Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2018
.The DxO One camera delivers professional-quality photos as pairs of JPEGs and DNG (‘raw’) files through an exceptionally small, precision-built physical device.
There are significant ergonomic and functional compromises necessary to provide such miniaturization. As apparent from interaction with its Web site and its customer support process, DxO as a French business corporation comes across as relatively new and inexperienced in serving the global market for cameras and photo-processing software. That said, in my conversations with them they demonstrated a sincere attentiveness to customer concerns and recommendations for improving their products and service. Such is apparently their reputation at large, too.
The camera itself gets five stars. Not much need be done at this time to improve this version. DxO, as a business, gets three stars, for the reasons described in the “Negatives,” below. The net rating is four stars.
Overall, the camera serves very well as a compact convenient substitute for a heavy full-size professional camera and its suite of lenses/accessories. It cannot, however, provide the flexibility and control that a larger camera offers. Using a phone or tablet as a viewfinder restores some critical flexibility, but at the cost of a larger package to handle that must be set up in advance. It then simply substitutes as a camera that is much more capable than the one that comes with the phone.
In my view, the combination of powerful camera and phone and instant social media distribution capabilities is a killer product. That is certainly a potentially significant market segment to be pursued. The camera should serve well in that environment. However, my photographs have a severely limited distribution among family and a very few friends. Most can benefit from post-processing before distribution, which the camera cannot do. As a consequence, I have neither set up nor tested the Web-based capabilities of this camera. They appear to be solid, but I am unable to comment on them from experience.
The real advantage of the DxO ONE, in my mind, is that it can always be in your pocket, ready to capture an interesting image that might otherwise be missed.
Once you become skilled at using the DxO ONE (an easy task), it can replace the ‘other’ small camera you carry around when you don’t want to lug your professional gear with you. Used with or without the crutch of a phone/tablet viewfinder, this camera may become a genuine threat to the point-and-shoot compact camera market. But, the DxO ONE requires a more significant financial investment than most simple point-and-shoot cameras. That is, The DxO ONE is not cheap.
-- Personal photography experience
I am not a professional photographer but rather a passionate one. I have been taking pictures for more than 50 years across four continents. My archive contains more than 80,000 images, including those inherited from both sides of the family. The oldest date to late 19th century. Only half of them are digital.
The DxO ONE was purchased to augment or replace my ‘other’ non-professional camera, an adequate Sony point-and-shoot that delivers only JPEGs. I specifically wanted to have ALL my new photographs captured in a ‘raw’ file format, in order to take advantage of the amazing post-processing software that is available now. Using DxO’s PhotoLab (separately reviewed) brought me to this conclusion.
THIS CAMERA MEETS OR EXCEEDS MY TWO MINIMAL REQUIREMENTS: A VERY SMALL HIGH-QUALITY CAMERA WITH RAW FILE OUTPUT.
I intend to use the camera only in its stand-alone automatic mode, without a phone viewfinder. I am very unlikely to use the networking and other social capabilities of the camera. They are not reviewed here.
My spouse’s Apple tablet is used to access the internals of the camera, but it will never be a viewfinder. The tablet interface to the camera’s settings and DxO’s update/firmware environment is good.
-- Positives (powerful capabilities in a tiny package)
The DxO ONE has superior low-light (f1.8 lens) and fast-action (1/20,000 second shutter) capabilities. It delivers both a JPEG file image and a full DNG file (~22Meg). The ISO range is more than adequate. The one-inch sensor hosts 20.2 megapixels and captures image and color nuances exceptionally well. The quality of the parallel JPEG output is professionally acceptable as a reference picture. The DNG file post-processes without complications or apparent limitations. The two video modes (normal, slow motion) deliver excellent results. Moreover, the tiny size of the camera promotes non-distractive recording.
The lens is prime (no zoom). However, it does have ‘normal’ and slight ‘telephoto’ settings, which are not appreciably different in size of view. Both write the same size DNG file, so I assume the ‘telephoto’ is an optical and not a digital zoom that is merely a center crop of the normal full view.
Selecting the optional photograph views and the single video mode is reasonably intuitive directly on the camera.
-- Compromises (necessary to deliver extreme miniaturization)
The viewfinder on the camera is about one square centimeter (half-inch on a side). The resolution is very low. The image in it looks like a pile of big moving black-and-white dots. The photographer must more or less guess what will actually be in the final image. As a result, he/she must back off from the subject to include enough view in the captured image to compensate for pointing errors. The result is ultimately poorly composed original pictures and fewer useful pixels available to post-process. Ironically, capturing a perfectly composed original picture is an old, counterproductive habit. Such an image cannot take full advantage of modern post-processing software. The photographer should always include a wide buffer around the subject, so that cropping and distortion adjustments do not eat into the sweet spot. Older photographers like me, whose primary experience has been with film, find this ‘perfect composition’ habit very hard to break. Perhaps, using the limited viewfinder of the DxO ONE will help modernize me!
True, using a phone or tablet for a viewfinder eliminates these composition limitations. However, you need to stop doing whatever you are doing in order to connect the phone as an alternate viewfinder. Unless the subject is static and you have the time to do so (or you work with the phone continuously attached), you may miss unexpected opportunities for exceptional pictures. Also, while serving as a viewfinder, your phone is no longer really a phone, so you might miss a call or text. I don’t know for sure if this is a problem, because I haven’t much experience with a phone as the viewfinder.
There are network connections that can be set up between Apple devices and the camera, so that the camera can be operated remotely. I verified that to be the case, but did not extensively test it. I considered setting up the camera on a small tripod on my compost pile in order to capture close-up pictures of cute chipmunks. I may still try that. However, running the network system will undoubtedly add a further load onto the limited battery capacity of the camera.
The on-camera viewfinder is also the screen for selecting the mode of operation (normal/tele or the current video mode). However, to change the video mode (normal or slow), you must do so while the camera is attached to a phone or tablet.
The viewfinder screen’s small size is a drawback, but one dictated by the extreme miniaturization of the camera. I personally am pleased that the miniaturization of the camera took priority over comfortable viewfinder capabilities. These viewfinder limitations are unlikely to be a serious issue for people with good eyesight.
All changes to user-controlled settings must be performed while the camera is connected to a phone/tablet. These are also very limited in scope, as discussed in the ‘Negatives’ section, immediately below.
-- Negatives (that DXO might be able to do something about)
The camera:
- Runs very warm, almost hot, while taking a video.
- Battery depletes quickly; I haven’t looked into spare batteries or an extra battery attachment (which is an added cost). The battery life will probably be adequate for my normal usage.
- The camera body gets very warm while charging. However, it seems to charge reasonably quickly.
- The camera cannot be directly mounted to a tripod; a $20 attachment is required. It’s also not clear if a spare battery pack can be simultaneously mounted with the tripod attachment. Unless the battery pack has a tripod socket, situations in which the camera might be used might be restricted.
Limited user-controlled settings:
- The camera’s metadata content settings cannot be changed. Most irritating is that all photos are time-stamped with a European time zone. If you want to archive the correct date/time of a photograph, you must manually(!!) change the time zone in each photograph’s metadata file during post-processing.
- Filename and numbering processes cannot be changed. Once 9999 photographs have been taken, the filename numbering will revert (I assume) to 0000. You cannot set up a custom filename sequence unique to the situation (like for a Canadian photo shoot, or a vacation in Hawaii).
Apple compatibility, only:
- At this time, only Apple products may be connected to the camera as viewfinders or for limited changing of user-controlled settings. I understand that an Android connector and system is in the works. It is not clear at this time if a camera with an Apple connector/system will work on an android device. And vice versa.
- If you connect the camera to a Microsoft Windows operating system, you can only access and upload the photo files on the camera. There is no way to do the other processes that are available to Apple devices, like changing user-controlled settings. You cannot operate the camera at all. The same capabilities set up for Apple/Android environments should also be available for Windows. The camera does charge while it is connected to a Windows computer.
DxO business issues:
- The last time I was last in communication with DxO, about a month ago, their customer support procedures had some fundamental issues. There was no way to directly contact a Customer Support person. All requests were routed through email. Apparently those emails went to directly to France, where DxO is located. Response time was routinely a few days and also via email. The same support procedure is used for their software products. I assume that as DxO matures (gains experience) as a business, it will offer a more inviting and responsive mechanism for interacting with its customers. The email conversations were cordial and professional. The representative did assure me that the question of user changes to settings (like filename and time-stamp) would be passed to developers for a modification in the future. The DxO ONE cannot ‘grow up’ to be a serious professional camera until at least these two issues are resolved.
- Helpful information, tutorials and user manuals are somewhat limited on the Web site. Almost no instructions come with the camera. You are essentially required to experience the camera and its peripheral support systems in order to understand how it works. Or doesn’t work.
- Navigation on the DxO Web site is not intuitive.
-- Summary
The DxO ONE is a unique camera. It is ruggedly constructed, fairly easy to use, and delivers superb photographs in JPEG and DNG formats. Videos are also of high quality.
It appears that the camera was designed to offer a professional pocket alternative to the camera on an Apple phone. As a stand-alone camera it serves very well as a serious photographer’s ‘other’ camera. In that mode, I have found the DxO ONE very suitable. However, some fundamental metadata settings are locked at the factory. Serious photographers require these to be user-controlled. Period.
The usual disclaimer follows: Your results may vary, depending how you intend to use the camera.
