Last updated on December 20th, 2020
The Sony RX100 VII could be a high-end compact designed for travel, action, video, and vlogging. The successor to the RX100 VI, it shares the same 24-200mm f 2.8-4.5 zoom as well as essentially the same body with a touch-screen.
Sony RX100 VII Review in 2021
The RX100 VII from Sony is a perfect photographic camera for serious photographers. Featuring a 1.0-type stacked 20.1MP Exmor RS CMOS sensor, a 24-200mm f/2.8-4.5 Zeiss Vario-Tessar fixed lens, and a single burst shooting drive mode that allows users to capture up to 90 sequential images per second.
Introduction of the Sony RX100 VII
The RX100 VII main profit over its predecessors is that it is a doubtless glorious, if terribly big-ticket, very little vlogging camera. The RX100 series already had the flip-up screen and 4K video quality, but now this model adds a microphone input and Movie Eye AF.
If you’re mainly a stills shooter, the benefits are likely to be marginal, despite the autofocus and burst shooting boosts this version brings. This means it’ll be worth looking out for price reductions on the RX100 VI or if your priority is low light performance over zoom reach, the even older RX100 V or IV. While it seems likely that the RX100 VII will again be the best compact camera you can buy, there is better value to be found elsewhere.
Key Specifications
- Review Price: $1298
- 24-200mm f/2.8-4.5 Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens
- 4K HDR movie recording with real-time Eye AF
- New microphone input
- 20fps blackout-free continuous shooting with AF/AE tracking
- One-inch, 20.1MP Exmor CMOS sensor
- Touchscreen LCD that tilts 180-degrees up, 90-degrees down
Compact cameras got to well surmount smartphones to justify their existence, and that’s becoming an increasingly difficult thing to do. But there area unit 2 living breeds that also supply one thing distinctive – rugged models just like the mountain peak TG-6, and big sensor innovators like the Sony RX100 VII. READ MORE ABOUT Canon G7X Mark III Review.
The RX100 series has typically felt like Sony’s ‘concept’ compact vary, a money-no-object demonstration of what it’s currently possible to cram into a pocket, fixed lens camera. This is, as we tend to found within the Sony RX100 VI, mostly a blessing – but sometimes a usability curse, too.
From my brief time with its successor, this theme seems to have continued with the RX100 VII. The big enhancements area unit principally within the video department, with a new microphone jack a big boon for vloggers, and real-time Eye AF are now available in movie mode. Autofocus and burst shooting have conjointly been given another injection of speed.
But is there still an area for a one-inch device compact in between smartphones and tiny, APS-C compacts just like the Fujifilm XF10 and Ricoh GR III.
Design and Features The RX100 VII
I won’t pay an excessive amount of time on the RX100 VII’s style, as it’s the image of its forerunner. If you want to read about its impressive miniaturization and foibles. Check out our Sony RX100 VI review.
But here’s the short version: the RX100 VII packs an implausible quantity into its little frame, as well as a pop-up optical device, constitutional flash, and tilting screen (which folds up one hundred eighty degrees, and down 90 degrees). There’s conjointly a similar 24-200mm f/2.8-4.5 lens as its predecessor, which gives you the equivalent of 8.3x optical zoom.
This lens comes with an analogous caveat to the RX100 VI. It has glorious optics and produces sharp pictures throughout its zoom vary, however, if you frequently shoot in low lightweight or shallow depth of field, you will like to sacrifice the reach for the brighter aperture of the lens on the RX100 V, IV, or III.
If you’ve been considering one amongst the RX100 VII’s main rivals, Canon’s new G5X Mark III, then here’s however they compare in size. Sony’s one-inch compact actually feels additional premium within the hand, as you’d expect from a camera that prices $299 additional, however, the Canon’s larger size provides it an area for a bigger grip, which may be a boon for handling.
Something Sony has right the RX100 VII is that the viewfinder mechanism – this pops up and is prepared to travel with only 1 press of the switch, unlike the G5X Mark III EVF, that you wish to pop, then pull out towards you. It sounds trivial, but it can be the difference between getting a shot in bright conditions and missing it.
Unfortunately, the Sony RX100 VII still lacks weather-proofing, so if you’re likely to be shooting in a downpour it’ll be wise to invest in a case.
Image Quality and Performance
It’s a touch timely to form any conclusive statements concerning RX100 VII image quality, however, the first signs square measure that it’s the same old mixture of detail and sharpness at all, however, the foremost extreme focal lengths that we have a tendency to saw from its forerunner.
At its widest, the RX100 VII is sharp within the center with some slight softness within the corners, that are some things you’ll notice at the photo finish at its most aperture. Still, noise is well controlled up to around ISO 1600, and therefore the RX100 VII’s photograph quality is superb within the middle of its zoom vary.
Fast burst shooting and therefore the comparatively giant sensing element offer you an opportunity of capturing difficult action shots too. You can get some beautiful bokeh once shooting comparatively wide open from a moderate distance too – there are not any worries concerning your smartphone creating mistakes with its virtual bokeh here.
Why You Buy a Sony RX100 VII?
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