Is the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 III the best compact camera ever made?

Introduction

A couple of years ago, at a time when demand for point-and-shoot cameras was dipping (it's still dipping, by the way), Sony pulled out all the stops to come up with a compact camera that shot really good pictures, due to its larger-than-usual 1-inch sensor. It could also shoot at F1.8, so you get those creamy 'bokeh' backgrounds that everyone loves.

The main problem with it though was its price tag: a dollar short of a thousand bucks.

Back then we thought it was both brave and crazy for Sony to put out the RX100. With smartphones fast supplanting point-and-shoots as the image-recording device for the masses, Sony at least, wised up to the fact that having multiple models with similar features did nothing to help.

The original RX100 and the second iteration went on to garner rave reviews and Sony is now back with the third version. Except this time it’s two hundred dollars more expensive, at S$1,199. Why? Clearly, the company thinks that the faster lens and built-in electronic viewfinder (EVF) justify the increase in price, but does it really add value to the entire package?

Design and handling

The RX100 III hasn’t really changed all that much in terms of looks. It has however, increased about 3mm in thickness to accommodate the larger lens, but the camera remains compact enough to slip into a loose pants pocket. Sony products generally have good build quality, and the RX100 III is no different with its robust build. However, the camera also retains its slippery surface and there’s still no finger grip on the RX100 III, making it much harder for our tired hand to hold on to the camera after a long day of shooting. Sony does market an optional stick-on grip to improve the camera’s handling, or you could opt for a third-party grip.

Because of the EVF on the RX100 III, it loses the hot shoe found on its predecessor, though most probably wouldn’t mind this trade-off. The flash unit moves to the center of the camera, and unlike some of the fixed-angle built-in flashes found on other models, you can tilt the flash at an angle. This can be useful since firing the flash straight ahead usually results in your subject looking like a deer overwhelmed by a car's headlights at close proximity.

The biggest addition to the RX100 III has got to be the EVF, which we found to be strangely fuzzy looking initially. It turned out we also had to adjust the diopter, which itself was pretty well hidden. To cut the story short, you've to extend the viewfinder by pulling it outwards, and the diopter can be found on top of this extended part. That said, after adjustment, this 1,440K-dot OLED EVF looked super sharp, and since it provided 100% coverage, allowed us to focus and frame the shot more precisely than the rear display. Pushing the EVF back into the RX100’s body will cause the camera to shut down, which we found to be rather irritating. While it only takes the camera two seconds to be ready to shoot, having to power on the camera repeatedly after pushing in the EVF is something we can all do without.

While the RX100 II introduced a tilting rear display, the RX100 III takes it further with its display being able to flip up to 180 degrees (and 45 degrees downward), thus making it easy to take selfies. Needless to say, this 3.0-inch, 1,229K-dot, LCD monitor is sharp, bright, and a boon for live view shooting and reviewing of pictures afterwards.

The controls on the rear are pretty standard for a compact camera, though the Fn button now brings up to two rows of functions. You are able to choose the functions to be assigned to these two rows, and can even arrange them in a preferred order. The video-record button is still located right beside the thumb rest, and unfortunately it’s difficult to locate it and press it by touch alone since it sits right at the edge of the camera.

User interface

Due to the RX100 III’s ability to add functions to a variety of buttons and controls, you can customize your shooting interface to a certain degree. For starters, besides the Fn button mentioned earlier, you can also assign functions to the C button, the left and right buttons on the d-pad, and the button in the middle of the d-pad. With a press of the Fn button, you can access the settings that you commonly use, so we found ourselves rarely needing to access the various sub-menus during shooting.

The RX100 III also comes with a built-in neutral density (ND) filter, which isn’t as hyped up as the new lens or the EVF. It however, actually ties in very nicely with the new lens since shooting wide open during the day will most certainly overexpose images. So with the 1/8 ND filter you can shoot at F1.8 during the day to get blurry backgrounds without any worry of overexposure.

The RX100 III comes with built-in Wi-Fi, and it also supports NFC. The process of sending pictures is still a bit clunky, since you can only send an image during playback mode. Connecting via NFC will launch the Sony PlayMemories app right into the remote control mode, making controlling the camera and sending images two very distinct, and thus not streamlined, processes.

Performance

Overall, autofocus is quick, though in our tests, it experienced a noticeable slowdown in low light. The RX100 III’s predictive autofocus isn’t the best at guessing what it was we wanted to shoot, and we experienced times when it focused on a completely different subject or area of the frame. This isn’t a problem with those who use manual focus or are used to setting the area to focus on, but it’s still something to take note of.

The main draw of the Sony RX100 series has always been its image quality and the Mark III here certainly delivers the goods. The camera's 20.1MP Exmor R CMOS sensor and  excellent Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens earned it 2,600 lines per picture height of resolution (both vertical and horizontal), which is very much better than most compact cameras.

The RX100 III also lets you set the noise reduction to low or turn it completely off when shooting with higher ISO settings, but we decided to leave it at normal mode to see what effects it has. We noticed that details started to exhibit a little smudging at ISO 400, but images maintained most of their detail all the way up to ISO 1,000, and even then it was because we were doing a lot of pixel peeping. We would say that you can safely shoot up to ISO 1,600 with the RX100 III before nasties like detail loss (due to aggressive noise reduction) and chroma noise become much more apparent - something that's not possible with most compacts out there. While the camera tops out at a high ISO 12,800, the results are (expectedly) quite a mess at this point.

If you like to shoot videos, the RX100 III is pretty strong in this department too. It's able to record HD movies in the XAVC S2 format (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 for video, linear PCM for audio), and save files in a MP4 wrapper. In this format, the 1080p50 video has a very high 50Mbps bitrate. Focus peaking display (during manual focus) and zebra pattern  - two advanced camcorder features - can also be found on the RX100 III. 

Sample photos

The following are sample photographs shot with the Sony RX100 III. The photos have not been post-processed, are saved in AdobeRGB, and are copyright to SPH Magazines. They are provided for your reference only and we ask that you do not reproduce them elsewhere. Click for full-resolution images.

Conclusion

The RX100 III is one of the best point-and-shoots money can buy, with its good image quality, solid build quality and compact size, and excellent blend of beginner and advanced features. In fact, it probably has the best image performance for a point-and-shoot right now, but its price means it will be competing with some mirrorless system cameras and entry -level DSLRs.

The RX100 III will definitely appeal to those who want good image quality, but care little for changing lenses or don't want to deal with the bulk of a DSLR. While many reviews (including this) talked a lot about its F1.8 aperture at the 24mm wide-angle end, the also-bright F2.8 aperture at the 70mm telephoto end shouldn't be ignored too. For those looking for a bargain, now that the Mark III is in stores, the Mark II can definitely be had for less now, especially if you can do without the EVF and faster lens (you also get further reach with the Mark II, and also a not-as-wide 28mm lens).

Of course the RX100 III isn’t perfect: autofocus tends to be slower than usual in low light and it isn’t always 100% accurate, but these are all minor quibbles about is arguably the most capable compact camera in the market right now. The tilting display, sharp EVF, useful built-in ND display, excellent video features, fast 10fps burst shooting, best-in-class image quality (albeit aggressive JPEG sharpening and over-zealous noise reduction at times) all seem to justify that this is a camera worth paying S$1,199 for.

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