Sony’s latest camera, leaked profusely in advance, is a real oddity. The QX100 looks like a detachable lens but contains all the workings of a camera, including battery, but without a screen. The idea is to clip it to your smartphone and transform it into a camera. It has all the innards of Sony’s RX100 II, with a one-inch sensor and optical zoom, but is controlled from your phone.
Launched today the IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) in Berlin, the QX100 features two clips on the base to fix to Android or iOS devices. It communicates wirelessly with the phone so, in practice, you can brandish the cylindrical lens lookalike and control it remotely without even having to clip it to your phone. It will cost around £400 when it gets to British shelves later in the year. If that is too much to stomach, there is a cheapo version, the QX10, which is based on the CyperShot WX150 camera and will cost about £180 according to reports.
It will be interesting to see if this whacky idea catches on. Personally, I would always prefer to have a single unit such as the excellent RX100 which is light and compact. Having to fiddle with two devices and clip the camera to the phone looks like hard work to me, despite the advantages of having the larger screen to play with.