Compact Camera News

Sony took the wraps off the RX10 IV today, a digital camera with a massive built-in superzoom lens and a frame rate that’s twice as fast as even some of the speediest professional DSLRs

The RX1 is the first time Sony has combined a compact camera system with a fixed lens system that includes a full-frame sensor that’s nearly the size of classic 35mm film material (35.8x23.9mm). The basic camera concept combines elements of digital compact cameras with features of classic viewfinder cameras, but leaves out an optical or electronic viewfinder. In its stead Sony offers an LCD screen on the back, similar to what you’d find in an entry-level compact camera. The screen is very large (3”) and offers a very high resolution (1.28 million RGB dots). The resulting image preview and the representation of the menu structure is crisp and clear. Sony does offer an optional optical viewfinder, which is mounted on the hot shoe. Just like the camera itself, it is quite expensive. Most users will also be surprised by the battery recharger system of the RX1. It’s equipped with a USB recharger and the user is forced to recharge the battery in the camera. An external recharger and additional batteries are offered as an option.

The Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III has an impressive 25x built-in lens that’s equivalent to 24–600mm lens in the 35mm format. The Zeiss Vario-Sonnar super zoom lens in the Sony RX10 III also features a surprisingly fast aperture range of f/2.4 to f/4. (Offering an f/4 aperture at the 600mm telephoto end in a “bridge” camera has definitely turned quite a few photographers’ heads toward this “serious” superzoom model.)

Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 VII ($1298), to give it its full name, is the latest in the company’s series of pocketable premium fixed lens cameras. The Sony RX100 VII is the follow-up to what has become a long line of Sony RX100 cameras, preceded by the RX100 VI, the RX100 V, the RX100 IV and so on.

Sony extended the reach of its super zoom camera line this morning by unveiling the 20.1-megapixel RX10 III, which boasts a 25x built-in lens that’s equivalent to a 24-600mm zoom in the 35mm format. The Zeiss Vario-Sonnar super zoom lens in the Sony RX10 III also features a surprisingly fast aperture range of f/2.4 to f/4.

Sony just unveiled a compact camera it hopes will put the power of a full-frame DSLR in the palm of your hand. Called the RX1R II (full model name is the DSC-RX1RM2), the pocket-sized camera squeezes a 42.4-megapixel, back-illuminated full-frame sensor compact black camera body.

Here are some tips I discovered when researching this month’s column. One was from my wife who uses this technique all the time—smile! And you know what, people smile back, making you appear friendly and non-threatening. The other was from Michael Archambault, who suggests you “acknowledge that street photography is not perfect.” Or as my grandfather once told me, “If you spend your whole life looking for happiness, it’ll make you miserable.”