Zooming in on quality

A compact digital camera that captures quality photos, the Sony DSC-RX10 is ideal for anyone who wants to snap without the hassle of changing lenses.

That’s because the RX10 is already equipped with 24-200mm equivalent lens that should respond the needs of most shooting conditions from landscape to portrait and 8.3x zoom,

Best of all, the high quality Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T features bright and fast f/2.8 aperture throughout the focal length, allowing the camera to capture clean and sharp photos in most lighting conditions.

Adding to the impressive image quality is its 1-inch 20.2 megapixel Exmor R sensor, which is very sensitive and good for capturing low-light shots. The back-illuminated CMOS sensor has 4x larger light-sensitive area than most digital compact cameras and combined with a wide ISO range of up to ISO 12800, the RX10 can make photos of even dimly-lit scenes look clear, crisp and alive.

The RX10 has fast autofocusing thanks to the bright lens, the Direct Drive SSM (Super Sonic wave Motor) and the new powerful BIONZ X image-processing engine. The Direct Drive SSM has precision-engineered focusing stop positions designed to minimise focusing lens travel distance and thus shortening focusing time.

Another nice feature is the Flexible Spot focus, which provides greater focusing versatility and precision. When you select the Flexible Spot, you can use the control navigator to move the focus point to spot inside the frame.

The RX10 also features Lock-on AF function, which is activated by pressing the shutter button halfway. The Lock-on AF precisely focuses even on moving subjects by continuously adjusting target frame size based on its recognition of subject characteristics. This allows you to easily stay focused on the main action as the object tracking innovation optimises autofocus timing. Don’t worry if your subject goes out of frame temporarily because tracking resumes at the moment it is recaptured after re-entering the frame.

The RX10 comes with 1,229K-dot tiltable 3.0-type White Magic LCD screen, which can be tilted within a range of angles extending from about 84 degrees upward to about 45 degrees downward, so you can shoot comfortably from various positions.

In bright sunlight, you can opt to use its built-in, bright, high-resolution OLED Tru-Finder to compose your shots. The electronic viewfinder provides approximately 33-degree view angle and maintains excellent edge-to-edge visibility of the four dual-sided aspherical lenses.

The camera’s operation control is already intuitive but you can still customise the controls to suit your needs or make it faster.

Moreover, RX10 allows you to use the manual ring to directly control certain settings, zooming and focusing, according to the focus mode in use. In addition, before turning the aperture ring to set F-stop, you can turn Aperture Click Switch on for a stepwise feel of assurance, or you can turn it off for a quiet, smooth feel when setting the aperture.

Apart from seeing the current settings on the screen, you can glance at the display panels on top to realise key settings.

Sony has designed the RX10 in such a way that you can easily changes key settings through a new, improved graphical user interface. You simply have to press the Fn button to display a list of the settings, which can be changed according to the current exposure mode. For example, the interface allows you to change creative style, picture effect, drive mode, metering mode, exposure compensation, ISO settings and neutral density filter options.

The RX10 is light, solid and robust enough for long, rigorous use thanks to its magnesium alloy top and front casings. Best of all, it is dust- and moisture-resistant so you can use it in rugged outdoor environments without worry.

The camera comes with a built-in Wi-Fi and NFC (near field communication). You can tap a smart phone with NFC function to RX10 and easily link the camera to the phone. Then, you can use Sony’s PlayMemories Mobile app to remotely control the camera’s shutter release.

When the camera is wirelessly connected to your smart phone, you can instantly send photos from the camera to the phone for sharing on the social networks.

The RX10 can also record Full HD video at the 60p/24p bit rate. And it has plenty of features to enhance your movies. For example, you can connect a high-performance microphone through an input terminal to record sound with precision worthy of professional production. You can also plug in premium-quality Sony headphones to the camera’s headphone jack to monitor stereo sound.

The camera also has a built-in HDMI output terminal to connect to a TV, computer or DVD player/recorder. You can also use the camera's Multi Interface Shoe and an optional XLR Adaptor Kit to hook up external recording, flash and other accessories.

When you connect RX10’s HDMI output to an external monitor or recorder, it will transfer a clear, uncompressed digital movie signal to the external monitor simultaneously in real time. You can also turn off the shooting info display to watch your movies in a cleaner view.

RX10 is easy to operate with some buttons and controls so that you don’t have to change the settings via its menu. There is a mode dial for changing exposure modes, an exposure compensation dial and a control dial as well as a dedicated movie recording button. You can also change the aperture setting by turning to aperture control ring on the lens.

The mode dial provides you access to Auto Mode, Programme Auto, Aperture Priority (A), Shutter Priority (S) Manual (M), two customisable Memory Recall modes, Sweep Panorama, Scene Selection and Movie.

If you are an advanced photographer, you can make the most of the RX10 by using advanced M, P, A or S mode as well as Memory Recall modes, which allow you to set settings in advance.

Advanced users can further enhance their creativity by using picture effects and creative styles provided by RX10. All in all, the RX10 has 13 Pictures Effects and 14 Creative Styles.

When you select a picture effect or creative style, you call see all the effects applied in real time on the camera screen.

Beginners can also achieve beautiful shots with the RX10, using its auto mode and programme scene modes.

When you choose the Scene Selection option on the mode dial, you can select the programme scene modes by either turning the control dial or using the Function key to turn on the setting adjusting interface. The scene modes include Portrait, Sports Action, Macro, Landscape, Sunset, Night Scene, Hand-held Twilight and Anti Motion Blur.

Although there is one spot of Auto mode on the mode dial, there are two options of full auto exposure mode – Intelligent Auto and Superior Auto. You can select the auto options by pressing the function key.

The Intelligent Auto will analyse the current lighting environment and select an appropriate scene mode for you. 

The Superior Auto is great. It will evaluate the shooting conditions and select an appropriate scene mode for you. In certain complex lighting conditions, the camera will even capture multiple shots at different exposures and combine them into one very sharp and clean photo.

I took the RX10 to rest in Hua Hin and was impressed both by the image quality and performance.

Its ND filter function worked effectively in reducing sunlight so that the landscape shots were not too white or too blown out.

I mostly used automatic modes, and the cameras properly selected appropriate scene modes for me.

I found that the RX10 has a good dynamic range, capturing good details in shadows without blowing out the lighted parts.

The 8.3x optical zoom allowed me to zoom in on subjects on the beach far from where I was standing and catch a close-up of Khao Takiab that could barely be seen with the naked eye.

The camera reproduced faithful colours and I was able to enhance these with the Vivid creative style in Programme Auto mode.

The RX10 has very good performance. It took less than two seconds to start up to be ready for the first shot. I noticed no shutter lag time or the time between half-pressing the shutter release and fully pressing it. And the shot-to-shot time was only about half a second.

You can use two continuous shooting modes – regular continuous and speed priority. In the speed priority, the RX10 can achieve 10 fps while the regular continuous mode, it can capture up to 38 shots in 3.4 fps frame rate.

The camera has a good battery life too capturing about 420 shots per charge.

But of course it’s not cheap. It’s retailing here for Bt39,990.

 

Key specs:

Image Sensor: 1-inch Exmor R CMOS sensor with 20.2 megapixel resolution

Lens: 8.3x Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T 24-200mm equivalent focal length with f/2.8 aperture

Imaging Processor: BIONZ X

ISO Sensitivity: Auto (ISO125-12800)

Shutter Speed: Bulb, 30 - 1/3200

Exposure Settings: Programme Auto, Aperture Priority, Shutter Speed Priority, Manual Exposure, MR (Memory Recall) 1, MR2

Metering Modes: Multi-segment, Centre-weighted, Spot

Focus Area: Multi point AF (25 points) / Centre weighted AF / Flexible spot

Focus System: Contrast-detect AF

LCD: 3.0-inch 4:3/ 1,228,000 dots / Xtra Fine / TFT LCD / Tiltable (up approx. 84 deg., down approx. 43 deg.)

Viewfinder: OLED Tru-Finder 0.7x electronic viewfinder with 1,440,000 dots

Video recording: 1920 x 1080 (60p, 60i, 24p) ,1440 x 1080 (30p), 640 x 480 (30p) MPEG-4, AVCHD

Memory Card Slot: Dual compatibility slot: Memory Stick PRO Duo/Pro-HG Duo/PRO-HG HX Duo media - SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards

Ports: micro HDI, USB 2.0, 3.5mm mic jack, 3.5mm headphone jack

Wireless connection: NFC, Wi-Fi

Battery: InfoLITHIUM NP-FW50 (7.7V) 1,080 mAh

Dimensions (Approx.): 129.0 x 88.1 x 102.2 mm (W/H/D) excluding protrusions

Weight (Approx.): With battery and Memory Stick PRO Duo, 813 g