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Andrew praises Sony RX100 in his EOSHD review

July 16^th, 20121

by Sebastian WöberJuly 16^th, 2012

Remember our Sony HX9v review where we called the HX9v “almost the ultimate run & gun camera”? Well the RX100 seems to be Sony’s ultimate answer for the action-camera-philes…

That pretty much sums up Andrew’s opinion:
The RX100 is a camera that fits in your jeans pocket. Would I consider intercutting RX100 footage with 1080p from a pro Super 35mm cinema camera? Yes I would.
(…) If you haven’t yet entered the DSLR video world, the RX100 is capable of similar results in video mode and even a similar standard of stills. This is amazing and I cannot believe we’re talking about a pocket camera.

Andrew wrote a pretty long list of Pros for the RX100:

– High end DSLR rivaling results in a shirt pocket camera for first time – easily best image quality per cubic centimeter
– Smashes all immediate opposition (though you do pay a premium over most rivals)
– 1080/60p/50p (though not region switchable)
– 50p conforms perfectly to cinematic 25p
– Faster progressive frame rate very welcome for slow-mo
– Superb colour from the Sony Exmor even in low light
– Very little distortion from the ‘micro Zeiss’
– F1.8 aperture lens at the wide end has exciting uses
– Shallow DOF portraiture (for close-ups)
– Low light wide angle
– Low light macro
– Low light performance for a compact beats all comers especially in raw and handheld twilight mode
– Lots of firsts for a compact
– Peaking
– RGBW screen
– Full manual control in video mode
– Live HDMI out
– Extremely stealthy camera for Henri Cartier Bresson style street shooting
– Silent leaf shutter – no bang of a mirror or curtains drop of a DSLR shutter
– Entirely black apart from Sony and Zeiss logos
– As well as body, zoom lens is very compact and does not extend as far as on the G1X or a DSLR
– Lens retracts almost flush with the body – an extraordinary feat of optical design
– Very usable manual focus ring by compact standards and peaking stays on whilst recording video
– Logical control system an improvement on NEX cameras despite fewer dials (than NEX7) & more cramped body
– NEX picture profiles, make meaningful difference in video mode or when shooting JPEGs
– Raw stills (unlike HX9v, etc.)
– Nicely programmable control layout
– Very effective optical image stabilizer
– Sweep panorama and handheld twilight best implementations of such features from any manufacturer currently
– Very close minimum focus distance at wide end and above average throughout the range
– Hint of Leica X1 styling, rounded edges, minimalist and traditional, black metal
– Made in Japan

And these are his Cons:
Cons

– Front control ring ideally needs sensitivity option adding in firmware update – sometimes needs too many turns
– Feel of fly-by-wire manual focus, though reasonable, is not up there with Olympus Micro Four Thirds lenses
– No punch in focus assist in video mode (you have to use peaking instead)
– No native 24p/25p in 1920×1080 (60p and especially 50p conform well to 24/25p in post – less ideally – switch to the 1080i interlaced wrapper or low bitrate 1440×1080 25p MP4 mode)
– Stills shot whilst recording video are upscaled 4MP frame grabs, not full 20MP quality
– Stabilizer still lets handheld jitter creep into videos especially with objects that are close to the lens
– Poor placement of HDMI port
– Cannot assign peaking to a function button
– Would have liked to have seen more isolation of settings between modes. Too many settings carry over – to video mode, should be more independent (i.e., AF in PSAM, MF in Movie)
– Fastest shutter speed of 1/2000 relative to 1/4000 on most other cameras, and no built in ND filter like G1X
– Slightly wooly bokeh compared to a high end DSLR lens

Talk about this camera in our RX100 forum: LINK

The RX100 is available from Jul. 18th
Get it for $648 at B&H: