Sony RX100 V Review

Sony RX100 V Review -- Now Shooting

by Mike Tomkins
Preview posted: 10/06/2016

Updates:
10/06/2016: Tech Info posted!
10/07/2016: Gallery images posted!
10/11/2016: First Shots lab images posted!
12/18/2016: Field Test posted!
12/29/2016: Image Quality Comparison posted!

Sony has done it once again: The company responsible for creating the 1"-sensor, fixed-lens camera market has taken it to the next level with a new model -- and the Sony RX100 V is truly a pocket powerhouse!

Almost identical to the RX100 IV in terms of body design, sensor resolution, lens and controls, the Sony RX100 V differentiates itself by providing greater full-res burst capture performance and burst depth than we've ever seen in such a pocket-friendly camera.

For those looking for a full overview of the Sony RX100 V's features and specs, please click here.

Sony RX100 V Image Quality Comparison

By Mike Tomkins | Posted: 12/29/2016

Below are crops from our laboratory Still Life target comparing the Sony RX100 V's image quality to its predecessor, the RX100 IV, as well as both of its nearest 1-inch sensor-based compact camera rivals, the Canon G7X II and Panasonic LX10. For good measure, we've also compared it against a compact with an even larger sensor, the Panasonix LX100, as well as a similarly-priced mirrorless camera with a far larger sensor, the Sony A6300.

NOTE: These images are from best quality JPEGs straight out of the camera, at default settings including noise reduction and using the camera's actual base ISO (not extended ISO settings). All cameras in this comparison were shot with our very sharp reference lenses. Clicking any crop will take you to a carrier page where you can click once again to access the full resolution image as delivered straight from the camera. For those interested in working with the RAW files involved, click these links to visit each camera's respective sample image thumbnail page: Sony RX100 V, Sony RX100 IV, Canon G7X II, Panasonic LX10, Panasonic LX100 and Sony A6300 -- links to the RAW files appear beneath those for the JPEG images, wherever we have them. And remember, you can always go to our world-renowned Comparometer to compare the Sony RX100 V to any camera we've ever tested!

Sony RX100 V vs Sony RX100 IV at Base ISO

Sony RX100 V at ISO 125	Sony RX100 IV at ISO 125
Given that they both share the exact same 1-inch sensor size, 20.1-megapixel resolution and BIONZ X image processor, you might expect the Sony RX100 V and its predecessor, the RX100 IV, to have identical image quality too. Even at base sensitivity, though, the RX100 V turns in the better performance of the pair. It's just slightly (but noticeably) crisper in the mosaic label and fabric swatches, and yet the sharpening haloes are no more prominent in the bottle crop than those of the RX100 IV. The newer camera also renders the color of the difficult pink swatch more accurately than did its predecessor.

Sony RX100 V vs Canon G7X Mark II at Base ISO

Sony RX100 V at ISO 125	Canon G7X Mark II at ISO 125
The Sony RX100 V also shares the same sensor size and nearly-identical resolution with the 20.2-megapixel Canon G7X II. Despite that outward similarity, Sony's camera performs noticeably better at base sensitivity. In fairness to Canon, the G7X II has somewhat more modest sharpening haloes in the bottle crop. However, the Sony RX100 V's mosaic label and fabric swatches are crisper, and it better holds onto the fine thread pattern in the pink swatch which is largely lost by the Canon. The RX100 V also renders the color of the pink swatch better, and shows more contrast in the difficult red swatch.

Sony RX100 V vs Panasonic LX10 at Base ISO

Sony RX100 V at ISO 125	Panasonic LX10 at ISO 125
The Panasonic LX10, too, shares the same 1-inch sensor size and 20.1-megapixel resolution as the Sony RX100 V. Once again, though, we have to give the nod at base sensitivity to the Sony, although its a close-run thing. Just as in the comparison with the Canon G7X II above, the Panasonic LX10 shows less prominent sharpening haloes in the bottle crop, but is also less crisp than the RX100 V in the mosaic crop. The LX10 does well with the thread pattern in the pink swatch, but renders the color as rather too cool. However, while contrast is a little lower than that of the RX100 V in the red swatch, the Panasonic LX10 renders its color more realistically, with lower saturation than the Sony.

Sony RX100 V vs Panasonic LX100 at Base ISO

Sony RX100 V at ISO 125	Panasonic LX100 at ISO 200
And so we come to the first comparison with a camera that doesn't sport a 1-inch sensor. The Panasonic LX100 instead opts for a Four Thirds-format sensor with almost double the surface area of the imager in the Sony RX100 V, coupled with a much lower resolution of just 12.8 megapixels. At base sensitivity, this approach doesn't yield dividends, with the Sony RX100 V showing significantly more detail in the mosaic label and fabric swatches. The RX100 V again renders the color of the pink swatch much more accurately too, although the LX100 manages better with the color of the red swatch and has less prominent sharpening haloes.

Sony RX100 V vs Sony A6300 at Base ISO

Sony RX100 V at ISO 125	Sony A6300 at ISO 100
Finally, we've decided to pit the RX100 V against an APS-C sensor-based camera, specifically the Sony A6300. Both cameras have the same list price, but the A6300 isn't going to fit in your pocket, and nor does it come with a lens at this price. However, if you can justify the added bulk and the cost of a lens or two, the Sony A6300's larger, higher-resolution 24.2-megapixel image sensor gathers significantly more detail in both the mosaic label and fabric swatches. And it does so without having to rely on as much sharpening as the RX100 V, leading to less prominent haloes too. The RX100 V does a much better job with the color of the tricky pink swatch, though.

Sony RX100 V vs Sony RX100 IV at ISO 1600

Sony RX100 V at ISO 1600	Sony RX100 IV at ISO 1600
But enough of the low-ISO comparisons. How does the Sony RX100 V perform as you crank up the sensitivity? At ISO 1600-equivalent, the Sony RX100 V's early advantage has been reduced. Noise levels are pretty similar to those of the RX100 IV, and like that camera, the RX100 V's noise reduction processing is a bit heavy-handed. That leaves a blotchy, mottled look for the mosaic label, and wipes out the thread pattern in the fabric swatches. The RX100 V does best its predecessor in terms of the color of the pink swatch, though, where the RX100 IV gives it a rather magenta hue.

Sony RX100 V vs Canon G7X Mark II at ISO 1600

Sony RX100 V at ISO 1600	Canon G7X Mark II at ISO 1600
With the sensitivity dialed up a bit, the Canon G7X II turns in a performance that's rather closer to that of the RX100 V, even if we'd still give a tip of the hat to the Sony. Both cameras are pretty similar on the noise and detail front, with the RX100 V perhaps having just a very slight edge. The G7X II's mosaic label doesn't look quite as mottled, but it has sacrificed more of the finer pattern between the dark mosaic tiles. Sony also does a bit better with the hue of the pink fabric swatch.

Sony RX100 V vs Panasonic LX10 at ISO 1600

Sony RX100 V at ISO 1600	Panasonic LX10 at ISO 1600
The Panasonic LX10 turns in a noticeably less noisy image than its Sony and Canon rivals at ISO 1600-equivalent, as you can see in the bottle crop. However, in doing so it has sacrificed even more of the fine mosaic label detail than the Canon did, and has lost almost all detail in the red fabric swatch as well.

Sony RX100 V vs Panasonic LX100 at ISO 1600

Sony RX100 V at ISO 1600	Panasonic LX100 at ISO 1600
It's once the sensitivity has been raised to ISO 1600-equivalent that the larger sensor size of the Panasonic LX100 starts to come to the fore, as you can see from its less-noisy bottle crop. Its resolution disadvantage has also been largely negated, with its larger pixels not so prone to noise as those of the Sony RX100 V, and hence a lesser degree of noise reduction needed. It still can't quite hold onto as much detail in the dark areas of the mosaic label but it's a close thing. Sony definitely does a better job with the fabric swatches, though.

Sony RX100 V vs Sony A6300 at ISO 1600

Sony RX100 V at ISO 1600	Sony A6300 at ISO 1600
Not surprisingly, the much larger sensor of the Sony A6300 puts it in a class of its own. Compared to all of these pants pocket-friendly (or coat pocket, for the LX100) cameras, the A6300 does better on almost every front. Noise levels are lower in the bottle crop, there's far more fine detail and none of the noise reduction mottling in the mosaic label. The A6300 is also the only camera that could hold onto the thread pattern in the pink fabric swatch, and also does better than the rest with the red swatch. Really, the only thing preventing a perfect score is that the RX100 V does a better job with the color of the pink swatch.

Sony RX100 V vs Sony RX100 IV at ISO 3200

Sony RX100 V at ISO 3200	Sony RX100 IV at ISO 3200
Finally, we come to ISO 3200-equivalent, and here the Sony RX100 V's noise reduction does a somewhat better job than that of its predecessor. Not in the mosaic label or fabric swatches, where detail has been lost about equally by both cameras, but in the bottle crop. The RX100 V's result is noticeable better here, with less of the mottled, noisy look shown by the RX100 IV.

Sony RX100 V vs Canon G7X Mark II at ISO 3200

Sony RX100 V at ISO 3200	Canon G7X Mark II at ISO 3200
Things are much closer between the Sony RX100 V and Canon G7X II at ISO 3200-equivalent. Both cameras show similar noise levelsand retain similar amounts of detail in the mosaic label and fabric swatches. The RX100 V still has a slight edge, though, with more contrast in the pink swatch and just slightly more of the finest details in the mosaic label retained.

Sony RX100 V vs Panasonic LX10 at ISO 3200

Sony RX100 V at ISO 3200	Panasonic LX10 at ISO 3200
Panasonic's more aggressive noise reduction shows itself again at ISO 3200-equivalent. In the bottle crops, the LX10's image is noticeably less noisy. However, the Sony RX100 V's mosaic label, while itself rather mottled, is noticeably better than the blotchy, muddy label in the LX10's rendering. Sony still does better with the hue of the pink swatch, but in other respects the fabric swatches are pretty much a wash between the two cameras.

Sony RX100 V vs Panasonic LX100 at ISO 3200

Sony RX100 V at ISO 3200	Panasonic LX100 at ISO 3200
By the time we reach ISO 3200-equivalent, the Panasonic LX100's larger sensor and lower resolution are both really playing their part in keeping noise levels to a minimum. The LX100's bottle crop is much cleaner than that from the RX100 V. And while it is still just a little behind the Sony in terms of detail, it's only by a miniscule amount when one considers their difference in sensor resolution. Sony does still do a good bit better with the hue of the pink fabic swatch, though.

Sony RX100 V vs Sony A6300 at ISO 3200

Sony RX100 V at ISO 3200	Sony A6300 at ISO 3200
Lastly, we come to the Sony A6300. Here, there's simply a night and day difference: The APS-C sensor-based camera is better in almost every respect than its pocket-friendly sibling. The RX100 V does still do a better job with the hue of the pink fabric swatch, though.

Sony RX100 V vs. Sony RX100 IV, Canon G7X Mark II, Panasonic LX10, Panasonic LX100, Sony A6300

Sony RX100 V ISO 125 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Sony RX100 IV ISO 125 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Canon G7X Mark II ISO 125 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Panasonic LX10 ISO 125 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Panasonic LX100 ISO 200 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Sony A6300 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400
Detail comparison. If you wanted proof that sensor size makes a difference, this comparison offers it in spades. The A6300, with the largest and highest-resolution sensor of the group, is well ahead of the rest even at base sensitivity, and holds onto that lead across the range. The Panasonic LX100, meanwhile, starts off at a disadvantage due to its lower resolution, but quickly catches up as we ramp the sensitivity. And finally, we come to the four 1-inch sensor cameras. The winner has to be the Sony RX100 V, with the Canon G7X II nipping at its heels. The Panasonic LX10 and Sony RX100 IV round out the field.

Sony RX100 V Overview

By Mike Tomkins | Posted: 10/06/2016

The Sony RX100 V is all about performance

For the fifth generation in the RX100-series, Sony has clearly focused on performance. The Sony RX100 Mark V is simply unrivaled in this area: It can shoot full-resolution images at a truly staggering 24 frames per second, and that's with autofocus and autoexposure adjustments between frames. (For bonus points, you can also enable silent shooting at this rate, so you won't even distract your subject.)

And that performance is not available just for a handful of frames, either: A roomy buffer allows space to store as many as 150 JPEG frames at full resolution, and even raw shooters should be able to manage an impressive 71 frames in each 24-fps burst. Even if you favor raw+JPEG capture, you should be able to shoot around 59 images in a burst, a fair bit more than twice as many as was possible with the RX100 IV.

Sony has achieved this level of performance in part thanks to a redesigned image sensor with a brand-new hybrid autofocus system. The RX100 V's new 20.1-megapixel image sensor might not offer any higher resolution than the previous generation, but it now includes a generous 315 on-chip phase-detection autofocus pixels. These cover 65% of the image frame, besting the rival Nikon DL-series cameras by around 5%.

The on-chip phase-detection pixels are first used to quickly determine the required focus adjustment and direction. To complete the AF cycle, the system switches to using contrast-detection to fine-tune the precise point of focus. And you can manually adjust both the AF drive speed and tracking sensitivity. The result, according to Sony, is "professional-level AF performance" capable of determining a focus lock in just 0.05 seconds.

The Sony RX100 V is the latest to gain a high-speed LSI chip

Of course, the image sensor is only part of the story. The Sony RX100 V also derives some of its epic performance from a change in the way data from the sensor is handled. Just as in the recently-launched A99 II interchangeable-lens camera, the Sony RX100 V now supplements its BIONZ X image processor with a new front-end LSI chip for even greater performance.

A little back-of-the-envelope math provides a testament to the power on offer. Since it can apparently capture 150 images in a burst, each at full 20.1-megapixel resolution, that means that the RX100 V is handling some three gigapixels of raw sensor data in each burst. And with a claimed capture rate of 24 fps, each full burst is completed in just 6.25 seconds. That's a whopping 482.4 megapixels of data being processed each second, presuming Sony's stated figures are accurate!

All of that performance isn't just harnessed for stills, either. The RX100 IV was already an exceptionally capable video shooter for a pocket-friendly camera, providing for both 4K ultra-high definition recording and up to a maximum capture rate of 1,000 frames per second at reduced resolution. Now, the Sony RX100 V follows with improvements on both fronts.

For one thing, when shooting 4K video you have access to the same new hybrid autofocus system used for still imaging. Also, 4K footage is captured with almost the full sensor width, without any line skipping or pixel binning. This means that the video is coming off the sensor at higher than 4K resolution, and then being downsampled to its final output resolution. And it's not by a small margin, either: 4K video is effectively oversampled by about 1.7 times. And compared side-by-side with 4K footage from the RX100 IV, the Sony RX100 Mark V's output is noticeably wider-angle at the same focal length.

At the same time, Sony has managed to double the maximum length of high frame-rate movies captured with the RX100 V. Where the RX100 IV had a maximum HFR capture time of either two or four seconds, the RX100 V will now be able to capture as much as eight seconds of HFR footage. And while that might not seem like much, it's important to bear in mind that depending on your recording and output frame rates, that's potentially as long as a five-minute output video with a 40x slow-motion effect.

All this, and the Sony RX100 V isn't even any bigger!

Perhaps most impressively of all, Sony has managed to cram in all of this extra performance with almost no increase in size and weight. At 4 x 2.4 x 1.6 inches, the Sony RX100 V is the exact same width and height as its predecessor, and an indistinguishable 0.02 inches (0.4mm) thicker than its predecessor. And its weight, too, is basically unchanged. It packs amazing performance into a body so small you can forget you're carrying it!

In most other respects, the Sony RX100 V is very much like the camera in whose footsteps it follows. It sports the same ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T*-branded lens, for example, with focal lengths ranging from 24-70mm equivalents and a bright maximum aperture of f/1.8-2.8 across the zoom range. It also retains the same high-resolution XGA electronic viewfinder, which is based around a 2.3-million dot Organic LED display, and whose eyepiece features a Zeiss T* coating.

Also making the leap from the RX100 IV to V is a 3.0-inch, 1.3-million dot LCD monitor. This still sits on an articulation mechanism which allows tilting upwards by 180-degrees for shooting from the hip or even selfie shooting, and downwards by 45 degrees for easier over-the-head shots. And like its predecessor, the Sony RX100 V also includes Wi-Fi wireless networking connectivity with a choice of either NFC pairing for Android devices, or QR code pairing for iOS and those few Android devices which lack an NFC antenna.

Available from October 2016 in North America or November 2016 in Europe, the Sony RX100 Mark V carries US-market pricing of around US$1,000. That's the exact same pricepoint at which the RX100 IV launched some 16 months ago. In Canada, pricing will be in the region of CA$1,250, while in Europe pricing will be in the region of €1,200.

Similar to the RX100 V but smaller lighter larger sensor cheaper But ...

No cameras match your search criteria(s)

   

Sony RX100 IV

$898.00 (11% less)

20.1 MP

Also has viewfinder

Similar size

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RX100 V vs RX100 IV

Canon G7X Mark II

$728.17 (37% less)

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RX100 V vs G7X Mark II

Sony RX100 III

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RX100 V vs DL18-50

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Canon G5X

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RX100 V vs RX100

Canon G9X

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Panasonic LX10

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