Sony’s Xperia smartphones are known for their camera quality. They feature incredible lenses paired with advanced in-camera controls, allowing users to capture the best photos possible.
So when the company’s official handle posted some before-and-after photos captured with its AI camera assistant, everyone was shocked, to say the least. Not only did the company foray into AI slop, but the images it shared were abysmal.
Now, Sony has come out in defense of its AI Camera Assistant, and I am not convinced.
So what is the AI Camera Assistant doing?
In response to the backlash, Sony clarified that the AI Camera Assistant does not edit photos after you take them. Instead, it analyzes the scene, brightness, subject, distance, and background before you shoot, then suggests four different settings for you to choose from. You can pick your favorite, and it will apply those settings to the captured photos. It can also suggest the best framing for the photo, which is a nice feature.
All that sounds reasonable on paper. The problem is that the samples Sony shared to promote this feature told a very different story. We already saw the disastrous images Sony shared last time. Even in the new post, the company shared to clarify its AI camera feature, the options provided by AI don’t look much better than the original.
Did Sony forget its own camera heritage?
This is what stings the most. People who buy Sony Xperia smartphones do so because they love Sony’s color science and the manual control the phone offers. If they wanted heavily processed images, they would pick Apple, Google, or Samsung, brands that offer far more features than Sony does anyway.
The Xperia has always been the camera purist’s phone. That was its identity. By leaning into AI-assisted photography that produces subpar results, it feels as if Sony is abandoning that identity.
To be fair, the Xperia 1 VIII’s cameras are genuinely better than previous generations and are capable of capturing incredible images. The hardware is not the problem. The problem is that Sony has shifted its messaging from what it does best, celebrating raw camera capability, to chasing the AI hype train. That does not do the phone any favors.