Sony has launched two lenses designed to by used with Android and iOS smartphones. The lenses have great zoom capabilities, feature image stabilisation and can even detect different scenes.
Sony’s latest lens-style cameras combine the ease and spontaneity of a smartphone with the imaging power and creative options of a premium camera. It’s easy to control each lens-style camera with the latest release of Sony’s free PlayMemories Mobile app version 5.0 for Android and iOS smartphones. A new user interface simplifies the photography experience and makes one-handed operation a lot easier. Framing shots on your phone is more intuitive thanks to on-screen gridlines that are now featured in the app. GPS adds location information to images that is transferred to your smartphone while shooting. The camera shutter can now fire from the touchscreen: and with photographs automatically transferred to your phone, you can share those memories instantly.
ILCE-QX1
The ILCE-QX1 lets photographers make use of their precious E-mount / A-mount (requires LA-EA4 adaptor for A-mount lenses) lens collection. Just pick a lens – zoom, wide angle, tele or macro – and take control over exposure, focus and shooting modes.
The camera’s APS-C size Exmor CMOS sensor with 20.1-megapixels grabs huge amounts of detail. It’s teamed with Sony’s BIONZ X processor that now features improved area-specific noise reduction.
The big sensor inside the QX1 also lets you create pro-style ‚Äòbokeh’ effects with creamy background blur – a trick that smartphones can’t match.
Superior Auto recognises dozens of different scenes – like landscapes or backlit portraits – adjusting camera settings for top-quality results without fuss. For those photographers who enjoy post-production editing, the QX1 can now shoot RAW image files and in a lens-style camera first, the QX1 debuts a pop-up flash to brighten up portraits, gloomy interiors and night scenes.
DSC-QX30
Smartphone owners know that high-zoom shots are a headache, often resulting in grainy images and camera-shake when you’re trying to get the big picture. The compact DSC-QX30 keeps things crisp and clear with its 30x optical zoom lens, aided by Optical SteadyShot image stabilisation that helps eliminate blurring.
Users can smoothly zoom from a wide angle 24mm shot to a 720mm equivalent length at the telephoto end, for frame-filling full-length close-ups of somebody standing 40m away. If you want to go bigger still, Clear Image Zoom blows things up to a 60x magnification without sacrificing pixel count.
Zoom power is matched by Lock-on AF and speedy continuous shooting at up to 10fps, letting you capture fast-moving action with a crisply-focused burst of split-second images. The lens is also able to shoot Full HD video at a 60p frame rate.
Both new lens-style cameras are compatible with Sony’s wearable RM-LVR1 and RM-LVR2V Live View Remote controls. These wrist-mount controllers let you check images and select shots from up to five connected cameras simultaneously.
Optional Accessory ADP-FSK1
While Sony’s lens-style cameras make great tools for flexible shooting, the optional ADP-FSK1 expands your choice of shooting style. This Free Angle Shooting Kit includes a tilt adaptor and a grip, allowing you to shoot from low or high angles or take effortless selfies.
The QX1 and QX30 lens-style cameras and new colour variations of QX10 will be available in South Africa from October 2014 on an order basis only.
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