Sony’s QX lens cameras, which wirelessly and physically attach to your smartphone, didn’t turn out to be all that great — performance was painfully slow, and at their price and size you might as well just carry a decent Wi-Fi-equipped compact camera. But Olympus seems to think there’s the germ of a good idea in there and has announced its take on the concept: Olympus Air.
The Olympus Air A01 is a 16-megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor and mount that can take any of the numerous lenses released for the format so far, similar to Sony’s QX1 attachment for E-mount Alpha lenses. Olympus’ version works with a series of apps, including one that replicates a physical camera mode dial and another that employs the Art Filters built into Olympus’ line of full Micro Four Thirds cameras.
1/6
Olympus Air has only been announced for release in Japan, where it’ll go on sale March 6th at a price of ¥33,800 (about $289). A bundle with Olympus’ regular 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens will run ¥49,800 ($425). Whether or not it’s worth the price — or even the time spent setting it up — will depend entirely on whether it can improve on the Sony competition’s speed and ease of use.