Sony RX100 V Performance


Timing and Performance

Incredible burst performance, but slow buffer clearing.

Startup/Play to Record

Power on
to first shot

~2.0 seconds

Time it takes for LCD to turn on and lens to deploy and capture a picture.

Play to Record,
first shot

~1.0 second

Time until first shot is captured.

Startup to first shot time was about average for its class. Play to Record switching was quite fast.

 

Shutter Response (Lag Time)

Full Autofocus
Center-area AF
Wide Angle

0.186 second

Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at wide angle position.

Full Autofocus
Center-area AF
Telephoto

0.210 second

Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at telephoto position.

Full Autofocus
Center-area AF
Flash enabled

0.299 second

Time to capture while forcing flash to fire, zoom lens at medium focal length.

Manual Focus

0.020 second

For most cameras, shutter lag is less in manual focus than autofocus, but usually not as fast as when the camera is "prefocused".

Prefocused

0.008 second

Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.

The Sony RX100 V's full autofocus shutter lag when shooting the same target multiple times was very fast for a compact camera. The RX100 V's full AF shutter lag clocked in at about 0.19 second at wide angle using center AF mode. Full AF shutter lag was just a little slower at full telephoto, at about 0.21 second, but that's still quite fast. Enabling the flash raised shutter lag to 0.3 seconds, to account for the metering preflash.

Manual focus shutter lag was incredibly fast at 20 milliseconds, and prefocused shutter lag was even faster at only 8 milliseconds, one of the lowest shutter lag times we've measured in recent memory.

 

Cycle Time (shot to shot)

Single Shot mode
Large Extra Fine JPEG

< 0.3 second

Average time per shot.

Single Shot mode
RAW + LF JPEG

< 0.3 second

Average time per shot.

Early shutter
penalty?

No

Some cameras don't snap another shot if you release and press the shutter too quickly in Single Shot mode, making "No" the preferred answer.

Continuous Hi
Large Extra Fine JPEG

0.04 second
(23.81 fps);
150 frames total;
108 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer size of 150 frames. Then slows to an average of 0.79s or 1.27 fps when buffer is full.

Continuous Hi
RAW

0.04 second
(24.10 fps);
72 frames total;
48 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer size of 72 frames. Then slows to an average of 0.69s or 1.46 fps when buffer is full.

Continuous Hi
RAW + LF JPEG

0.04 second
(23.81 fps);
62 frames total;
60 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer size of 62 frames. Then slows to an average of 0.91s or 1.10 fps when buffer is full.

Flash recycling

3.1 seconds

Flash at maximum output.

*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec UHS-I SDHC memory card. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity also affects cycle times and burst mode performance, with higher ISOs generally increasing cycle times and reducing burst performance.

Shot-to-shot cycle times were excellent in single shot mode, at less than 0.3 second for Large/Extra Fine JPEGs or RAW+Large/Fine JPEG files. Note that the Sony RX100 V does not support capturing JPEGs using highest quality Extra Fine compression when shooting with RAW files, dropping JPEGs down to Fine quality. We no longer test just RAW file cycle time in single-shot mode, as it's usually somewhere in between JPEG and RAW+JPEG.

The Sony RX100 V's Continuous Hi shooting mode burst rate was incredible, able to shoot best quality Large Extra Fine JPEGs and RAW+JPEG files at 23.8 frames per second and RAW files at 24.1 frames per second, and the Mark V supports continuous autofocus at those speeds! The RX100 V also offers Mid and Lo settings rated at 10.0 and 3.5 fps respectively, however we didn't test those modes in the lab.

Buffer depths were outstanding at 150 best quality JPEGs, 72 RAW or 62 RAW+JPEG files before the camera slowed down. Buffer clearing was quite slow, though, taking a whopping 108 seconds after a max-length burst of best quality JPEGs, 48 seconds for a max burst of RAW files, and 60 seconds for a max burst of RAW+JPEG files with our fast 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC card. You can make some setting changes and review images which have been written to the card while the buffer is clearing, but you can't access the main menu system at all until all images are flushed to the card. Unfortunately, the Sony RX100 V does not support faster UHS-II cards.

The built-in flash took an average of 3.1 seconds to recharge after a full-power discharge, which is good.

 

Bottom line, the Sony RX100 V's performance was outstanding in most respects with fast AF, extremely low shutter lag and an incredible ~24 fps full-res burst rate no matter the file type (and continuous autofocus is supported!). Buffer clearing was however quite slow, taking up to 108 seconds after a max-length burst of Extra Fine JPEGs with a fast UHS-I card. It's a shame Sony didn't add faster UHS-II card support to the Mark V.

Battery

Battery Life
Poor battery life for its class.

Operating Mode Number of Shots
Still Capture,
(LCD Monitor, CIPA standard)
220
Still Capture,
(EVF, CIPA standard)
210

The Sony RX100 V uses a custom NP-BX1 rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and the battery is charged in-camera via the USB port. CIPA battery life is rated much lower than its predecessors, at only 220 shots when using the LCD monitor, and 210 shots when using the electronic viewfinder. We strongly recommend you pick up a spare battery for extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery as appropriate), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

 



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