How badly do you want to take great photographs? Enough to tote around a dSLR with you wherever you go? While I do know one die-hard photographer who lugs her camera around wherever she goes, most of us lack the dedication. So we’re left with the camera that’s already in our pocket — our smartphone. Sadly, most smartphone photos are far from great, at least in terms of raw image quality.
So what’s a person to do? Sony thinks it has the answer, in the form of the DSC-QX100. This is $498 camera… without a viewfinder or a screen. It latches onto the screen you carry around anyway (your smartphone), and adds some truly stellar optics for results you could never get using just your smartphone.
They’re giving away a Sony DSC-QX100 after this review! So read through, then join the competition to win!
The Competition: Point-And-Shoots
The DSC-QX100 is basically a type of point-and-shoot camera. That’s quite literal at times, because it works even if you don’t connect it to your phone — so you can simply point it at something and shoot, without looking through a viewfinder to compose anything.
When it comes to raw specs, the DSC-QX100 packs a 20.2 megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor, with a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T lens. The lens is 28-100 mm equivalent, with 3.6x optical zoom, and an F1.8-4.9 aperture and optical image stabilization. It has a MicroSD card slot which also accepts proprietary Sony media (Memory Stick Micro), and built-in Wi-Fi and NFC capabilities it uses to talk to your phone. It weighs 179 grams (0.39 lb.), has a diameter of 63 mm, and is 56 mm tall when closed.
But really, the best way to understand the DSC-QX100 is in the context of its two closest peers in Sony’s family of cameras:
- The DSC-RX100M II: This is Sony’s excellent point-and-shoot. Stellar image quality, and a price to match: $748.
- The DSC-QX10: This is the DSC-QX100′s little brother, retailing for $248. It is noticeably more compact than the DSC-QX100 and offers 10x optical zoom to the DSC-QX100′s 3.6x, but is inferior to it in many other ways.
So the DSC-QX100 is right there in the middle, and for a reason: It uses the exact same optics and sensor as the RX100M II. This is good news, being a proven combo that can reliably produce some truly beautiful images. You can look at it as a way of getting the RX100M II’s important bits at a saving of $250 — but it also means it can be clunkier to use.
What’s In The Box
The DSC-QX100 doesn’t come with many accessories. The nice, circular box contains:
- The camera
- A lanyard attachment (very handy, given its cylindrical, slippery shape)
- A battery
- A smartphone attachment
And that’s about it.
Toting The DSC-QX100 Around
Even just carrying the DSC-QX100 around, you can already feel it’s all about compromises: It’s too big to fit in your pocket, but just carrying it in your hand won’t do you much good either. You need to have it connected to your phone in order to see what you’re shooting — so you end up carrying both devices in one hand, with the camera latched onto your phone.
The latching mechanism is composed of two foldable arms with a strong internal spring. Stretch the arms open, stick your smartphone in-between, and they’ll firmly grip the camera in place.
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