Sony’s been on the road for innovation since its launch of the clip-on, NFC-connecting lenses for smartphones last year in September at IFA in Berlin. The idea behind these lenses is simple and quite genius, if you ask me. The idea is that the lens is a full-featured high-quality, digital zoom lens that clips onto your device, and your phone interfaces with and controls the lens after pairing using NFC. The idea behind it is that many smartphones have cameras and optics that are good for ‘if you have it, it will suffice’ that follow the ‘the best camera is the one you have with you’ philosophy. But many people with smartphones either want to get the best pictures with a smartphone without needing to get a dedicated camera, for either financial or space-saving reasons. And those of us that may be smartphone photographers with hopes to aspire to be better and take great pictures will either have to get a great camera on our phones, or get a dedicated camera. Sony’s Attachable Lens-Style cameras are the solution, and Sony knew it.
These are markedly less than some of Sony’s ‘greater-price, greater-quality’ digital cameras (such as the RX1, RX100, or RX1R). But the news of today comes in the form of a model name/number, and more Sony-ness and lenses. The DSC-QX30 is a new lens-style camera from Sony that may or may not come out to the public’s eye in September at this year’s IFA. What is special about this model, this iteration? Well, look at the 30. 30 times zoom. 30 times. Want to get those really long-range shots from one end of a football field? With this lens, if the 30 stands for 30x zoom, you’ll be able to. This lens, which it does seem to be due to the model (which aligns with the DAC-QX100 andDSC-QX10, the lenses from last year) should be a nice refresh, especially if the lens gets an updated look, to match Sony’s latest flagships (which may be the Z3, which is also rumored to be announced at IFA 2014 in Berlin) in the Xperia line. Be sure to tune in or head to IFA this year, simply to see your favorite manufacturer’s latest devices, and Sony should be one of those companies to watch. Until the event in September, stay tuned for any news regarding Sony, their Xperias, and their attachable camera improvements.