Before I bought my first DSLR Camera earlier this year I was taking all my pictures with my phone camera, at the time it was an iPhone 5c. Being an amateur photographer by hobby I can’t tell you how often I wished Apple would invest in higher quality sensors for their cameras, if nothing less than to take selfies with anything better than a potato. Thanks Apple.
Let’s welcome the DxO ONE to this theoretical stage, a small form factor high definition camera. This thing is barely bigger than the area of a saltine and only about 1 inch thick. What’s got me tickled the most about this tiny guy is that it can be used as both a standalone camera or it can be connected to your iPhone via the lightning connector. This allows you to take amazing stills or video on the convenience of your iPhone. Plus, the lightning connector is reversible. This gives you the potential of taking some of the highest quality selfies your Snapchat story has ever seen.
Let’s talk specifications, be warned this may get boring… The sensor type is CMOS-BSI and it has a focal length of 11.0mm which they say is equivalent to 32mm in full frame. The camera is a 20.2 megapixel mirrorless camera. The lens cover in integrated into the camera and works by sliding it up (On) down (Off). Sliding the lens cover further down releases the lightning connector for iPhones/iPads. Aperture is f/1.8 and adjustable down to f/11 (6 blade iris). The shutter button is 2-stage. The camera has a small OLED display used for displaying the settings. ISO range is from ISO 100 to ISO 51200 (Hi 2). Shutter speed goes from 1/20000 to 30s. Image stabilization is electronic and for video only. Camera modes include Auto, Sports, Portrait, Landscape, Night, Program, Aperture Priority, Speed Priority, and Manual. It shoots video at 1080p @ 30 fps and 720p @ 120 fps. File formats include .JPG, .DNG, .DXO (SuperRAW™), and .MOV (H.264). Its focus range is from 20cm to infinity. Camera has a 3x digital zoom. Autofocus uses contrast detect and face-detection. You can read all these and more on their website.
Although I have not yet used this camera the iPhone app seems relatively easy to use, you must use the app in order to use the camera when it’s connected to the phone. I hope someday to add this camera to my photography arsenal. But given the price tag is near $500 USD that may take some time.