Sony's pocket-rocket RX100 arrives down under
Announced a little over a month ago, the Sony RX100 is the company's first large-sensor advanced compact camera.
(Credit: CNET)
Designed for keen amateurs and advanced photographers looking for the best image quality in a compact form factor, the RX100 is not the first to make use of a bright f/1.8 lens or a reasonably large imaging sensor.
For the record, its 1-inch sensor size is smaller than that found on Canon's G1X, but larger than most of the other competitors in this category, like the Fuji X10 or Olympus XZ-1. The camera also has a similar control ring feature around the lens that lets photographers change exposure, zoom and so on, just like the Olympus XZ-1 and Canon S100.
If the idea of a large-sensor compact floats your boat, the RX100 is available now for AU$799 — a fair bit dearer than the US retail price of AU$649. Click through to read our first impression of the camera in full, ahead of our review.
Latest comments (Add your comment)
I'll wait to see your review.
Cheers,
George
Im looking at this or the S100 for a great pocket size camera instead of carrying my DSLR. What would you recommend out of these two models or anything similar ?
Cheers,
George
Hard to say how the RX100 will perform just yet, as obviously it's brand new and I haven't got a review unit at the moment. The S100 is a great little pocket camera, but has had some lens error issues in the past few months with some users reporting problems.
Other cameras to look at include the Olympus XZ-1 and Panasonic LX5, they all do similar things to the RX100 and S100. I've reviewed both fully so have a search around here on the site to check them out. Hope this helps!
Do you think this will effect the sensor sizes in the new compacts coming out, like the S100 and Ricoh GRD?
Also, will the Ricoh GRD 5 come out this year?
Are they released in September?
Nicholas.
Possibly, for compacts more generally. For those two cameras though, I'd say not.
The Canon range will probably stay with the same 1/1.7-inch size sensors in the PowerShot S range (like the S100 etc) because the G1X is classified as the large-sensor compact.
I can't say for sure if the GRD 5 will come out this year. I'd wager that it won't, simply because it was updated at the end of last year, and the GRD line usually takes a little longer (on average 2 years) than the Ricoh CX range to refresh. Again I'd doubt that it would have a larger sensor either given the legacy of the previous cameras.
Thats extremely helpful.
Thank you!
Nicholas.
Also, is it too late to do a video review of the GRD 4? ha ha ha.
Thanks!
Nicholas.