Practical Selfie Guide: Sony DSC-WX80, monopod and an Android Device

Just when selfies, as a form of self-expression, are gaining a lot of attention from both sides of the social spectrum (e.g. haters and lovers), the use case of having a portable device that can be mounted on a pocket monopod, and be remotely triggered from your mobile device has never been so timely.

Well, sometimes, there is not just enough juice from a phone camera, may it be in the form of image stabilization, megapixels, sensor-size, lighting or LED flash. Unless you want to risk looking weird each time you take a shot, review the result, recompose and repeat the trial and error of taking a good shot from the high end back camera of most high end smartphones, most of the time the lowly front camera is the only available means to get that shot with you and that touristy spot in the background in a normal fashion, albeit, with a decent composition.

Here comes the best setup so far, for less than half of  the latest Samsung Galaxy S-thing:

• Sony DSC-WX80, 16MP digital camera with Wifi remote control option.
• A cheap pocket monopod.
• Any Android device running at least Android 4.x.
• Sony PlayMemories app from Google Play Store.

The Sony DSC-WX80 compact digital camera...

Wifi smartphone control option... shown here in German...

The trusty monopod...

Sony PlayMemories application on the smartphone...

Good old HTC One X can still do a good job of supporting this endeavor...

Nothing beats seeing what you are taking a picture of, right at the palm of your hands (the one holding the phone of course) and being able to adjust the composition before taking the shot, thanks to the wifi remote control feature. Wide angle lens allows more of of the background in, or more faces to squeeze inside the frame. And the longer reach of the monopod allows for more creative shots (ever wondered how you would look like from the security camera point of view).

And when you are done, the app automatically pulls the photos into your phone, both being a plus and a minus; a plus because you instantly have the photos to feed your social media sharing urge, a minus because succeeding shots are not possible until the photos are fully transferred. Good thing is you have the option to transfer the images at full resolution, the 2MP version and for some strange reason the VGA one as well, to speed up this process. The save option can also be turned off, and choosing to instead 'send the photos to a smartphone' from the camera also does the same job, much later.

All the settings are done in-camera while the app can be used to control the flash unit when taking photos, and there is an option to record the video through the phone as well. Other than that, Sony takes care of the exposure setting, depending on the shooting mode selected. Some fancy options such as blurred background, HDR and sweep panorama are standard on the camera.

What makes this package appealing is that the WX80 only costs a third of Go Pro. Of course the setup is not even in the vicinity when it comes to ruggedness and versatility in all conditions. However, it also costs 20% less than the nearest sibling, QX10, with much more feature in the way of being a dedicated camera with its own 240K LCD screen and access to a dedicated flash. The only missing feature when paired with a supported handset is the NFC One Touch pairing. Nice but it does not take too much time to start the camera wifi, start the phone wifi and connect to the camera, open the PlayMemories app and start shooting (the phone should already have connected by the time the end of this sentence is reached).

All in all, the compact size, excellent image quality for this category and a very good price on the wallet, makes this camera a real value for money. PC Mag has a more detailed spec review. Of course this is assuming you have a smartphone already since IOS also supports the PlayMemories app (thanks Sony for being open). The monopod should cost you less than 10 USD online. But do make sure you buy the one exactly like in the image above since it has a lock mechanism should you want to put the camera at odd angles and expect it to stay in that position.

There is not much to write here about the battery life, since for sure having two separate batteries is better than having one. Image quality is already available in most tech blogs and hardware reviews. But the deal here is the complete package as a selfie device, or if you just want to be always in the photos without having simply a front camera version of you in a fancy background pasted like a scrapbook photo with the rest of your gang.

Source: Techradar