A sharp camera on your pocket
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 is a
point-and-shoot camera that many photographers dream. Its image sensor has the
same size as the sensor on Nikon J1 without mirror and 3.6x zoom lens opens to
f/1.8 at wide angle - and it can be put into your back pocket. Excellent image
quality RX100 20MP justifies its price, even if the camera does not have GPS or
Wi-Fi, it won our Editor's Choice award for high-end compact cameras.
Sony
Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100
Design and features
Having the size of 2.4 x 4 x 1.4 inches
(HWD) and the weight of 8.5 ounces, RX100 is only bigger than the Canon
PowerShot S100 a little. This is impressive when considering the S100's image
sensor, which only has the size of 1/1.7 inches - 1 inch sensor of RX100 has
2.5 times bigger surface area. Though fast lens and big sensor can create an
exciting blur behind the subject, you should not expect RX100 to produce images
as good as the D-SLR; they are better than what you would expect from a
point-and-shoot camera, but you still sacrifice some image quality for
mobility.
3.6x zoom lens (due to its compact size) covers
28-100mm field of view (equivalent to 35mm). It opens to f/1.8 at the widest,
narrowing to f/3.2 at 50mm range, and f/4.9 at extreme levels. One of the
weaknesses of RX100 is the lack of fish-eye. It has no additional accessory, as
well as no hot shoe. Thing that you use to adjust the frame and playback the
image is the rear LCD screen. With 3 inch size, it has a 1,229 k dot
resolution, about 1/3 more than the competitive 921000 thousand dots screens.
Sony has added white pixel in addition to red, green and blue, all created an
excellent LCD even when viewed in bright sunlight.
6x
zoom lens covers 28-100mm field of view.
The controllers will satisfy the
requirements of photographers but they are not perfect. Except for the shutter
button, zoom rocker, Mode dial, Menu, Playback, On/Off, Display, EV
Compensation and Help, the main RX100 physical control can be customized. Front
and rear wheel control prove to be difficult when you are adjusting the ISO -
you need to move the wheel to the left to increase the sensitivity and to the
right to reduce it, in contrast to the normal behavior of the wheels - but on
the other hand, the control system is well-designed.
Camera flash is hidden in the camera body
when it is not in use, flash turns on with a single click of the shutter button
once it has been activated. It is located on a neck with swivel, so you can
tilt it to the back with the left forefinger and bounce the light from ceiling.
It is not strong enough to act in this capacity in a dancing room, for example,
but with the photos around the house, using this method will help to soften the
light. Of course, it also has built-in Flash Compensation feature, so you can
reduce the capacity to provide a little fill if you do not use it as a bounce
flash.
Performance and conclusion
RX100 is a bit slow on startup, but
otherwise it is a monster of speed - there is almost no shooting delay thanks
to quick and accurate autofocus. When shooting JPEGs in Speed Priority mode, it
can take a series of 10 shots in 1 second, though if you shoot in RAW mode, the
camera takes 2 seconds for the same action.
As measured, RX100 lens help it provide
extremely sharp image throughout the entire zoom range with picture distortion
of 0.2%. Noise is not the problem - it remains at the level below 1.5% to the
camera's highest ISO 6400. JPEG images look great to ISO 800, very good in
1600, and excellent in 3200; when comparing RAW and JPEG files to each other,
there is a little evidence of noise reduction in JPEG pictures at the highest
ISO settings.
Video is recorded in AVCHD format at a
resolution of 1080p60 or 1080i60. The lens zooms in and zooms out quietly while
recording, and maintaining sharp focus. (However, there is a noticeable loss of
quality when you use digital zoom).
Micro USB port is also the battery charging
mechanism, and a micro-HDMI port to connect to HDTV. In addition to SD, SDHC,
and SDXC, Sony also supports its proprietary format.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 does not have
the biggest sensor in point-and-shot cameras, but it focuses quickly,
consistently sharp, and can capture images with shallow depth of field. You
will not find better images from a camera that fits in your pocket.
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Info
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Price: $649.99 for direct purchase
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Ratings: 4.5/5
Advantages
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Big image sensor
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Excellent image quality, even at high ISO
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Fast lens
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The controls can be customized.
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Big and sharp LCD screen.
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Almost no delay shooting
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RAW shooting support
Disadvantages
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It is as expensive as some D-SLR cameras.
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No viewfinder option, GPS or Wi-Fi. Limited
zoom range
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Only charge the battery in the camera |
