Rollei’s New Compact Camera

credits: Rollei

Rollei, the once-legendary camera brand now mostly known for tripods, just announced something unexpected: a compact digital camera called the Powerflex X8 Dual Lens 64 MP. A camera that has two lenses, one on the front with 8x optical zoom and another selfie lens awkwardly placed on the back, right where you’d expect an electronic viewfinder. Rollei claims it can shoot 64-megapixel photos with its small 1/2.8-inch sensor, but that’s likely thanks to some digital upscaling. In real-world use, it will probably be outperformed by most modern smartphones.

The zoom lens covers a range equivalent to 38-310mm with a variable f/1.8 to f/2.6 aperture, decent telephoto reach though not quite wide enough at the short end. That’s one area where it might offer something most phones can’t. The selfie lens has its own tiny 1/3.06-inch sensor and a wide-angle field of view, but Rollei hasn’t provided details about its resolution. The camera can also record 5K video at 25p and 4K at 30p, with Full HD maxing out at 60p. It’s built in the style of a small SLR, with a couple of dials on top (though oddly, Rollei hasn’t shown what they do).

At €299 (around $350), it’s kind of a hard sell, especially since many people suspect it’s a rebranded version of one of the many Amazon/Aliexpress-tier “4K cameras” floating around.

You can see full details on Rollei’s website here