Sony's BIGGEST Flop (is awesome)

this is the Sony qx1 a camera released in 2014 as a better camera for your smartphone or as a smarter back for your camera depending on which way you look at it it features a 20 megapixel apsc size sensor a shutter button and that's about it no screen no grip no nothing Sony wasn't the first to try this smartphone camera accessory idea and it's been done by everyone from Hasselblad to Olympus there's even some Modern attempts to this design happening as we speak what makes this camera the most interesting to me out of all of them is that it has the largest sensor size still to this date out of this category of cameras and it can still be used today despite being discontinued unlike some other models which have lost support one of the biggest criticisms of these smartphone operated cameras is that they weren't Leaps and Bounds better than just using your smartphone camera especially the smaller sensor sized ones and smartphone cameras started using more and more computational photography at the time to make your images look nicer whereas these things still use the old tried andrue what you see is what you get and if you want something that looks nice you're going to have to edit it yourself but the Sony qx1 is the exception to this rule because of such a massive sensor making it a clear upgrade from your smartphone camera whereas something like these compact Zoom ones only seem like a modest upgrade with a lot of hassle this is the average size of smartphone camera sensors today and yeah you can see the difference not that sensor size is the most important thing but it does have some key advantages and you can Google those yourself if You' like the Sony qx1 takes normal Sony e-mount lenses you know the same ones you'd find on their Flagship mirrorless cameras today that also means you can adapt just about anything else you'd want to it which I took full advantage of my favorite from the bunch being these teeny tiny pinx 110 lenses and when I attach my smartphone to the back it makes for This truly ridiculous looking setup unfortunately there are no manual focus AIDS no focus peaking no punch and zoom we'll look at all that in a minute attached to the back of the camera is a connector for your smartphone these flaps flip out and stretch to accommodate most phone sizes remember that this was 2014 so my guess is that some of the XL size phones we have today may not fit here as it barely fits my pixel 6 with a case on this whole back part rotates off to reveal the battery compartment there's a small battery in here that doesn't last too long but thankfully doesn't have to power a screen the original battery rating is for 440 shots but I felt like mine lasted much less than that maybe because of having to leave the Wi-Fi on for the screen if you're using this seriously you will definitely want some battery backups available you can also see in here the Wi-Fi connection details to tether this to your smartphone and the micro SD card slot there is a USB port on the side of the camera that can charge the camera or access the micr SD card contents now as I said earlier the Sony qx1 really is the best of these smartphone controlled cameras in part because of its ease of use even still today and that's because Sony still supports the qx1 inside of its current Sony Imaging Edge mobile app this is the app they use to tether their current Sony e-mount cameras this is a huge deal because the similar micro 43s Olympus Air1 I used required bootloading a Dlisted app that someone had archived online and just praying it works on your phone and for those concerned that app support might discontinue eventually as it very well might I did find another way to control this with a screen without a smartphone entirely that I haven't heard anyone else talk about that so I'll show that in a minute once connected you get a live view of what the camera sees and some basic camera controls the live view is a tad laggy but it's not too bad I think for Action photography this would proved to be a problem but for what I was doing it wasn't a big deal there's also a slight Delay from when you press the shutter button on the app to when the camera finally takes a picture it's not long but it is slight because it is going through the Wi-Fi here in the app you can switch camera modes to apperture or shutter priority along with intelligent Auto you can change white balance and ISO settings choose to shoot jpeg or raw turn on a self timer or a Flash and that's about it oh yeah this camera does have a built-in flash which I find really funny but also kind of nice to have as you can see with my manual lens attached there's no way to confirm Focus other than just eyeball in it which works well enough with some lenses and in some situations but it's really too bad that even simple focus peeking or punch in zoom on the live view wasn't added here of course you don't have to have your smartphone actually attached to the back of the camera to get the tethering to work because it's all happening remotely so as long as there is enough Wi-Fi connection you can control the camera from just about anywhere and the neat part about that is that the qx1 by itself kind of just looks like you're holding the lens so you can hold it out and take pictures kind of inconspicuously with your phone and nobody really knows what's happening every time I took this out in public people just thought it was a lens and they weren't really convinced that it was a camera until I took the lens off and showed them the sensor I don't know if this covert style of Photography is really helpful to anyone but uh there you go you could do that but the compact nature of the camera does lend itself to some neat mounting options that you can do like [Music] this I came up with this contraption mounting the camera to an action camera chest harness to take biking the idea was that I could control the camera via my smartphone mount it to my handlebars of my bike and take high quality photos of what I was seeing while I was riding that was the idea at least this is quite possibly the worst idea I've ever had but also kind of the best [Music] [Music] now I mentioned earlier that I found another interesting way to control the camera with a screen without a smartphone now to be clear you can just use the camera as is without a smartphone it does have a shutter button you can turn it on you can even flip up the flash you just have no access to the settings and it's just shooting in full auto you also can't compose your shots cuz you don't have a screen this is an interesting exercise and I found it very kind of fun to shoot um but it's not very practical all my shots were tilted and scampus so here's another screen Solution that's not a smartphone years ago Sony made action cameras if you can remember that and alongside them they made these little wrist watch style remote control accessories with screens when I was browsing the Sony qx1 on Sony's official website I saw that these were listed under the official accessory guide and despite never really being shown off anywhere that I could find apparently Sony supported the qx1 in their short list of supported cameras to control with these remotes the earlier versions of these remotes are only around 40 bucks on eBay so I snagged one to try out not only do you get to remotely control the camera shutter but you get some minimal control over the camera and most importantly a live view of what the camera sees so that you can frame your shot without a smartphone [Music] mounting this to the back of the camera itself is one option for a hilariously small apsc interchangeable lens camera system you can also wear it as a watch although getting used to moving the screen and the camera view independently is a little nauseating at first but I think this is a really cool option to throw out there to continue using the camera even if one day you lose app support or if you just want a smaller more inconspicuous screen and staying away from your smartphone so what is the image quality like on the Sony [Music] qx1 well remember you're talking to a guy who loves old cameras so I'm impressed by this 20 megapix sensor of course this 20 map apsc size sensor holds its own just fine nowadays it looks to be the same sensor that's in the Sony A3000 the a3500 and the a5000 from that same time period so while it's not groundbreaking stuff definitely more than enough tons of detail good dynamic range in the raw files this age of sensor to me is plenty enough for just about everything and it's still very much a worthy upgrade to a smartphone camera setup so all that sounds good right but what are the cons well I'll let you be the judge of whether or not this actually solves any problem you have or is worth the hassle of carrying an attaching to your smartphone and going through all of that versus just buying a slightly bigger normal camera I'll leave that all that aside the main con to me is that unfortunately this camera sells for used today more than it did brand new back in 2014 which is a bummer if you wait long enough like I did and you're patient you can definitely strike a deal but this camera really should be reserved for nerds who just want something different and unique or if you have a special project in mind where this would be particularly useful if it was cheaper I could definitely recommend this to more people cuz it actually is a good camera and is still very usable today I have a second video about this camera coming out very soon so subscribe for that it'll be an adventure something even weirder than this setup if you like these old adapted lenses these kind of weird ones then I got a video for you check this video out here and until next time as always happy snapping

Channel: snappiness

Views: 81,894

Keywords: sony qx1, sony e mount camera, sony mirrorless camera, sony camera

Id: OoivGxxNUdE

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 13 2024