Time for a new camera? The Sony VLOGCAM ZV-E10

 So my last camera purchase was back in around 2012.  

At the time I had a Sharp Aquos Android smart phone which took okayish photos.  

Even then, some people might ask "But if you have a smart phone, why would you need a camera?", so I wans to discuss that a bit here.  

The camera I bought wasn's something fancy, but a Sony Cybershot DSC-TX200, which was a small point and shoot that easily fits in your pocket.  

There are two main types of benefits that a dedicated camera can provide as compared with a smart phone:

1. Convenience
• Battery Life - It goes without saying that most smart phones have limited battery life, and most recent ones no longer have swappable batteries.  If you want to take a lot of photos, then you may run down your battery quickly.  
• Storage space - While this is becoming less of an issue, storage space for photos was a bigger issue back in 2012.  Even now, if you take a lot of high quality photos with large files (especially RAW photos), you'll want a phone with a micro SD Card slot.  
• Water Proof - Many smart phones aren't water proof, and even those that are may not actually work well when wet, as water on the screen tends to register as touches.   I'm not sure I want salt water all over my expensive Xperia either.  You can easily find cheap waterproof cameras.  
• Ruggedness - Smart phones are generally fragile, especially the recent breed with ever growing screens.  If you drop your $1000 phone that has your whole life on it, it makes for a bad week even if it is covered by insurance.  If you drop a much cheaper camera that isn't need to check your bank account or ride the train, it's much more palletable.  You can also buy rugged cameras designed to withstand bumps and drops.  Likewise, you don't want your phone scratched up by sand at the beach, etc.  
• Dedicated buttons - Pretty much all cameras have dedicated buttons for shutter, zoom, etc.  Most smart phones don't.  (To be fair, the Xperia series, for example, does).  
• Cost - You can get a decent point-and-shoot style camera for less than the cost of a high end smart phone, which can also take better photos.  If you might be handing your camera over to children to take photos, etc., then having a cheaper item may be a good idea!
2. Photo quality - Even a low end camera will generally take better photos than a smart phone for four reasons:

• Economics - Think about it this way, a modern smart phone is expected to be able to do GPS, 3D graphics, have a large and high resolution screen, lots of memory, 3D graphics, and a fast processor to run games, speak WiFi, Bluetooth, and 5G networking, be able to do wireless payments, have audio output (ahem, Apple), and more - all in a small and afforadable package.  Then the humble smart phone is asked to be a camera on top of all of that!  This means a phone is not going to have the most advanced GPS chipset or camera just due to cost.  If the total cost of a phone is $1000, then how much of that do you think they can spend on the GPS, image sensor or lense?  
• Size - A large zoom lense or flash simply won't fit on a camera.  
• Physics - Since a smart phone is expected to be small, there is simply a limited amount of space for everything to fit.  The sensors in most phones are very small, and the lenses are also very small.  The size of the sensor and lense affect how much light they can collect and how much thermal noise affects the photos.  Very roughly speaking, larger sensors and lenses equal better photos.  
• Modularity - Some dedicated cameras have interchangible lenses, flash units, microphones, and more.  This means you can select the best lense or microphone for the target scene or task at hand.  You can also have a stockpile of 10 batteries if you need to be shooting all day long.  Phones can't really compete with this.  
• Aside from the above, using the camera on your phone extensively will tend to drain the battery, and many phones will overheat and shut down the camera after a while.  

Okay, so having said everything above, there are two additional points to consider:

1. to be fair, rugged and waterproof cameras are not usually the ones with the highest quality.  You don't want to take a high end Cannon DSLR or Sony Mirrorless camera and dunk it in the ocean.  The best cameras for using at the water park are not the best cameras to use at formal events.  This means that although all the advantages I mentioned above are real, they don't all necessarily happen at the same time with the same camera.  
2. Phones have the advantage of not just compactness, but connectivity.  You can easily snap a photo and immediately upload it to Twitter, Instragram or whatever.  If your purpose is just to show everyone "Key look, I'm in Kyoto!" or "Look at this Sushi I ate for lunch", then honestly the photo quality probably isn't so important - while convenience of sharing is.  

Back in 2012, my main purpose for buying a separate camera was to have one I could use at the beach, water parks, islands, etc.  It had to be wasterproof, and hopefully at least more rugged than my phone.  I also wanted it to have better picture quality than my phone, though that was honestly a lesser concern.  I wanted it to be easy to use and have good connectivity options.  

The TV-200 was a great fit in that it is waterproof and actually has great connectivity options.  In order to get photos off of it, you can:

1. Pull out the Micro SD card and transfer the photos

2. Plug in a Micro USB cable and transfer photos to your computer that way

3. Place the camera on its wireless charging base, which if you plug into a computer will also let you transfer photos!

4. Use WiFi to transfer photos to your computer or phone.  

The WiFi option requires Sony's ImagingEdge app, but means you can shoot a photo and then immediately transfer it to your phone if you like.  It is slightly cumbersome so you wouldn't want to do it for each and every photo one at a time, but if you spent the day at the beach, you could use this feature to transfer all the photos to your phone while you are on the train ride home, etc.  

The camera also has some fun filters, and a decent OLED touch screen (for the size and price point).  It also looks nice, with a front made of glass.  

I took this camera to the beach, to Shikinejima Island, to company outings, around Toyko, and to places like Hong Kong as well.  It worked well, and it still works well!

Shortly after buying it, I actually decided that it was perhaps not as rugged as I would like, and so I bought a super rugged camera from another manufacturer which, funnily enough died before too long.  

10 years has passed since I bought the Cybershot, and being a point-and-shoot, it wasn't a camera with super professioanl image quality to begin with.   In the meantime, my phone's camera has steadily improved to the point where my Xperia probably takes overall better photos than my Cybershot.  

Granted, I would still rather use the Cybershot at the beach or to give to a child to take photos, but the reality is that I have used it only rarely over the past five years.  If I want a rugged waterproof camera to use at the beach or for skiing, then I could spring for a new Lumix or such, but I will only do that if and when the time comes.  Actually, I probably won't - because an action cam is perfectly fine for those types of purposes.

So I decided that for rugged / waterproof type use I have a perfectly good ActionCam, I would gift my CyberShot to a friend.  She can use it at the beach or let her kid use it without worrying too much.  

On the other hand, I also decided that while I don't want to needlessly fill up landfills by replacing perfectly good equipment every year, 10 years is reasonably long enough to use a tech item like a camera.  

This time my priorities were a bit different:

1. I wanted something that could take decent photos and video.  (I don't want to buy a camcorder)

2. I wanted something that could still link with my smart phone and computer via WiFi or cable.

3. I wanted something with interchangible lenses.  

4. I wanted something that could do decent low light photography.

5. I wanted something that was both easy to use, and where the settings such as exposure time, etc., could be adjusted manually.  

6. Obviously, if I am spending the money on it, the photos had better be significantly better than my phone!

7. It should be less than $1,000

8. It should have USB-C charging and connectivity

9. It should be able to work as a web cam (I don't want to buy a separate web cam) - and it should be able to do this without special software.  

Things not on my priority list were:

1. I wasn't looking for waterproof-ness or ruggedness this time around, since I have an actioncam.

2. I didn't need it to be pocketable, as I have my phone for that.  I also didn't want it to be huge, though.  

3. It doesn't need to have GPS or anything like that.  

The above might sound like a long list, but it wasn't that difficult to find.  Honestly, the WiFi was just a "nice to have" feature.  

I was quite happy to find that the Sony VLOGCAM ZV-E10 exists, and meets my desires quite well.  

First of all, it is marketed towards "Vloggers", which I hate.  I hate the made up word, and I hate the idea that it is somehow going to be worth spending hundreds of dollars on a "Vlog".  Just say it's good at making videos for YouTube, sheesh.  

But, the camera is essentially a cheaper version of one of Sony's most popular cameras (the a6100) with most of the features at half the price.  It also has some "extra" features such as the web cam mode, and the silly "Product Review" focusing mode.  The main things it is missing are the flash unit - which you can add if needed, and the physical vieewfinder.  The controls are simplified with less physical buttons when compared to the normal camera, but everything can still be set manually by going through the setup screens if desired.  Optimising for video means that not only is the flash missing, but the microphone has been upgraded as compared to the a6100.  

A small added bonus is that while this is no actioncam, it does have both lense based (optical) and camera based (electronic) image stabilization, meaning it won't shake too much.  

There is a "blur background" button for telling the camera to automatically optimize for bokeh effects.  I  honestly can't for the life of me figure out why so many people are constantly talking about Bokeh effects.  Yes, we've all seen them, the object you want to show is in focus, the other things aren't... cool, it looks pretty sometimes.  But you know what?  It also isn't really naturual, or the most useful photo, or even "better".  The bokeh effect is in fact a result of a limitation that cameras have when there is a narrow field of focus caused by the combination of lense, distance, etc.  It can be used to dramatic effect, but to see everyone using one and only one effect all of the time is just super boring.  "It can blur" should simply not be a selling point for a camera.  On the other hand, if you have a messy room, I suppose it could come in handy when using the camera as a web cam!

While this is not intended to be a full review, after using it for a few weeks, I can say the following:

1. There is a rolling shutter effect, so if you pan the camera very rapidly, bildings may look a bit like jello.

2. The Web Cam function works as advertized, even in Linux without installing any special software.

3. The low light performance is (of course) much better than a smart phone.  

4. The video is really clear and clean looking, even at the lower (60mbps) setting.  

5. I often forget to change the mode, and then the focus might not be great i fthe camera doesn't know what the subject is when in Automatic mode.  

6. The case is plastic, so don't drop it!

7. Transmitting photos to your phone wirelessly works exactly the same as with the Cybershot TX200 using the Imaging Edge app.  Moreover, you can also use a USB-C to USB-C cable to transfer directly to your phone at a much higher speed and without the app.  

8. Sony has software for the PC to allow various remote control, etc., but it is not necessary to use this software for webcam mode or to get photos off of the camera.  

Overall, I have very few complaints, but here goes:

1. Sony's menus are a bit.. disorganized.  Why is "USB Mode" under photo settings, and now network settings, for example?

2. The screen is technically a touch screen, but only for focus, not navigating menus.

3. The lense it comes with is too narrow to be ideal for talking selphie type videos while walking when active stabilization is turned on.  (Not something I plan to do, but if you had such plans, then you might want to buy a wider lense).  

4. I really really wish it could do 60fps 4K video.  This seems to be such a big hurdle for everyone.  My actioncam is the same, 1080p@60fps or 4k@30fps.  Why?  I get that this is a budget camera, but for a video optimized camera in 2022, I really think this should be the first improvement they focus on.  

5. There is probably a setting to minimize this, but when filming under some (cheap LED) lighting there is heavy flickering because of the 50hz strobing.  (In fact, there is some explaination of this issue on Sony's site here - although this issue is not specific to this camera, or even to Sony cameras).  

6. Made in China.  Honestly, had I known this, I would not have bought the camera.  I am not saying the quality suffers due to where it's made, but given the general political climate, human rights abuse, support of the war in Ukrain, etc., I don't want to do anything that will indirectly give that government a cent of my money.  I understand that although many things are made overseas in places like Thailand and elsewhere, Sony can't just move factories every year according to the political climate - but on the other hand, I feel we as consumers have a responsibility to tell manufacturers what we think in the clearest way we can - with our wallets.  

7. No Built-in memory.   Please, please, please just but 64GB.  Even 32GB.  We've all done it, left the house without a memory card in the camera.  

So there you go, the camera looks nice, works nice, takes high quality photos and video with better sound than most cameras, and works as a web cam too!  The included lense might not be the best for the stated purpose of "vlogging", it can't do 4k@60fps, there is no flash, and there is a bit of a rolling shutter issue.  Clearly this camera is cheaper than many others due cost reductions from re-using the slightly outdated sensor, menus, and SoC from existing cameras in their lineup, and adding on some fancy features to appeal to tech geeks rather than camera geeks is mostly software.  

This camera is very solid for the price, and it is cheap for what it is - but it is still a significant investment.  If you plan to take a lot of videos (for YouTube or otherwise), or want to take serious photos, then this may be a wise investment.  If you want to be able to change lenses, then this camera is ovciouly better than the ZV-1 (which is similar but has a buiilt-in lense, point-and-click style).  Your smart phone may well be good enough, but if you want your photos to have that little bit extra quality, then the ZV-1 or ZV-E10 may be just the ticket for you.  To those who think that close to $1000 is too much to spend on a a dedicated camera, I think that's a perfectly valid point of view.  If you want to play with ILR or DSLR cameras on a budget, you can buy one that is a few years online for half the price of this camera.  On the other hand, bear in mind that you could spend twice as much to get roughtly the same quality these cameras have.  

Overall, the VLOGCAM cameras are a pretty happy medium between using your smart phone or a cheap point-and-shoot, and dropping $5k on camera kit.  They'll get you that professional look without completely breaking the bank.

Bear in mind that while most cameras actually intended for professioanl use have features to save to multiple memory cards at once to prevent data loss in case of card failure, the VLOGCAM does not have this feature.  Therefore, you probably wouldn't want to use it for something like event photography for a professional job where even a 0.1% chance of losing all your data is not acceptible.  

By the way, if you want a more compact camera with flash more for taking photos, they are still being made.  For example, the RX100 VII Compact Camera.  It's not cheap, though, and what is starting to disappear from the market are the lower end point and shoot cameras - because it makes less and less sense to produce them as smart phone cameras get better and better.