Review on 📸 Sony DSC-QX10/W: Smartphone Attachable 4.45-44.5mm Lens-Style Camera – A Lens Revolution for Mobile Photography by Chris Bowden

This is a disappointing review as it's impossible to get a clean look at the camera lens without also checking out the Sony PlayMemories Mobile app that the camera is powered by Your smartphone works. I will do everything in my power to separate them as much as possible. QX10: A great little device that takes amazing photos. The look, feel and performance of the hardware is exceptional and I think Sony has really become a strong player in the camera world. I love the initiative that has been taken to create an innovative product that recognizes a movement towards people who are increasingly relying on smartphones for photography but sometimes want to up the game a bit without carrying around a full-fledged SLR . Yes, we do a terrible thing with the "add-ons" thing, but this add-on is small, handy, powerful, and useful. The BIG flaw with the camera is that Sony somehow (stupidly) decided to force users to connect to the camera via WIFI instead of Bluetooth. My understanding is that Android users have a more automatic connection with Wi-Fi setup, but let's face it, there's a huge iPhone user base here too. Bluetooth offers a quick and easy connection with no extra steps, and I'm endlessly disappointed with the Wi-Fi setup. App: Terrible, non-functional and not being improved fast enough or well enough. It's a sad story. The promise advertised for using the camera app is NOT true AT ALL. Just read the app reviews! It's slow, and your photo experience turns into a nightmare of freezes, freezes, reboots, reinstalls, and screams. It also drains your iPhone battery in record time. I spent hours on the phone with their support team and found that the app particularly dislikes the iPhone 5 running iOS 7. The app could also have more (obvious) features like different scene/shutter settings. The settings menu is very limited. Camera 360 has built compatibility with the Sony QX10/100 into its app (third party developers are open to integration with the camera). I'm glad to see at least someone joining the realm, but they offer even less convenient features (not even a typing focus option?) and there are issues with hardware connectivity. We look forward to more (and better) compatibility with third-party apps in the future. General summary: If you are a casual photographer and a patient person, the camera is fun and takes great photos. You can't shoot blindly and you may have to spend 10 seconds or more capturing each frame (nature scene? cool. kids and dogs? good luck!). I remain optimistic about improving the user experience soon. In the meantime I have switched to a Samsung NX 300.