Sony RX10 III review - All-in-one bridge camera, and then some

Introduction

We first covered the RX10 III in this news piece here, and back then we noted how this camera is such a welcomed addition to Sony’s RX family. It looks identical to the RX 10 II, though just a bit larger overall, measuring 133 x 94 x 127mm to the RX 10 II’s 129 x 88 x 102 mm body. What’s more obvious however, is the difference in weight – the RX10 III weighs some 238g more than the RX 10 II, coming in at 1051g.

Size and weight aside, the biggest change with the RX10 III is of course, the headlining zoom capabilities. The RX10 III now boasts a equivalent zoom range of 24-600mm, more than twice the previous range. It also comes with eight ED glass elements (including one super ED element and two aspherical ED lenses), allowing for superior contrast and sharpness throughout the zoom range.

Considering the long focal length, the RX10 III's lens still maintains a bright f/2.4-4.0 maximum aperture range, which should help you isolate your subjects sufficiently regardless of the amount of zoom applied, as well as increase the chance of usable shots in low light situations.

Like the RX 10 II and the RX 100 IV before it, the RX 10 III uses a stacked 1.0-inch BSI CMOS sensor (with an effective resolution of 20.1MP) with DRAM chip and Sony’s BIONZ X image processing engine. The combination allows for a standard ISO range of 100-12,800 (expandable down to ISO 64), and the ability to support super slow-motion recording at up to 1,000fps in High Frame Rate (HFR) mode.

The camera also retains the ability to do in-camera 4K (3,840 x 2,160) recording without pixel binning, and you will get the same set of movie functions like Picture Profile, S-Gamut/S-Log2, Gamma Display Assist, enhanced Zebra function, clean HDMI output, TC/UB, REC Control, Dual REC, and Marker functions. Evidently, the RX10 III is set up to be a very capable performer for both stills and video.

Design and Handling

As we mentioned earlier, the RX10 III is certainly a sizeable camera for something that doesn’t support interchangeable lenses. In this case though, the size is actually quite welcome as the lens really zooms out quite a bit when at the maximum focal length of 600mm. Having more of a body to grip really does help in this case, and you’ll really need to be able to keep the camera as stable as possible when taking pictures at longer focal lengths.

Thankfully though, we found that the camera is evenly weighted, making it decently easy to get images without too much handshake. Being able to retract the lens into the body itself also helps to keep the camera fairly small overall, thus making it easy to carry out. You certainly won’t find many all-on-one cameras with a 600mm lens that are smaller than the RX10 III.

Also new on the RX10 III are triple rings on the lens that allow you to adjust focus, zoom and aperture. That’s certainly better than using a single dial to adjust both aperture and shutter, but we do think that the focus-by-wire system could respond better. As it is, there seems to be a bit of lag between turning the ring and seeing the focus adjust. It also seems like the camera shifts between a zoomed-in display and focus peaking intermittently, without settling into one or the other, making it a little difficult to see the exact plane of focus. What's worth nothing is that Sony has also provided a standard zoom lever under the shutter button, allowing you to use powered zooming while doing video. 

Meanwhile, the handgrip has been redesigned to give you a better grip, and there’s now a new Focus Hold button on the lens barrel to lock the focus distance. You’ll also find two more custom function buttons on top of the body, and one behind, so you can get your most commonly used functions at a single touch.

The rear LCD will flip up and down, but not to the side, and there’s no support for touch, which is certainly surprising for a product released in 2016, and slightly limits the usability of the panel. However, with a superzoom lens like this, you’ll probably want the camera to your face for maximum stability most of the time. The RX10 III is also equipped with a 2.36 miilion-dot, XGA OLED electronic viewfinder.

Imaging Performance

To properly put the RX10 III through its paces, we took the camera to the Jurong Bird Park to try out both the HFR (High Frame Rate) mode and the quality of the lens. We must say we were left duly impressed, as the camera focuses down to a mere 3cm at full wide, and 72cm at full telephoto. That means you can attempt pseudo macro-type shots like close-ups of flowers with good detail.

Optical SteadyShot works as advertised too, as we were able to get images without shake at 1/10s at focal lengths above 500mm - which is very impressive. And much needed when you’re working at such long focal lengths.  

Also impressive was the camera’s ability to focus in low light. We took the camera into the Owl enclosure, where the lighting was deliberately kept dim, and were amazed to see how the camera was able to get focus when even some mid-range cameras had failed previously. In general, autofocus is fast and accurate with this camera, so we’d try to use that over manual focus mode as far as possible.

HFR capture was a bit of a mixed bag though, especially if you’re trying to use the feature with a subject that moves erratically. The camera defaults to continuous autofocus in this mode, and there’s no easy way to shift out of HFR mode, so you can’t easily jump out to focus on another subject this way. 

Also, HFR takes quite a bit of time to process between shots, during which you won’t be able to do anything with the camera, so it’s certainly not something we’d advise for live action. It can also be a little confusing because the on-screen instructions don’t change whether the camera is in Start Trigger or End Trigger mode, telling you each time to “press to start recording”. That applies when you’re in Start Trigger, but not in End Trigger as the camera is already recording once you enter HFR mode. Still, when you do get something good, the results are stunning and certainly beyond what other bridge cameras are offering at the moment.

Overall, we must say Sony has got their stacked sensor technology right, as the RX10 III produces great images in good light, with detail that could probably rival what you might get from older ILCs (interchangeable lens cameras) with smaller than full-frame size sensors. And did we say that the 600mm lens is very useful in a lot of situations? We can see the RX10 III being a very popular travel camera, too.

Sample Images

The images below are sample photographs shot with the Sony RX10 III. The photos have not been post-processed 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 the full-resolution images.

HFR clips

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Conclusion

To sum up, the RX10 III performs best under good light, and at ISO levels below 3,200. At its best, it's capable of an image quality that matches or exceeds ILCs, all this without the weight a wide aperture 600mm lens (and equivalent body) would bring. At the higher ISOs, noise reduction will take away some detail the lens is able to capture, but we do think Sony has already squeezed every last inch of performance out of the 1-inch sensor. The image stablization system also works a treat. From an optics and electronics standpoint, the RX10 III has no peer.

That said, we would like to see the return of built-in ND filters and maybe more control over the camera when in HFR mode. A touchscreen interface would be nice too. Also, while its 14fps burst shooting spec looks attractive on paper, in reality, that's done with focus locked from the first shot, thus reducing its attractive as an action camera.

And last but not least, at S$2,299, the RX10 III isn’t cheap if you just want something to take photographs with. But if you want an all-in-one camera that gives great image quality (both stills and videos) over an incredibly wide zoom range, there really aren’t many options that offer you this level of performance without considerably more weight.

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