Sony QX10 Lens Style Camera for Smartphones and Tablets - Black (18.2MP, 10x Optical Zoom)

I must applaud Sony for bringing this product (and it's bigger sister) to market.It's early days for this type of product and they are also quite brave with the pricing of the QX10, something that in the past Sony would not have done.What you really want to know about is how well it works, I have to say nice try but this is not designed really to be anything more than a lens attachment for your Smartphone with some advantages in terms of zoom range . Yes it records on board, yes it does better stills and video (well that's debatable, more about that as I test it more). However what really lets it down for people who really want to stretch this thing, there is little manual control, only exposure compensation in Program mode. There is no RAW shooting mode only JPG (both to the Micro SD card and to the phone). The iauto and superior auto modes work well enough, the metering seems to cope well in a variety of situations. The AF and touch AF seem to centre only on the central 80% of the image, that's not unusual though. The app is constantly showing icons on screen when it detects that you are trying to take a macro shot, when it thinks the camera is on a tripod and when you have your subject backlit.It's quite easy to set the WiFi up, although the connection is not that reliable even docked to the back of my iphone 5, this could be down to the very heavy WiFi traffic in the location I was testing this in. Every now and again it would not be able to refresh the video preview of the camera to the phone and would drop frames, quite annoying. I also find the on screen zoom control odd as you continuously have to jab at the buttons to get a constant speed, the control on the lens is much better.You can of course take the camera off the phone, I manged to get about 15m away before the I lost the connection.Image quality, well that's average, although sometimes the preview you get just as you take the shot ends up looking quite a lot softer than the image you actually end up saving. In almost all situations you end up getting a better result than the immediate preview gives you.**I've been testing a bit more and managed to get into a situation where the superior auto mode causes very long processing times as it captures a number of frames and tries intelligently to get the best result by noise reducing and averaging the images. In fact I think it's crashed the app. I was trying a handheld macro shot when this happened, in fact this has happened more than once, as I write this review. When it is able to process these multiple images successfully it does quite a good job considering.Also I notice that when the app reports 'fetching' after you take a picture it does not actually appear on the phone if you set the save options to 'off', odd as I would expect the app to even bother with the transfer process if it set that way.The app appears very buggy, or at least the camera/app integration needs a lot of work**The lens holder works well, even on my iphone with a case attached, just remember that when you take it off you need to slide the small black plastic release switch forward before you twist it, you'll end up breaking it if you don't!I do hope some of these issues can be addressed, the app responsiveness for one, several times it just stopped responding, frozen on a taken image. Now Sony have opened up the API for this camera we should soon see some new Apps from different developers who may be able to exploit the features of this camera/lens.This could be the first of a wave of these sort of cameras, they just need better software, a more robust way of transmitting the image to the camera and most important of all they need to be of better quality than any currently available Smartphone camera, if not they are going to be very short lived.** The new version of the app released in December 2013 addresses some of these issues, it seems more responsive and I like the fact that you can access the images quickly from the right hand side of the app, also the download speed seems to have improved a little. Sony have promised a firmware upgrade to the camera adding 1080p video capture and an extra stop in terms of ISO. There still seems to be issues with performance of the link from the camera to the smart phone when it's more than a metre or so away.**

I have been using my QX10 for a few weeks now. I have seen some negative things said about this lens camera - especially on other sites than this - and would like to address those. Some say it's too slow for the quick shot. I can't imagine how anyone would think it was ever intended for such a shot. If you had your DSLR and wanted to take a quick shot of that fleeting moment would you mess about in your bag to change the lens or a load of filters? Of course not. You would use the camera as is, wouldn't you? For that quick unexpected shot I use my phone as is. My phone is an HTC One which is NFC enabled. As soon as I touch both pieces together they start to communicate and by the time I've got the camera on my phone the connection is complete and we're ready to go. I don't think that that is slow at all. OK, if you don't have NFC and are limited to wifi then maybe it takes a bit longer. But the QX10 was designed to connect initially by NFC so it seems spurious to me to blame the camera for the shortcomings of the phone.Yes, but the App is no good they say. There's no control over shutter speed and everything else! Thank goodness for that, say I. I have owned all-singing, all-dancing cameras in the past and always seem to end up with it set on full auto. I understand the relationship between ISO, exposure and shutter speed but I don't want to spend time sorting all that out. I want to think about the shot - composition and framing, and leave the camera to sort all the other stuff out. And believe me the QX10 does a superb job of it. But unlike a stand-alone camera of any sort, when once purchased then that's it - we QX10 owners can look forward to all manner of new apps. Who knows what wonderful things we'll be able to do as the months pass? I expect that I will try out any new apps but I have to say that what I've got suits me fine.I have seen more than one review complaining that with the camera attached, the phone becomes unbalanced. Well, if you continued to hold it in the same way, of course it is. I cup the camera underneath in my right hand with a finger on the zoom button and use a finger on my left to tap to focus and take the shot. I can tell you that it is a joy to use in this way.And then there are those who say that as you are carting a second piece of kit around with you, you might as well get a proper compact or DSLR. These people REALLY miss the point. That the camera can be operated remotely from the phone is fantastic. I have photos of the grandchildren at play that would have been impossible with Grandad sticking a camera in their faces. I am planning wildlife shots of the squirrels in our garden when the weather improves a tad. Indeed the creativity that this lens camera facilitates is mind-blowing. At least on our holidays and trips out the photos might show me on them from time to time as I don't have to be on the "wrong" side all the time.So if you are a professional of some sort and need a camera to do a hard days work, then this was never intended for you. But if you like to take photos and have an eye for a shot but you're not a complete photographic nerd - if ever you've longed for your phone to have a better lens or a proper optical zoom, then this is the thing for you. My HTC ONE was the best bit of kit I ever invested in, but now I have two. The QX10 is a remarkable piece and I would give it the highest recommendation. Don't think about it any longer - buy it!!