Sony RX100 IV
PROS
·
Pocketable size
·
Excellent shooting
speed
·
Versatile video
·
Great image quality at lower ISOs
|
CONS
·
Intimidating price
|
KEY
FEATURES
· 960fps high-speed video · Manufacturer: Sony
· 20-megapixel 1in sensor · Review Price: £849.00
· 24-70mm (equivalent) zoom
|
WHAT IS THE SONY RX100 IV?
The Sony RX100 IV is the fourth instalment in what has
become our favourite compact camera series. Since its beginnings in 2012, it
has given us pocket-friendly models that offer image quality good enough to
satisfy high-end DSLR-wielders on those days when taking out a large camera
just isn’t on the cards.
This means the RX100 IV is likely to work perfectly as
an all-purpose camera for about 90 per cent of people. If not more.
With improvements since the Sony RX100 III mainly based around shooting speed, video and EVF
quality, though, we think some will be just as happy with that cheaper, older model.
However, we say that only because the £849 asking price may be too high for
some of you to stomach. If you forget about the price for a minute, though,
you'll discover that there's plenty to love about the RX100 IV – and nothing to
hate.
SONY RX100 IV – DESIGN AND HANDLING
It’s testament to
the quality of the Sony RX100-series cameras that "outdated" models
from a couple of years ago are still very easy to get hold of, new, today. The
success has given Sony enough confidence to keep the RX100 IV looking and
feeling pretty much as it did in 2012.
The Sony RX100 IV
is a small, magnesium-alloy camera you can easily fit into a trouser pocket.
This is at the root of its appeal. It’s a good-looking camera, too, and feels
strong enough to withstand a number of years of pretty careless treatment.
What has been
traded-away for this size is an obvious handgrip. Where some small cameras try
to use an ergonomic moulding to give your fingers something to hold onto, on
the Sony RX100 IV you'll find just smooth, grip-less metal. Great as it feels,
it means we’d advise using a wrist-strap to ensure you don't end up flinging
the Sony RX100 IV onto some gravel in the heat of the moment. It’s
not cheap, after all.
However, you do get some extra grip in the form of a
rubberised thumb hold on the back of the camera, providing that extra bit of
stability. But the Sony RX100 IV is best handled with extra care.
Tiny stature hasn’t meant Sony has had to leave out
all manual controls, though. There’s one manual control dial on the back, and a
wheel around the lens. These are the control options we saw in the RX100 III,
but this time there’s an embossed diamond texture around the lens ring for
extra grip.
This combo gives you the scope for full-on
manual control, although bear in mind that the RX100 IV’s rear controls are
pretty small and fiddly. However, this is to be expected in a camera this
small, and is true of the RX100 III as well.
SONY RX100 IV – SCREEN AND EVF
The amount of tech Sony has packed into
the pocket-sized RX100 IV is impressive. As well as a tilt screen, there's a
fairly high-speed EVF – one offering far greater resolution than last year’s
model.
The Sony RX100 IV has a 2.46m-dot EVF that
pops out of the top-plate; it lives next to the pop-up flash. This is the
default resolution these days for a higher-end EVF, and it packs in far more
pixels than the 1.44m-dot EVF used in the RX100 III.
Sure enough, this new version is sharper and clearer.
It also makes stabilising the camera against your face easier, letting you use
longer exposure times handheld. Like last year, the EVF uses a pop-up and
pull-out mechanism to fire-up the EVF. Once pulled out of the top plate, you
need to pull the lens out a bit to get it working. It demands some hands-on
action, but this is how it has been squeezed into a body quite this small.
There’s less progress in the screen. It’s a perfectly
fine 3in 1.23m-dot display with a tilt mechanism – but it's still missing a
touch layer. You need to use the D-pad on the rear to pick a focus point.
SONY RX100
IV – LENS
As feature-packed
as the camrea is, there are only so many miracles Sony can pull off. The Sony
RX100 IV has a fairly modest zoom range, and you should check out the Sony RX10 II if your requirements exceed the range offered here.
It’s a
24-70mm equivalent lens, which is perfect range for landscape shots, street
photography and portraits. Going on safari? You really need greater range, but
it offers decent flexibility for most situations regardless.
This is also
a very "bright" lens, with impressive maximum aperture just like the
RX100 III. At 24mm you get max aperture of f/1.8, reducing to f/2.8 further
down the zoom. It’s an high-end lens, and you can even choose the speed at
which the zoom operates. This
is handy for video.
SONY RX100 IV – FEATURES
The Sony
RX100 IV offers plenty of features, some you might not expect given its
stature. On the more predictable side, it has Wi-Fi and NFC, letting you hook
up the camera to a phone for image transfer and remote shutter control.
There’s a
3-stop ND filter too, enabling you to cut down the amount of light that travels
through to the sensor. This allows for longer exposure times during daylight,
and use of the full capabilities of the lens wherever you’re shooting. The one
weak point is battery life, which at 280 shots per charge isn’t too hot.
However, this is something that affects all cameras in this class.
Charging
the Sony RX100 IV is simple. It has a micro-USB slot, enabling you to use your
phone charger – or even a portable battery used to top-up your phone or tablet.
We’ve not even touched on the parts
specific to the Sony RX100 IV, though. These are all about supreme
speed.
SONY RX100 IV –
PERFORMANCE AND AF
The Sony RX100 IV is a terrifically fast camera, whose
stacked CMOS sensor design and new processor/DRAM combo make it one of the
fastest cameras around for handling lots of image data. On the traditional end
of shooting speed, this gets you a burst mode capable of reaching 16fps.
In comparison, the Sony RX100 III manages an
until-now-impressive 10fps, and the Canon G7 X 6.5fps. The Sony RX100 IV's incredible speed makes it
one of the most capable ultra-pocketable action cameras out there. It’ll shoot
44 top-quality JPEG shots at 16fps before the buffer runs out, or 29 RAW files
at 9fps.
It’s fast to focus too, much as it relies on a
contrast-detection AF system, rather than a more advanced hybrid one that also
includes phase-detection points. Sony’s claim for the system is that it focuses
in 0.09 seconds.
SONY RX100 IV – IMAGE QUALITY
The Sony RX100 IV has a 1in 20-megapixel
sensor, which is the same size featured in all the other RX100 models. However,
its design has changed. Where the original RX100 had an FSI sensor, and the
following two models BSI sensors, this one has a stacked CMOS design that moves
the sensor’s circuitry behind the sensor’s area rather than at its edges.
While it doesn’t result in a huge change
in image quality from the Sony RX100 III, it does help enable the new model’s
superior shooting speed.
There’s impressive flexibility too. As well as having
the integrated ND filter, there’s an electronic shutter that takes over when
you shoot faster than 1/2000 of a second with the Sony RX100 IV, going all the
way up to 1/32000. If you need to shoot at f/1.8 on an intensely sunny day, for
example, then here you have a choice between the electronic shutter or ND
filter. The RX100 III doesn’t have an electronic shutter to lean on.
Actual image quality for stills is fairly comparable
between the two generations, though. At ISO 100, we pulled an impressive 12.4EV
out of the Sony RX100 IV in our labs tests, along with 3000l/ph detail. That’s
ever so slightly better than what we achieved with the RX100 III, suggesting
the benefits of the new sensor extend beyond allowing for faster data transfer.
It’s also – as with every RX100 – a terrific result
for a camera of this size. You can achieve true high-quality images from this
little thing. Here are some samples taken with the RX100 IV. The top two
display what you can pull off with the ND filter:
For the best results you’ll want to stick to ISO
80-800, though. While a 1in sensor in a compact camera is a great combo, you
don’t quite get the higher-ISO flexibility of an APS-C sensor camera.
At ISO 1600, luminance noise starts to become more
obvious – although we did find that detail levels were still reasonable right
up to ISO 3200. Image quality is impacted fairly seriously at ISO 6400 and is
pretty scrappy at the top ISO 12800 setting.
The Sony RX100 IV’s native ISO range is actually
125-12800, with the lowest ISO 80 and 100 settings in there as expanded ones.
Sony hasn’t radically upgraded stills image quality with this fourth-generation
RX100 IV, but with image quality already quite excellent in the older model,
we’re not going to complain.
SONY RX100 IV – VIDEO
Video is another matter. The Sony RX100 IV has
eye-opening video abilities that are a huge improvement over past RX100s.
Where the RX100 III’s video is limited to 1080p
capture, the RX100 IV goes up to 4K resolution, recording at very high-quality
100Mbps if you have a fast enough card to handle it. The camera actually tests
for this, then disables this super-high quality setting if your card is not up
to it.
The Sony RX100 IV is also the new king of slo-mo, able
to shoot at up to 1,000fps. At this speed you can shoot at 270 x 800 pixel
resolution for four seconds, or at 1,136 x 384 for two seconds. This increases
to near Full HD resolution when you hit 250fps. In addition, there’s a 500fps
mode that sits in-between in quality terms. There's a lot of fun to be had
here: it's easy to get hooked on slo-mo video.
When shooting standard-speed video, you can also take
17-megapixel stills mid-shoot. If that doesn’t convince you about the
data-juggling skills of the Sony RX100 IV’s DRAM chip, then we don't know what
will.
Should I buy the Sony RX100 IV?
The Sony RX100 IV is a terrific compact camera. It
will appeal to more serious photographers, as well as those who just want to know
they’ll be able to take photos that’ll wipe the floor with those taken on their
phones. Eye-opening improvements to shooting speed and video quality make it
just about the perfect holiday camera, letting you get fun slo-mo videos as
well as 4K-quality footage.
Like every RX100 before it, the Sony RX100 IV is a
star. However, with a price of £849, some may also want to check out last
year’s RX100 III. Although it doesn’t shoot as fast and its video quality is
more pedestrian, it still offers more-than-respectable speed for almost £300
less. Even the second-gen model is still very attractive at £400.
However, if you’re after the best and have the money
to spend, we can’t deny that the Sony RX100 IV is superb.
VERDICT
It doesn’t come cheap, but the Sony RX100 IV is the
top new compact camera to save up for.
SCORES IN DETAIL
SCORES IN DETAIL
- Build Quality9
- Design9
- Features9
- Image Quality9
- Performance10
- Value8
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