Sony is working on something called a “lens camera” that is a wireless accessory for your smartphone. It clips on to the back of your phone, turning it into a high quality point-and-shoot camera. We first got wind of these lens cameras last Tuesday. Today we are getting more details about how these new accessories will work courtesy of a leaked manual from Sony Alpha Rumors.
Sony Alpha Rumors are the ones who brought us the first leaked images of the new Sony devices. The newly leaked manual shows us diagrams of the new camera attachments. It appears that the lens cameras won’t leave all of the controls up to the smartphone that they are attached to. Two lenses are shown, and both of them have power switches, their own shutter keys, power zoom controls, and a built-in microphone. There’s also a small display that will show important information like the remaining battery level and the status of the SD card. The lenses will also have tripod mounts on them, and something called a “multifunction jack.”
Sony is planning on launching at least two camera devices at first with the model numbers of QX100 and QX10. The QX10 is the entry-level model that will have the same lens and sensor as the Sony WX150 point-and-shoot camera, weighing 105 grams. The QX100 will be the higher-end lens camera model. It will use the same internal hardware as the Sony RX100m2. That means it will have a 1-inch 20.2 megapixel Exmor R sensor, with an f/1.8 Carl Zeiss lens. The QX100 will also have a manual ring control for focusing your shots. It will weigh 179 grams, so just a little heavier than the QX10, which makes sense because of the upgraded internals. Both of these lens cameras are designed to use your smartphone display as the viewfinder for taking photos. The QX10 and QX100 should be announced at a Sony event planned for September 4th.
We don’t know how much these lens cameras will cost, but they could be the answer to Android’s historically bad smartphone cameras. While it is an extra step to remove the detachable camera from your pocket or bag and stick it on your smartphone, the pictures that these will capture will be much better than most current smartphone cameras.
What do you think? Would you be interested in getting better smartphone pictures, even if it meant you have to deal with an external camera attachment?