If you pay close attention to the Internet rumor mill, you've likely seen leaked photos of Sony's Cyber-shot QX10 and QX100 Lens-style cameras. The cylindrical devices are designed to work in conjunction with your iOS or Android cell phone or tablet in order to improve the image quality of your tweets, Instagrams, and Facebook updates. Sony made them official Wednesday at the IFA conference in Berlin, but we had some hands-on time before the big reveal.

Sony is officially billing this product class as lens-style cameras. That's a bit awkward to say, but it's an apt description. The QX10 and QX100 are full-featured cameras that can work without pairing with a phone; but neither has a live-view LCD, so you'll be taking pictures blind. To get the most out of these, you'll want to connect them to your phone via Wi-Fi. NFC is also supported for pairing devices that have it, but iPhone users and others with non-NFC smartphones will still be able to connect via traditional Wi-Fi.

When connected, each lens module is controlled via the Sony PlayMobile Memories app. A live view feed is transmitted via Wi-Fi to this app, and you can use it to fire the shutter and adjust settings. There's also a shutter release and a zoom rocker on the lens barrel, so you have the option of firing a photo using that instead of the phone. The operating distance is about 15 feet, though that can vary a bit depending on your surroundings. But if you're in a situation where you want to hold the lens in one hand and your phone in another in order to get a more interesting angle, it gets the job done.

Neither lens-style camera features a flash; you'll need to use the included micro USB cable to charge the battery internally. If you want an external battery charger, you'll have to buy one separately.

There's a simple clip mechanism to connect the lens module to your phone. It's on a spring, so it can adjust to fit most phones on the market. The clip can accommodate a phone that ranges from 2.1 to 2.9 inches in width, and its depth is about a half-inch. The clip is removable, it mounts via a simple bayonet mechanism. This opens up the possibility for custom cases that skip the clip and allow direct mounting. Sony is going to market one of these for the Xperia Z phone, and you can be sure that third-party case manufacturers will bring similar ones to market if these products sell well.

PlayMemories Mobile automatically transfers images to your phone at the resolution of your choice—you can downsize to 0.3 megapixel, 2 megapixels, or bring photos over at full resolution. There's a microSD card slot available, so images and videos are saved to that as well as transferred to your phone. There is a slight lag between taking a photo using PlayMemories and the shutter firing, but this is eliminated by using the shutter button on the lens module itself.

Sony is bringing two models of its lens-style camera to market at this time. The QX10 is aimed at more casual shooters. It features an 18-megapixel, 1/2.3-inch image sensor, the same size found in most point-and-shoots, and a 10x zoom lens that covers a 25-250mm (35mm equivalent) field of view. Its aperture range is f/3.3-5.9, which is pretty typical for a compact camera. It will be available in white or black, and is priced at $249.99.

Serious shooters will be drawn to the QX100. It uses the same 20-megapixel, 1-inch BSI CMOS sensor and Carl Zeiss 28-100mm f/1.8-4.9-equivalent lens as our Editors' Choice for high-end compact cameras, the RX100 II. In addition to the form factor, there are a few differences; the RX100 can capture Raw images and AVCHD video, and the QX100 is limited to JPG photos and MP4 video. It's priced at $499.99, a full $250 less than the RX100 II.

Both lens-style cameras will ship in mid-September.

Sony also made a few camcorder announcements at IFA. There's a new rugged Action Cam, the AS30V. It is similar to the original AS15V Action Cam in design. The new model features a 16-megapixel Exmor image sensor that can record 1080p video with optical stabilization. The lens covers a 170-degree wide-angle field of view, and still image capture has been added at 12-megpaixel resolution. Wi-Fi with NFC is built in, as is GPS. You can tether multiple cameras together via Wi-Fi in order to capture synced footage from multiple angles, and the software now lets you rotate the video when editing footage. A waterproof housing is included; it's rated to 16.4 feet. That's not as deep as the previous Action Cam, but the new housing is smaller, allows access to the setting button, and has port openings for the microphone for better sound. A number of accessories will be available, including the $150 Shuriken wristwatch-style remote control and additional mounts. It's priced at $299.99; the older AS15V will remain in production, but will now sell for only $199.99.

Aspiring rock stars will take interest in a new product, the HDR-MV1 Music Video Recorder. The 1080p camcorder has a 120-degree, wide-angle lens by Carl Zeiss, but what really matters is its audio system. Dual microphones capture 48-bit/16kHz audio in uncompressed linear PCM MP4 format. It also supports Wi-Fi and NFC; it's set to sell for $299.99 in December.

Rounding out the IFA announcements is a new 4K camcorder, aimed at indie filmmakers on a budget and wedding videographers. The FDR-AX1 is a single-chip camera that records footage at a staggering 3,840-by-2,160 resolution. It supports frame rates as high as 60p, but can also shoot in 30p and 24p. It's got a 20x zoom lens (29.5-590mm equivalent) that opens all the way up to f/1.8 at the wide-angle. A slew of other pro features, including dual XLR audio inputs, an internal neutral density filter, and single-cable 4K 1080p60 HDMI output to Sony televisions are supported.

You'll need to use XQD memory to record in 4K; there are two slots for the high-end memory format. There's also an SD slot, but that won't do anything until Sony issues a planned firmware update that adds 1080p AVCHD recording to the camera. You'll be able to record 1080p footage to XQD out of the box, but it will be in the more advanced XAVC S compression format. You'll be able to squeeze about 168 minutes of 1080p footage onto a 64GB XQD card using this format, but switching to 4K 60p at the camera's highest bitrate will limit you to about 56 minutes of video on the same card. The AX1 will be available in mid-October. You'll have to be serious about your video work to consider it; the camera is priced at $4,499.99. Early adopters will received a 32GB card and a copy of Sony's Vegas Pro editing software with the camera, but that deal only lasts through March 14, 2014.

PCMag will be at IFA all this week, so stay tuned for all the details.

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