Ron Martinsen's Photography Blog: REVIEW: Sony Cyber-Shot RX100 II with Real World Sample Photos (Part 1 of 2)

Monday, August 12, 2013

REVIEW: Sony Cyber-Shot RX100 II with Real World Sample Photos (Part 1 of 2)

I'm as excited as Kai about the new Sony RX100 II
f/2.8 @10.4 mm, 1/250, ISO 160, No Flash, In-Camera JPEG (click for full-size original)

I wanted to like the original RX100, but it left me disappointed about what I got for the price. When I heard about the RX100 II and its removal of the low pass filter and image quality improvements, I got excited. However, my enthusiasm was tempered when I read it would still try to squeeze 20.2MP in a sensor with its the one inch Bionz™ sensor. A modest 12 megapixels would have made more sense, but technology keeps improving so I always reserve final judgment until I see my real world results.

In this article I start with some sample photos, but my main review and comparison to its predecessor is featured in my part 2 review.

Real World Sample Images

I have more featured in part 2 of my review, but click here to see all of my favorite shots taken during my testing. Here’s a few that I felt like were worth mentioning for this short part 1 of my review:

Bokehlicious f/2.5 @ 10.4 mm, 1/125, ISO 160, No Flash
(Click for the uncropped original)

Image Quality is rather tasty, as is the dynamic range
f/5 @ 10.4 mm,1/800, ISO 160, No Flash

Intelligent Auto doesn't seem any smarter, but I've seen worse
f/4.9 @37.1 mm, 1/320, ISO 320, No Flash

With a good focus lock and decent light, the image quality was extremely impressive
f/1.8 @ 10.4 mm, 1/1250, ISO 160, No Flash

I found myself getting addicted to its wonderful shallow depth of field at f/1.8
In-camera color is gorgeous as well!
f/1.8 @ 10.4 mm, 1/250, ISO 160, No Flash

In my studio with these models (who are also sisters), I decided to test low light conditions.
I was surprised the RX100 II aperture priority at f/1.8 chose only use ISO 640 and 1/30 sec.
However, I quickly remembered this was another feature I didn’t like about its predecessor.
f/1.8 @10.4 mm, 1/30, ISO 640, No Flash

Sony Image Stabilization didn’t really seem to help very often indoors because
this camera defaults to shutter speeds that are too low to prevent motion blur
f/1.8 @ 10.4 mm, 1/30, ISO 800, No Flash

Flash in landscape orientation gets the job done
f/1.8 @10.4 mm, 1/30, ISO 160, Flash

Flash in portrait orientation is above average
f/1.8 @ 10.4 mm, 1/30, ISO 160, Flash

f/1.8 @ 10.4 mm, 1/30, ISO 800, No Flash with Lamp Light and Tungsten White Balance

Conclusion

See http://www.ronmartblog.com/2013/08/review-sony-dsc-rx100m2-vs-rx100-with.html for more details.

Where to order

Click here to order the Sony Cyber-shot Digital Camera RX100 II at the B&H web site.

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

B&H has loaned this camera to me temporarily (at my request) so that I may do this review.

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