As I’d owned my RX100 VII for a couple of years I thought I should write a long term review. When I started drafting it in my head I realized the camera really wasn’t working for me and ending up selling it shortly after. One of those occasions where measuring something changes the outcome.
Background
I already owned a Canon G9X II which I found very useful as a pocket camera, but it had some shortcomings. The basic idea of the RX100 VII was to be a super-G9X, especially with the 200mm equivalent lens and Sony autofocus making it useful for dogs playing photography when I didn’t want to carry something big.
Performance
Starting with the things that are good. The autofocus is decent, if over-complicated in terms of options. I didn’t have much luck with animal subject detection but I’m perfectly happy just using a centre-point, and in that mode it absolutely worked.
The burst mode is fantastic, 10fps in mechanical and even quicker in e-shutter. It feels really fast in use.
The bad, well… the lens, although impressive in terms of range vs physical size isn’t that great in terms of quality, particularly at the long end. The photos from the camera I tend to like are all in the sub 100mm range. I don’t shoot test charts but the results are just a bit ‘meh’ and aside from the focal length they look like phone photos. It’s also relatively slow at the long end, which matters because…
The sensor is very noisy, even for it’s type – roughly a stop worse than the G9X II sensor which is the same size. This is possibly because they made a design trade off to get it reading quicker for electronic shutter. That’s an arguable decision, but I don’t feel it’s really necessary when you have 10fps mechanical.
Anyway, if you’re shooting at 200mm there’s a decent chance it’s action photography, and that also means you’ll want fast shutter speeds which on a slow lens combines to give you a high ISO. And on this sensor that gets you into the photography bad place.
The overall result of this is you can go out and take hundreds of photos very quickly but they’re all just mediocre. When I first got this camera I did a little head-to-head against the Panasonic G80. The G80 is no-one’s idea of a sports camera and it did have a much lower hit rate than the Sony. But the photos it did get looked better, and when I sorted out the best pictures from the day, it was very G80 biased.
If you get your pixel peeping peepers on you’ll see how much more detail there is in Poppy’s face on the G80 version, despite her being slightly smaller in the frame. Even scaled down you can see the G80 picture just has more snap.
Usability
I really disliked using this camera. The buttons were a bit vague in general, the flush shutter release I didn’t like at all. The video button near the thumb grip is very easy to press accidentally.
There are custom modes, but there’s only one custom (MR) position on the dial. So you have to select that, then go into the menu and select the actual mode you want which is just slow and awkward. I ended up just either using P for general photography or S for action and treating those as my setups.
It does have a small viewfinder, which isn’t a luxury experience, but does work.
For some reason Sony save the video files in a completely different location to pictures, buried under a directory called PRIVATE, which is mildly irritating every time I transfer a card.
Compared to the Canon G9X II
The G9X II, which I kept even after the Sony arrived, is in some ways a better camera. It doesn’t have the lens range, it doesn’t have the AF or burst speed, and the video on the RX100 is much better.
But… the sensor is better, the physical ergonomics are better, the UI is much simpler (and more appropriate for a camera of this class) and it is smaller to the point where it will fit in a jeans pocket where the RX100 requires a winter-coat pocket or small bag.
As a walking-around camera it’s a better choice. I still hope that Canon resurrect it, just add 4K and some dual-pixel AF and there’s a decent chance I’d buy it again.
Final Thoughts
I ended up deciding that for anything “200mm” that I care about I need to make the effort to carry something a bit more serious. The RX100 VII pictures are OK in terms of remembering something happened but not great in quality terms.
And if I’m not using the reach of the Sony it starts to look weak against the G9X II, especially since that camera is a lot more portable. The video quality difference is still very real, but I have a phone if I need it.
But this does leave a big gap between the G9X II and my good, but heavy, S5 II setup. Space perhaps for something to act as a travel camera when I’m happy to carry something more than the tiny Canon. I have an idea for that, which I’m going to give a go.