A new camera called “theQ” has been announced, and it’s designed purely for social media. It takes notes from Pentax, and comes in a variety of funky colors with quirky names like “It’s My Jam” and “Coffee, Black”. Sporting a 5 megapixel sensor, theQ has a wide-angle 24mm f2.8 lens, is dust proof and water proof up to 3.3 feet (1 meter), and has built-in memory of 2 GB. In true social media fashion there are filters available, such as “Original”, “Blend”, “Royal”, “Ceylon”, “Golden Steed”, “Earl Grey”, “Wales”, “Breakfast”, and “London”. The display measures 2.7″, which is sufficient.
Via PetaPixel
theQ comes with a number of interesting features, the first of which that caught my eye being the “theQ light”. It’s an 8 segment LED flash which has a 8 second shot time for selfies. The theQ light also acts as a battery indicator. Each light segment represents a percentage of the battery. A propos battery, theQ is said to average about 200 images per charge.
But 5 megapixels? Even the most basic waterproof camera phone has more! Well, if that’s not enough for you, then there are cameras like the Pentax WG3. For a little more money and an Eye-fi card, you can do what theQ does, and more. In fact, theQ reminds me of the old social media phones that were on the market for a short period of time and quickly disappeared. It’s an interesting idea–however, is it needed? The camera is simple to use and rugged. It seems to be more about taking photos than the camera itself. It will be interesting to see who adopts it.
You can find more information on theQ’s website here.