I started looking for alternatives to standalone cameras and Smartphones for exactly that reason.
Especially when spending time with my kids I wanted to stop disrupting a situation by aiming a camera or keep holding a smartphone (also, I don't want my toddler to learn that a Smartphone is always part of every experience).
So I started looking for a small compact camera I can just pull out, roughly aim at a scene and take plenty of pictures for later, with minimal disruption of the moment. Everything except battery and a good sensor/lens is optional.
GoPro's were my first thought, but I didn't like the fishlens fixed-focus of the pictures. Sony has a compact cam-only device called the RX0, but it's also fixed-focus and I wasn't that sure how well it would fit my needs.
After some searching I found an AWESOME gem of a little camera: The DxO One, a camera from back in 2016 from DxO, a company specialized in benchmarking cameras.
At some point a decade ago, DxO decided that they should make a camera, and went out to build a really high-end iOS-attachable camera (1" sensor of Sony RX100, Auto-Focus, mechanical Iris (!), f/1.8 lens, microSD, Wi-Fi,...) [0].
Initial price-point of the DxO-One was ~700 USD, the device flopped, was dropped in price and later discontinued. The camera is still great, and can still be bought NEW for ~110USD now.
Size is fantastic, Pictures are great, I can only recommend it if someone just wants to capture a moment like it is without people getting pulled out of it.
The device is also somewhat hackable, as it's based on the Ambarella platform (RTOS and Linux).
I started collecting infos about it to preserve it [1], there's still alot of potential in this little gem.
I started looking for alternatives to standalone cameras and Smartphones for exactly that reason.
Especially when spending time with my kids I wanted to stop disrupting a situation by aiming a camera or keep holding a smartphone (also, I don't want my toddler to learn that a Smartphone is always part of every experience).
So I started looking for a small compact camera I can just pull out, roughly aim at a scene and take plenty of pictures for later, with minimal disruption of the moment. Everything except battery and a good sensor/lens is optional.
GoPro's were my first thought, but I didn't like the fishlens fixed-focus of the pictures. Sony has a compact cam-only device called the RX0, but it's also fixed-focus and I wasn't that sure how well it would fit my needs.
After some searching I found an AWESOME gem of a little camera: The DxO One, a camera from back in 2016 from DxO, a company specialized in benchmarking cameras.
At some point a decade ago, DxO decided that they should make a camera, and went out to build a really high-end iOS-attachable camera (1" sensor of Sony RX100, Auto-Focus, mechanical Iris (!), f/1.8 lens, microSD, Wi-Fi,...) [0].
Initial price-point of the DxO-One was ~700 USD, the device flopped, was dropped in price and later discontinued. The camera is still great, and can still be bought NEW for ~110USD now.
Size is fantastic, Pictures are great, I can only recommend it if someone just wants to capture a moment like it is without people getting pulled out of it.
The device is also somewhat hackable, as it's based on the Ambarella platform (RTOS and Linux).
I started collecting infos about it to preserve it [1], there's still alot of potential in this little gem.
[0]: https://github.com/rickdeck/DxO-One/wiki/1.-Hardware
[1]: https://github.com/rickdeck/DxO-One/wiki