Is this the biggest thing to happen to mobile photography/video in years? Sony DSC-QX10 and DSC-QX100 lens-cameras! | via sonyalpharumors

(SR5) Hot! First images of the new DSC-QX10 and DSC-QX100 lens-cameras! | sonyalpharumors.

UPDATE: Im reliably informed that the mount for the lens in NOT MAGNETIC but rather connects via retractable clips into custom mounts for different handsets.

Is this the biggest thing to happen to iPhoneography and iPhone Video in a long time? SonyAlphaRumours.com had this story in early August but it was, as such, a rumour – but if the latest updates are genuine it appears Sony are about to launch 2 discreet mobile lenses which will attach to smartphones magnetically, be controlled by a dedicated App on the mobile device and record internally in the lens to microSD. The communication with the mobile is either WiFi or Bluetooth and the spec on the lenses is pretty damn impressive:

This is a quote from the SonyAlphaRumours post:

Sony will soon launch two “lens-cameras”:
1) One is the “Lens-camera” with RX100MII sensor and Zeiss lens ($600 here on Amazon). On the pictures it is the bigger lens. As you know the RX100 is the most praised high end compact camera and features a large 1 inch sensor which is the same used by the Nikon 1 system. Now you can have that kind of Image Quality on your iPhone or Android Smartphone!

2) The second model will feature a 10xzoom lens with 1/2,3 inch 18 megapixel CMOS sensor (the image with the f/3,3-5.9 lens). It’s basically the same sensor and lens of the Sony WX150 ($400 on Amazon).

Click here to read the full article and see more images

According to the latest article I’ve read the lenses will also be released in a gold/champagne/white form to match the now widely rumoured gold iPhone 5s due for release at an Apple Event on September 10th. The Sony product launch for these lenses is due tomorrow at an event in NewYork.

The timing is very interesting given the pre-release yesterday of the ACER Liquid S2 which packs a 4K image sensor into it (via the Snapdragon800 chipset) and the impending release of the Samusng Galaxy Note III which is also rumoured to have a 4K Snapdragon chip and is due to be previewed tomorrow and demonstrated at IFA Berlin on Friday 6th September. This launch is also likely to preview the Samsung SmartWatch which again is aimed squarely at the long-rumoured Apple iWatch. Its going to be a very interesting week ahead!