I bought a Sony QX100 primarily to shoot HD highlight videos of live action amateur sports and high quality photos. Overall, the QX100 is pretty good. It has some distinct advantages and disadvantages vs. a traditional DSLR style camera. The QX100 does not have any viewfinder or display, so you have to pair it with a mobile device, such as your iPhone or Android phone or a tablet.
Pros:
- 20 megapixel camera takes extremely crisp pictures. You can easily zoom / crop photos and still beat the quality of any photo you take with your smart phone
- For live video, the camera is very good. The 1080p 60 fps is extremely high quality
- The aperture allows you to take exceptional professional quality photos
- auto focus & auto settings are very good
- The QX100 attaches quickly and securely to just about any smartphone using a spring loaded clip with rubberized grips.
- The camera does have a manual focus ring in case you want more control over your photos. So far I have exclusively used the auto exposure mode and it works great. I have not yet tried it in dark conditions, but given the specs, the QX100 should do pretty well in low light conditions.
- The app gives you the option to transfer photos or video from the camera's SD card to your connected smartphone or tablet via the WiFi connection between the two. This is handy if you want to download a photo to share via SMS or E-mail or via a cloud application like iCloud. But know that the default is to compress the photo to 2MB unless you manually select "original size" before transferring the photo.
- The QX100 has outstanding image stabilization. I have shot video holding the QX100 in my hand, and it has kept my image very steady, unlike my attempts to use my traditional DSLR camera on a monopole or tripod.
Cons:
- The Sony PlayMemories app is required to use your Qx-100 with your smartphone.
- transfer media
- limited to 3.6x zoom. For sports highlight video and for most photography, the 3.6x zoom is fine. But if you're trying to film people at more than about 70 yards and you want them to fill the frame, or if you're shooting photos of someone at more than about 30 yards, the zoom is entirely inadequate. The QX10 has a 10x zoom, but a slightly lower megapixel capacity and does not have the Carl Zeiss lens that the QX100 does. It is not possible to add telephoto lenses to the QX100.
- no continuous shooting mode
- The QX100 connects to your smartphone or tablet via WiFi. The camera broadcasts its own SSID, and you just select the SSID from the WiFi settings on your smartphone or tablet to connect. The downside is that the camera uses 2.4 GHz WiFi, so if you're in an area with a lot of other 2.4 GHz WiFi devices (other smartphones, WiFi access points, computers) or in an area with other sources of 2.4 GHz interference (microwave ovens, baby monitors, some cordless phones, computer monitors, TV screens, etc.) you could get spotty connectivity between the camera and the phone. The camera will still function, but you might be temporarily unable to see a live image of your subject using your mobile device's screen.
- Every time you turn off the camera or exit the app, you have to reconnect the smartphone app to the camera. This isn't a major drawback, but for whatever reason, the app doesn't automatically reconnect to the camera's WiFi like your smartphone normally does when it encounters a WiFi network that it has connected to in the past.
- There is no flash and the Sony PlayMemories app does not currently allow you to use the flash on your smartphone. Hopefully they'll address this in future upgrades to the app
- when you shoot a photo, the app takes 1-2 seconds to display the photo, and then you have to touch "back" on your phone's screen to go back to the photo taking mode. It would be much better if Sony were to make this more like the smartphones' native photo app and just take the photo, save it, and be ready to take another photo
Other considerations
- 1080p 60 fps will use up your SD memory card pretty quickly. I upgraded to a 64 GB card, and that has served me well for shooting a lot of highlight video.
- There is no way to physically attach the QX100 to a tablet, but the QX100 does have a standard mounting screw that will attach to any standard tripod, or you can buy tablet mounting brackets that also screw onto any standard tripod.
- The QX100 does not come with a protective case. You can buy them for about $30. The size of the QX100 is about 1/2 as tall as a 12oz can of soda, so once it's inside a protective case, it's a little bulky to fit into cargo pockets. Be sure to find one that has a wrist strap.
Overall:
The QX100 is a fantastic camera, especially if you're a beginner and don't want or need all the manual capabilities of a traditional DSLR camera. It's extremely light weight and compact and shoots amazing photos and video. The ability to use it as a remote camera (e.g. like putting it on a telescoping monopod or setting it up on a tripod and monitoring what it "sees" from a distance) is a great feature. The QX100 will shoot pictures and video that are far superior to your smartphone's or tablet's native camera. The image stabilization on the QX100 is a really big plus for shooting video. The biggest obstacle to the QX100 has nothing to do with the hardware. The software really needs some additional development. Having a continuous mode would be the first thing I'd look for, followed by the ability to shoot successive photos without having it leave a "shooting" mode and entering a "camera roll" mode after every photo. Hopefully Sony will open up to allow other developers to create apps that will work with the QX series cameras to spur some creativity and additional functionality that the limited PlayMemories app currently lacks.
If you're looking for a reasonably inexpensive highly portable camera that shoots fantastic professional quality photos or full HD video, the QX100 is a great bridge between a traditional DSLR and a GoPro type camera. If you want greater manual control of your photos, the QX100 does not compare to a DSLR. Similarly, if all you need is to shoot full HD video, a camera like a GoPro might be a better option. But if you want the ability to do both, the QX100 has distinct advantages over either of those options.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Featured items you may like
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Customer Questions & Answers
Customer reviews
Love the concept. Execution needs some refinement, but still a great purchase.
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2015
Takes beautiful pictures. Fantastic concept and executed almost as well. Wifi connectivity to my iPhone 6 can be a bit flaky. Since the idea is to use your phone's display as the viewfinder for the camera, the image that comes through will sometimes stutter and freeze on you, even though it's right next to the lens. It's a little clunky to have to manually connect to the wifi coming from the lens everytime you turn it on. Would be better if it just automatically connected every time (maybe use Airdrop once Apple allows 3rd parties to leverage that). But all in all, the pictures are so much better given this beautiful Carl Zeiss lens. You get great shallow depth of field imagery, fantastic low-light performance (much better than the iPhone in both cases). Would be great if they offered a "selfi-stick" that could work with this lens. If I could give 4.5 stars, I would. Enclosed is a sample picture we took at a sushi restaurant recently.
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2015
Images in this review
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2014
Verified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2014
Verified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2015
Verified Purchase
Love the concept. Execution needs some refinement, but still a great purchase.
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2015
Takes beautiful pictures. Fantastic concept and executed almost as well. Wifi connectivity to my iPhone 6 can be a bit flaky. Since the idea is to use your phone's display as the viewfinder for the camera, the image that comes through will sometimes stutter and freeze on you, even though it's right next to the lens. It's a little clunky to have to manually connect to the wifi coming from the lens everytime you turn it on. Would be better if it just automatically connected every time (maybe use Airdrop once Apple allows 3rd parties to leverage that). But all in all, the pictures are so much better given this beautiful Carl Zeiss lens. You get great shallow depth of field imagery, fantastic low-light performance (much better than the iPhone in both cases). Would be great if they offered a "selfi-stick" that could work with this lens. If I could give 4.5 stars, I would. Enclosed is a sample picture we took at a sushi restaurant recently.
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2015
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2014
Verified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
shayne craig
Two Stars
Reviewed in Canada on February 10, 2015Verified Purchase
