controls are few and include only white balance adjustments and ancillary features like self timers, option to select the resolution. Between the two automatic modes, we couldn’t really find many differentiating factors.
You can set the auto download image size anywhere from 2MP to Original. Given the size of the 18MP images, you’d be better served by setting it to 2MP to allow for faster shot to shot time. It is possible to set the capture size as well and you can select between 16:9 13MP stills and 4:3 18MP modes. The settings menu also lets you adjust the beep volume and lets you format the camera. This just about reaches the limit of the kind of control possible with the default software. The lack of controls is really one of the biggest complains we have with the system.
With a full fledged lens system attached to the phone, we’d expect to have control over ISO levels and for that matter even full blown manual control. Sony does say that the higher end QX100 will be getting manual controls but we’d like to see them on the QX10 as well. Sony has also opened up the API for developers so we might just third party applications that step up to fill the feature void in Sony’s Play Memories application. Camera 360 will be the first third party application to interface with the QX10 and QX100.
Image Quality
At the heart of the QX 10 is a 1/2.6″ sensor paired with a f/3.3-5.9 10x G lens. This is pretty much the same specifications as that of the Galaxy S4 Zoom’s camera. Between the two, the image quality is quite evenly matched but the QX10 clearly wins in usability. You can use it with your existing phone and are free to choose any Android or iOS phone for that matter. Image quality surpasses most phones out there and is evenly matched with the likes of the S4 Zoom or Lumia 1020 for the most part.
The benefit of having a full 10x optical zoom is very evident as can be seen in the two images above and below. Shot from the same location, the range of the telephoto lens is evident.
Even at the telephoto end, images remain sharp and colors are accurate. There is a bit of noise in images which is visible only when pixel peeping, the camera does a decent job of retaining details.
In 1:1 shots of the above two shots, there’s a hint of noise visible on both the phones. That said as long as the lighting is good, it is not an issue at all and then too only when pixel peeping.
Once again we can see the range of the zoom lens built into the QX10 in the shots above and below. This far exceeds the capabilities of something like the Nokia 808 or Lumia 1020.
Unlike the Galaxy S4 Zoom, this being an external system it means that you are not forced to have a bulging camera module stuck to the back of your phone permanently. The 10x zoom lens offers a lot of versatility while framing a shot.
Low light shots are one area where smartphone cameras are generally pretty bad. The QX10 is essentially a point and shoot camera that works with your phone and low light performance is in the same ballpark. The QX10 doesn’t really keep up with the likes of the Lumia 1020 with its 3 axis optical image stabilization but photos are generally quite good though a bit underexposed.
Once again we take a look at a 1:1 crop of the above low light shot. There is a significant level of noise and a fair bit of pixellation as well. However, details are quite well preserved and on the whole, the shot is more than usable.
Shooting into the light is challenging for all cameras, even DSLRs. On that note, the QX10 does surprisingly well in its auto mode. The image has a decent amount of grain and the photograph has clearly been overexposed but the shot has been saved for the most part. A built in HDR mode would have helped quite a bit.
A very cool use case for the QX10 and QX100 cameras is to take a self photograph. Thanks to the tripod mount built in, you can easily position the lens to take a self or group photograph. The software also has a built in self timer mode which makes this much easier. Up above from the right is Varun Krish, in the middle is Nirave and on the left is me.
One of the most popular use case scenarios for smartphones is to take photos of food items. The QX10 excels at this as well. Close up shots are in focus with good color saturation and the automatic white balance settings are accurate more often than not. Some additional photo samples can be seen below in a variety of challenging lighting situations.
Sunset shots are always challenging due to the diminishing light and bright sunlight. There is a hint of noise in the dark areas of the image but the camera has retained a lot of details instead of underexposing the shot. Even the highlights are managed quite well.
We were very impressed by this shot from the QX10 where the camera managed to get very accurate colors and more importantly a very sharp image. The photograph was taken handheld at night time with the only lighting being the ambient lighting from the top of the structure.
Once again, the QX10 has managed to take a noise free image in not very good lighting conditions. The image does appear a bit underexposed and you can notice the lost details in the upper right corner. This indicates the relatively small dynamic range. You can check out the full resolution versions of all the images shown above by clicking here.
Video Sample
As you’d expect, the QX10 can also shoot videos in a slightly awkward 1440×1080 resolution. These are stored on the camera’s memory card till the time you copy them back. Video quality is very good and the audio capture is decent too though there is a bit of clipping sometimes. Here’s a short video sample of handheld footage. You’ll be able to get much smoother video if you use a tripod but we don’t expect prospective users to carry one with them all the time.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YRg0BcfSQE
Battery Life
Tracking battery life on the QX10 isn’t the easiest thing. There is no onscreen notification to help you out and the only way you can actually see the battery life on the lens is via the tiny display on the side of the lens. We could easily shoot about 150 photos before the QX10 died out. This involved a lot of playing around with settings, activating the zoom motor and copying off images as well.
Sony rates the QX10 for about 200 shots which should be achievable if the lens is used very judiciously. Actual battery life should be around the 140-150 shot mark. Video has a major impact on the lens and Sony rates it for about 20 minutes of video capture. The good thing here is that the battery is very easily replaceable and since the QX10 charges over micro USB, you can simply plug it into portable battery pack to top it off.
Conclusion
The QX10 is part of a bold new category of products that offers the benefits of a large sensor, honest to goodness optical zoom without having to cope up with a massive bulge on your handset. Have the option to remove and attach the lens depending on the use case is very convenient and the added flexibility offered by the built in tripod mount is definitely appreciated.
Image quality is well ahead of most smartphones and is only matched by the likes of the Lumia 1020 and Galaxy S4 Zoom with only the latter being able to keep up with the zoom capabilities. Our only gripe was with the fairly clunky start up and pairing process. We don’t expect the QX10 to become a mainstream device but for someone who wants to improve the photography capabilities of their handset without buying a new phone altogether, the QX10 and QX100 are a very good option. The QX10 has been priced at Rs. 12,990 in India.
Pros
- Very innovative product that integrates seamlessly with smartphones
- Price
- Good image quality
- Tripod Mount
Cons
- Lack of controls
- Connection stability can be iffy
- Battery life could be better