IT HAS ARRIVED!

  My Sony DSC-RX100 finally arrived!  Earlier than expected.  It had been originally scheduled to arrive the second week in August, then the date was moved up to next Monday - July 23rd.  But then it came yesterday.

  I don't ever recall as much anticipation throughout the internet for the US arrival of a camera.  I was released first in Japan about a month ago and in Europe a week ago.  Samples from it started flooding YouTube from overseas soon after Sony announced the camera and started providing evaluation units to various websites.

  

  I reported on it soon after it was announced and said I was pre-ordering one.  It is now here and I've just started using it.

  An amazing thing about this camera that has a large sensor (1" CMOS) and large   aperture (f1.8) lens is its small size.  I have previously written about the Sony DSC-HX9 as being a great "point and shoot" camera with outstanding capabilities.  Cassie Tips List member Peter Jestadt posted a glowing YouTube review of the HX9.  (The HX9 has been replaced by the HX10 which is basically the same camera with a few more megapixels in its sensor.)

   The RX100 is evem smaller than the HX9/10 in every physical di-mension except one - thickness.  Shown at right are dimension com-parisons for the two cameras (courtesy camerasize.com).  The RX100 even weighs a little less than the HX9.

  A lot of Sony's camera manufacturing for the consumer cameras is now outsourced from Japan to places like Thailand.  The RX100 is actually built in Japan indicating the importance of its manufacturing.

  The RX100 is going to replace my much-loved HX9(10) as my portable camera of choice.  Why?

• Its controls are more "professional"
• Its larger sensor
• Its wider-aperture lens
• Its RAW plus jpeg imaging capability

  The mode control wheel on the top of the camera is more like that of a dSLR than a point and shoot.  You can set aperture or shutter priority in addition to the usual automatic modes.  You can even set those modes for video shooting.  The HX9 doesn't allow this.

  There is a control ring around the lens that can be used to control a variety of things depending on the mode setting or as modified by user settings.  For example, in its default setting, the control ring will control aperture or shutter speed when the mode wheel is set to Aperture or Shutter priority, respectively.  To do this on most point and shoots requires delving into the menus.

  Like most Sony pro and prosumer camcorders, the RX100 includes focus "peaking" option which portrays in-focus objects with a colored (selectable color) edge for assisting manual focus.

  Speaking of menus, the RX100 has a menu setting that assures it returns to the last menu function used.  This is very handy for a frequently used menu function.

  The RX100's sensor is about four times the area of the HX9/10's sensor.  See the size comparison in the image at the left (courtesy cameraimagesensor.com)  This means more light gathering capacity which will significantly enhance its low-light capability.

  The HX9/10's widest aperture is f3.3 versus the f1.8 of the RX100, an almost two stop difference.  This also can mean a lot in low light situations.  This wider aperture, in conjunction with the larger sensor size also leads to a smaller depth of field capability for photo composition.

  With my Nikon D90 dSLR I have become very accustomed to using the RAW recording format.  Recording in this format enables much more flexibility for post-processing the images.  The RX100 lets you choose recording of either only RAW, only jpeg, or both.

CONS

  The RX100 is not perfect.  

  For example its zoom ratio is only 3.6X compared to the 16X of the HX9/10.  The maximum zoom on the RX100 is equivalent to a 100 mm lens on a 35 mm camera.

  It has the same video recording time limit of 29 minutes that the HX9/10 has.  I've heard that this limit is to not incur an extra European tax for being considered as a video camera.  I haven't definitely confirmed this but it seems a reasonable reason for the limitation.

  There's no accessory shoe for external attachments like an external optical viewfinder.  Some of the compact cameras of this type that don't have a built-in optical viewfinder have an accessory shoe that enables one to attach an external optical viewfinder.

SOME EXAMPLES FROM THE RX100

  Video
  Here's a YouTube video posted in the past couple of days comparing the HX9 and RX100 video side-by-side.



  Photos
  Recent photos taken with the RX100 are being continually uploaded to Flickr.com.  If you go here you can view them.  I think you'll agree that the image quality is quite good.

  The camera is now available from both Amazon and B&H.  (If you purchase via these links I will receive a small compensation.)