Which camera will you take on your Boomer Male vacation; grab snaps on a smartphone or capture creative expression on a DSLR? How about both?
Today Olympus released the AIR A01 in the U.S., due to deliver in July 2015 and priced at $300 for the camera body. The opposite of a point-and-shoot, the Olympus A01 brings a big sensor and quality lens to an Android or iOS smartphone, and still fills the need for traveling light.
With the above news, Olympus joins Sony QX1 in the “connected camera” business and solves some of the vacation camera dilemma.
What is a connected camera?
A connected camera is where the viewfinder, and increasingly some camera control function, is your smartphone. The camera portion contains the sensor, physical controls, built into or on the lens itself, with about the same dimensions as a typical lens.
By using your smartphone, connected cameras deliver a high quality image for a modest cost and much lower weight, typically less than half that of a traditional DSLR. Since the camera and phone connect wirelessly, the camera can be placed a long distance away and the phone handles focus, exposure, etc., allowing for high overhead or ground level shots, and family-size selfies. Since the images load onto the phone, you can quickly upload them to the internet for sharing with family and friends, the Olympus even comes with it’s own Amazon Photos storage account (in addition to iCloud, Google Photos, and any number of other accounts).
The Olympus A01 is available on pre-order. The Sony QX1 (and QX10, QX30, QX100) are available now.
Enjoy your vacation a little more this year and bring back pictures you won’t be embarrassed to share!
UPDATE 7/3/2015: You can also operate the Olympus A01 using a tablet, either Android or iOS. A bigger viewer with bigger controls is a nice addition.
