August 30, 2013
The good: The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 II delivers wonderful photos, speedy performance, and a broad feature set in a beautiful, compact package.
The bad: The camera tends to clip bright highlights over we tend to generally see, and also the slippery body lacks a foothold. Plus, the shortage of a manually triggered macro mode may postpone some fans of close-up photography.
The bottom line: The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 II's combination of appearance, speed, flexibility, and picture quality makes it a good alternative for enthusiasts UN agency will afford the value tag.
I'm a believer.
When Sony swapped the 1-inch normal CMOS of the Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 for a BSI (backside-illuminated) detector within the DSC-RX100 II, I expressed some skepticism. My expertise with BSI sensors has continually been that what they gain in low-light latitude they lose in bright lightweight. however the RX100 II delivers higher picture quality than the RX100 across the whole ISO sensitivity vary, and higher quality than the remainder of its equally priced competition. Add within the new options sort of a hot shoe -- for accessories like Associate in Nursing electronic view finder or electro-acoustic transducer, moreover as a flash -- and Wi-Fi and a tilting digital display, and despite slightly slower performance the RX100 II is that the best sub-$1,000 camera I've seen thus far. (For a discussion of the importance of detector sizes, see the RX100 review.)
Image quality
Overall, JPEG photos look wonderful up through ISO four hundred, smart through ISO 1600, and usable relying upon scene content through ISO 3200. Despite the rated ISO sensitivity vary having been raised to ISO 12800, it's still -- unsurprisingly -- unhealthy at ISO 6400 and ISO 12800. you do not gain abundant by shooting raw except maybe holding alittle additional detail within the midrange sensitivities and also the ability to bring back shadow detail while not an excessive amount of noise. just like the RX100, it clips highlights over i prefer and you'll solely recover a number of the highlight detail.
Video appearance terribly the same as the RX100's, with presumably a hair additional detail resolution. It's bright, saturated, and fairly sharp, with no notable artifacts in bright lightweight, and is comparatively noise-free in dim. The lens is sufficiently quiet whereas zooming. Audio comes through loud and clear and does not sound too compressed or tinny.
Performance
Though it's still quick -- and positively quicker than most of its competitors -- the optical device appears to cut down the RX100 II alittle over the RX100. It takes 2.5 seconds to power up, focus, and shoot, that could be a very little on the high aspect for its category. In smart lightweight, focusing and shooting takes concerning zero.4 second, rising to concerning zero.5 second in dim conditions. It's extremely quick going from shot to shot, running concerning zero.1 second for JPEG and zero.2 for raw, and a mere zero.3 second with flash enabled. It sustained a nonstop JPEG burst for over thirty shots at three frames per second and a decent fifteen raw shots at two.7fps (using a 95MBps South Dakota card). Those speeds ought to do for typical kids-and-pets photography. and through field testing, the camera centered and snapped quickly most of the time.
I did run into one or two of optical device problems with the RX100 II, a number of that ar merely settings-related. In my initial testing I used the center-focus possibility, however it systematically centered at all-time low of the main target space, leading to incorrect focus and unusable check samples. change to the versatile Spot setting, that offers a smaller focus space, fixed that.
Autofocus at the hours of darkness could be a bit additional hard. Sony's cameras habitually expand the main target space to the entire screen in dim lightweight. however turning off the focus-assist illuminator (and there ar lots of times you actually don't need an enormous orange beam lighting up the vicinity) and shooting with the versatile Spot to stop the full-screen AF space left the camera oftentimes unable to focus, even on high-contrast subjects that different cameras had no hassle with, just like the inert gas lights of my check edifice. once shooting video, I had to modify to manual focus -- that is incredibly nice due to the extreme focus-peaking setting.
Design and options
For good or sick, Sony created no changes to the planning of the camera save the addition of the recent shoe and tilting digital display. thus whereas I still assume the camera is well-designed overall and a good size, my biggest downside remains the shortage of a foothold. That combined with the slippery metal body suggests that i am perpetually in concern of dropping it, and compelled to grip it extra-tightly, which may get extremely effortful if you shoot one-handed lots. this point around I additionally found myself accidentally touch buttons -- touch motion-picture show rather than menu, touch power once attempting to plug the camera in to charge. there is currently an adjunct grip possibility, however the camera already prices $750; charging another $15 usd for a chunk of plastic that you just adhere to the camera looks like Sony nickel-and-diming United States.
As with its forerunner, i prefer the management ring, that you'll program to control for one default setting (such as zoom or shutter speed) and to use in conjunction with the Fn button, that you'll program to access up to seven additional settings. The camera will be custom-built quite an bit. additionally to the Fn button, you'll additionally reprogram the operation of the left and right navigation keys on the rear dial moreover because the center button. and there is a Memory Recall possibility on the mode dial thus you'll choose from 3 custom settings slots.
.png){kind=icon}
