If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then cameras should be blushing at all the attention from smartphone brands. At one of the biggest smartphone events of the year, both Xiaomi and RealMe showed off experimental devices that gave smartphones mirrorless-like lenses. But while the Xiaomi Optical Modular System and RealMe Interchangeable Lens Concept were unveiled in 2025, the concept “cameras” took me back a full decade – because camera companies already tried to do the same thing years ago, and failed.
The year is 2014 and, hot on the heels of the company’s very first full-frame mirrorless camera the year before, Sony took another risk and launched the QX1, an APS-C sensor that used E-Mount lenses and attached to a smartphone. The Sony QX1 was, essentially, a camera without the camera. The QX1 offered the sensor and lens mount, but operating the camera was largely done through whatever smartphone it was mounted on.
