New Delhi, July 1 – How does one improve the best point and shoot camera in the world? Well, Sony has all the answers to that. Last year, it brought out an iterative update to the RX100, the MKII, but this time around it brings a raft of changes with the MKIII offering even an electronic view finder, but all this costs a bomb.
The camera is available for ‘just’ Rs.54,990, (equivalent to RM-3,100) which is quite a lot of money. The camera is available in the market from today onwards. One can get decent mid range DSLRs for that much with a good prime lens in tow.
However, historically, the RX100 has offered blend of DSLR like image quality in a nimble package and that’s something DSLR can’t claim to do so. With the latest update, Sony is offering the latest Zeiss Vario Sonnar-T* with a focal length of 24-70mm and a F1.8-2.8 lens system.
Sony completes the package with the inclusion of a electronic viewfinder, which the Japanese company likes to call a OLED True-Finder, which even has a Zeiss T* coating. It’s worth noting that Sony’s various NEX line of micro-four thirds cameras have flaunted such electronic viewfinders and they have proven to be very good, often better than optical viewfinders.
On the RX100 and the RX100 MKII users had to separately purchase an ungainly electronic or optical viewfinder attachment, which made the camera very expensive. This time around the increase in price is warranted as the viewfinder is integrated into the product.
It even has a brand new 20.1-megapixel backside illuminated type 1.0 Exmor R CMOS sensor, which is tied with Sony’s BIONZ X image processing engine. This also promises improved performance over the RX100 MKII.
There is 50Mbps high bit-rate support for Full HD movies with the XAVC S codec support. The camera, this time around also shoots video in 4K resolutions. Sony has changed the control layout of the camera offering more manual control for the enthusiast.
Sony is embracing the selfie phenomenon and the LCD of the camera flips all the way round so that users can click selfies easily and track the result on the LCD screen. The camera supports Sony’s PlayMemories apps on Android .
Clearly, Sony is targeting enthusiasts with this camera as its offering more and more advanced features with the product. The Rs.54,990 (equivalent to RM-3,100) price will seem steep to most amateurs, and hence the RX100 MII retains great value. In fact, it’s now cheaper at Rs.35,899 (equivalent to RM- 2,200)
That said, with the type of functionality that RX100 MKIII brings to the table the price does appear justified. Maybe, it’s time for Sony to remove the ‘point and shoot’ tag from it because as long as it retains that label it will always appear to be overpriced. It frankly offers a middle ground between a point and shoot, a DSLR and a micro-four thirds camera.
-INDIA TODAY
