Don’t fall for cheap cameras like Rollei’s strange new twin-lens compact – here are 3 budget bargains I’d buy instead
- Rollei Powerflex X8 compact camera unveiled with dual lenses
- One lens is an 8x optical zoom, the other a fixed selfie lens
- It costs €299, which converts to about $350 / £225 / AU$535
The Rollei Powerflex X8 was unveiled last week, but the headline specs and branding of this cheap dual-lens compact aren’t quite what they seem.
As is the case with other, non-branded, cheap cameras that you can pick up from the likes of Amazon, there’s a catch with the Powerflex X8’s impressive-sounding 64MP stills and 5K video.
Top-resolution JPEG-only stills are achieved through interpolation – this isn’t a true 64MP camera, but an 8MP one with a small 1/2.8-inch sensor. 5K video is also interpolated from 4K / 30p video.
I’m not surprised that the camera is touted as a 64MP / 5K one, because the authentic 8MP / 4K specs sound way less impressive.
Without getting too technical about it, the bottom line is that the huge leap in resolution is a digital enlargement from an 8MP sensor, so don’t expect the same quality as from a true high-resolution camera.
Unlike non-branded cameras available online with similar sounding specs, the Powerflex X8 has the legendary Rollei name attached to it. However, this isn’t a camera from the Rollei of yesteryear, but a standard cheap compact camera, just with the licensing of the Rollei name applied to it, much as it was to the altogether different
