Sony DSC-RX100 II Review

The compact advanced point and shoot (PnS) camera category is a space that is heating up, considering every major camera manufacturer  - Sony, Olympus, Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Fujifilm - has at least one of these in their kitty. Over the years, this is the only space which is seeing innovation vis-a vis the regular point and shoots. Sony has recently come out with a successor to its impressive RX100 - the DSC-RX100 II (or the RX100 M2) featuring a 20.2 MP backside illuminated sensor along with Wi-Fi and NFC support. Design and build 

Sony RX100 II front face

  The Sony RX100 II measures 101.6 by 58.1mm and is 38.3mm thick. These dimensions are marginally thicker than the older RX100. The camera is quite compact and can easily fit into your jeans’ front as well as back pocket and at just 281 gms it does not feel very heavy as well. Build quality is top-notch thanks to the all-metal body. Sony hasn’t cut any corners here with the metallic elements present on the mode-dial, the lens control ring, the four-way jog dial as well as the buttons. The only break in the metal is provided by the rubber thumb-rest which gives the camera a good amount of grip. We would have still liked a rubber grip for the fingers in the front. You do get an optional grip-accessory though. The RX100 II has added on a hot-shoe element on the top which was absent on the RX100. You can add in accessories such as a flash or an electronic view finder on the hotshoe, which need to be bought separately. Otherwise the top portion of the RX100 II is identical to the RX100.

The top portion of the RX100 II looks similar to the RX100 except for the presence of the hot-shoe attachment in the centre

A major portion of the rear-side is occupied by the 3-inch 1229k-dot tilting LCD screen. It is capable of tilting at 45 degrees downward for overhead shots as well as 84 degrees upwards for low angle shots. Beside the screen you have the circular four-way jog dial which is surrounded by four buttons such as menu, function, playback and help. The arrangement of buttons is quite intuitive to get used to, but for someone with a fat thumb, the button-arrangement may appear a bit cramped. The build quality of the buttons itself is quite good with each button giving a good amount of feedback, but their size may be too small for some. The movie-recording and the power button may seem a bit recessed and will require a comparitively tighter press to register a response, but the rest are just fine. The textured pattern on the mode-dial helps in easily rotating it. The jog-dial also has a textured design and rotates in such a way that your thumb receives minor feedback. The flash will pop-up only when needed, after focusing is complete (half shutter press) and there is no dedicated button to activate it.

The RX100 II has a tilting-type LCD which is great for low-angle as well has shots over the head

Just like its predecessor, it has a fast f/1.8 Carl Zeiss lens which is surrounded by the control ring. Power button, shutter release button and the mode dial are placed in exactly the same location as the RX100. The rubber flaps covering the HDMI out and the multi-USB port are a pain to open for someone who does not have long nails. Features and User Interface The RX100 II may look quite similar to the RX100, but Sony has added some interesting things to the RX100 II. For starters, the 1-inch 20.2 MP Exmor R sensor is back-illuminated instead of being front-illuminated as was the case with the RX100. Thanks to this the sensor is able of capturing more light as compared to a front illuminated sensor. As a result of this, the maximum native ISO support has gone from ISO 6400 in the RX100 to ISO 12800 on the RX100 II.

The menu interface is similar to the RX100 as well as the Alpha series cameras

The second most important addition is that of Wi-Fi and near-field communication (NFC) support. You can transfer images using Wi-Fi as well as NFC. Even remotely controlling the RX100 II is a piece of cake thanks to the Play Memories app which is available for Android and iOS on mobile devices as well as for Windows (in case you want to transfer images to your Wi-Fi enabled laptop). To use the camera remotely go to Menu > Image Settings > Ctrl with Smartphone and you will be shown an SSID, which will be visible on your mobile device. Using this app you can control the camera remotely as well as transfer images from the camera to your mobile device. Once the camera is connected to the phone, you can zoom in or out and make a still image or a movie. The images/movies will be stored on the SD card of your camera. Images do get resized and stored on your phone’s memory card as well, which can be shared directly on your social networks. Play Memories app does not restrict the apps to which you can share the images which is good.

You have to go to the Playback settings option to be able to transfer photos wirelessly

For transferring images you go to Menu > Playback > Send to Smartphone. You can select images on the camera itself or on the smartphone using the Play Memories app. The images can be stored at the original resolutions, around 2MP or VGA resolutions. The final prominent addition is that of a hot-shoe element which can support the many accessories such as flash, viewfinder and so on. That the accessories themselves cost a lot will make a lot of prospective buyers think twice. But Sony has given the option which is a good thing. The RX100 II sports a Carl Zeiss lens with a focal length of 28-100mm (full-frame equivalent) with maximum aperture going from f/1.8 to f/4.9. The control ring around the lens can be programmed to control aperture, zoom, shutter speed, white balance, creative styles and picture effects. The zoom setting on the control ring is quite nifty and allows you to zoom at 28, 35, 50, 70 and 100 mm. Although the implementation is slower than your standard lever zoom, it is ideal for the discerning zoom users or if you want to shoot at a particular focal length only.  

Play Memories app on the phone allows you to remotely take photographs (left) as well as transfer images to your mobile device (right)

  User interface will take some time getting used to for someone who isn’t familiar with the RX100 or the Alpha series DSLTs. The RX100 II has the similar menu system and on-screen options as the RX100. Thanks to the minimal space for buttons, you will have to dig in at times to access functions. The camera does offer a Fn button, where you can set as many as seven different functions. As far as dedicated function buttons go, you have the Movie button and the four functions along the jog-dial (which can be customised, but we would much rather leave these untouched). Accessing each function brings up a carousel which can be adjusted either with the jog dial or the control ring. Accessing the functions under the Fn buttons requires more than a couple of button presses. Even for something as simple as deleting multiple images you will have to go to to Menu, then click 10 times on the right hand side to get to the first page of the Playback menu, then click five times on the down key on the jog dial to get to the Delete button. You can then select multiple images and finally get down to deleting them. The RX100 II has the high dynamic range (HDR) function which takes three pictures in quick succession where the exposure compensation can go from +/-1EV to +/-6EV. This gets in immense detail when shooting an unevenly lit scene. There are as many as 33 picture effects and six creative shooting styles.

With HDR Off - The scene has extreme shadow and highlights regions on the left and right hand side respectively

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With HDR 5.0 EV - You can get more details from shadows and highlights.

  The movie mode on the RX100 II allows you to shoot in AVCHD as well as MP4 format. In the MP4 format it limits the resolution to 1440x1080 and VGA whereas the AVCHD gives various options across resolution as well as bitrates. While shooting videos, you can use 15 of the 33 picture effects. There are aperture priority, shutter priority as well as manual modes for video recording as well giving you more control. ` Performance Studio ISO performance Our studio ISO comprises a setup which has a healthy mix of colours, textures, materials, fine text and so on. Keeping the camera in the Aperture priority mode at f/5.6 we proceeded to take images across the ISO range. As seen in the images below, the base ISO performance of the RX100 II was flawless. Till ISO 800, the details on the motherboard, threads and the fine text on the battery was clearly discernible. At ISO 3200, the noise reducing algorithms start to make their present felt, text starts to become unreadable and the fine threads start to appear patchy due to noise, but the other aspects of the setup still have detail. At ISO 6400, noise starts to creep in and it’s noticeable at 100 per cent crops. But it is still luminance noise and one will not notice any chroma artifacts. At IS0 6400, the image is still usable. At ISO 12800, noise is prominent and there is a definite lack in details. With a fast lens on this camera, we doubt you will be required to push the ISO to 12800. On the whole the ISO test left us impressed with images usable till ISO 6400.

The base image for studio ISO performance test

ISO 200

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

ISO 6400

ISO 12800

Image Quality The images coming out of the RX100 II were quite impressive. Colours were crisp and using the Standard colour mode results in neutral colours. There are other six creative styles with modes such as standard, vivid, landscape, black and white and so on. You can adjust the contrast and saturation levels in each mode to get the look you want in camera. Of course with RAW files you can get even more details and a wider palette to work on. You can bracket the white balance settings as well. There are as many as 33 picture effects which you can play around with. But we noticed that on effects such as the Rich BW, the image processing takes quite a while. We liked the fact that D-range optimiser and HDR modes have various levels which lets you get more details from shadows and highlights.

With D-R Off - You see that the portion of the church spire is in the shadows

With D-R Lv5 - Gives details in the shadows at the same time does not blow out the sky. Good for making photographs of subjects that have a strong backlight behind them

  Focusing The RX100 II has a contrast-detect auto-focus system with 25 focus points along with centre-spot, flexible-spot and tracking modes. There are four ways to focus - single shot AF, continuous AF, manual focus and Direct Manual Focus (DMF). The DMF feature allows you to half press the shutter to auto-focus and then focus more finely using the control ring which brings up a magnified view of the area under focus. Considering the compact size of the camera, mastering the control ring for focusing will take some time getting used to as the camera will not be steady while you are adjusting the control ring and looking at the magnified view. In terms of speed, we did not have any issues locking focus quickly in daylight as well as under low lights. There were the occasional times when the camera would hunt for focus in the dark. The flexible spot option allows you to reach a considerably larger area including areas closer to the edge, but eight out of ten times, we faced no issue with focusing under low light situations. Using manual focus while composing macro shots is challenging.

Manual focussing in the macro mode will take some learning as the camera tends to shake while you are adjusting the control ring for focussing

Macro shot at 100 per cent crop

  Low Light The fast lens coupled with the RX100 II’s wonderful ISO performance, makes this camera a joy to shoot with post sundown. Even in areas where it gets tricky to shoot without losing details - the RX100 II managed quite well. Check out the sample images below to see for yourself why we were so impressed.

Captured at ISO 6400

100 percent crop of the image above

Handling The user interface will take some time getting used to. There are some flaws we noticed such as lack of a dedicated AF/MF switch, going into the Menu to set a custom colour - despite having a Fn button to pull up the AWB mode and so on. We would have liked to see a touchscreen LCD, as a means to access functions quicker. The Fn implementation is good, but it still involves more clicks than a dedicated single-function key. The Wi-Fi and NFC implementation is again buried in the menus and involves some steps to set up, even though they are simple steps. We would have liked to see a dedicated Wi-Fi button which gets the work done after the initial setup. The camera startup is quick though and you can start firing off shots under 5 seconds of starting it. Flash The flash unit is present on the top left hand side and will be activated when you half press the shutter with the flash mode on. You can bounce off the flash if you so wish but it isn’t as effective. Apart from the auto and fill flash modes, you have the slow sync as well as the rear sync flash mode. The difference is seen below.  

With fill in flash the background is not well lit

With the rear-sync flash the foreground and background are more evenly lit

Video The RX100 II is a capable shooter but provides limited tweaks in the MP4 format. The video quality is great in the AVCHD mode with smooth panning. But while zooming in or out, you will hear the sound of the motor working which is annoying. With outdoor shots there was no issue with focusing and image quality, but indoors you will notice noise in the footage. While shooting outdoors at night, we found the camera trying to hunt for focus.   Battery life The camera houses a 1240mAh Li-ion battery and is good for around 250-300 shots at least. For charging the battery you will have to place it in the camera and use the power adapter. This is annoying for someone who has multiple batteries. We would have preferred if Sony bundled in separate battery charger rather than having to keep the camera engaged while charging.   Verdict and Price in India The Sony RX100 II is one of the best compacts we have tested. The price point of Rs. 42,990 is something that is a bit of a bother. Allow us to explain. The Sony RX100 is still a capable camera and apart from a BSI sensor and improved sensitivity, the other additions such as Wi-Fi/NFC and hot-shoe element are not things that will suddenly make the RX100 look bad. The hot-shoe accessories are expensive and Wi-Fi and NFC only allows you to transfer images to your mobile devices. With the Sony RX100 coming at around Rs10,000 less with majority of the features on the RX100 II, the latter has competition from its own sibling. As far as the performance of the camera goes, it is impressive across the various parameters that we tested. It ticks pretty much all the checkboxes which you consider when getting a new advanced point and shoot - great low light performance, good image quality, no visible chromatic aberrations, a boat load of features, respectable video quality and so on. There are some flaws though which we have discussed above. Also we would have liked to see a touchscreen LCD which would provide quick access to certain functions.   So if money is no object, by all means, get the RX100 II. But at Rs 42,990 the RX100 II also competes with a lot of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (ILC) and entry level DSLRs - which give you the option to buy more lenses. Sure, it is difficult to get the compact form factor like the RX100 II with the DSLR and ILCs but we still find it tough to recommend it at Rs 42,000 considering the RX100 is still quite a capable camera selling at Rs 10,000 less. So unless Sony offers a better pricing (we are hoping somewhere in the Rs 35,000 region), we would advise you to wait it out.