Hands-on with Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III
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The Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III boasts a 24-600mm equivalent zoom lens, 14fps continuous stills shooting and 4K video capture. We’ve had the chance to get hands-on with Sony’s newest flagship compact camera today for a few hours, and we’ve put together some first impressions. Click through this slideshow for a closer look at the new Cyber-shot RX10 III.
Hands-on with Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III
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Cosmetically and ergonomically, the RX10 III is a near twin of its predecessor the RX10 II. It feels the same, looks pretty much the same and the key controls are laid out in the same way. The grip has been slightly redesigned (our impression is that it’s slightly more comfortable when the lens is zoomed fully, but there’s not much in it) but if you’ve used an RX10 II, the RX10 III will feel immediately familiar.
At just over a kilo (~2.3 pounds) in weight the RX10 III is not not quite as heavy as it looks, and in use (like the RX10 II) it feels solid and well-made.
Hands-on with Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III
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The RX10 III isn’t a particularly ‘compact’ camera when it’s turned off, but once it’s turned on and the lens extends, it gets even larger. Here, the camera is shown with its lens zoomed out to 24mm…
Hands-on with Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III
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…and here’s what the camera looks like when zoomed in all the way to 600mm. This is a big lens and it takes around 4 seconds to go from 24mm to 600mm.
Hands-on with Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III
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To help frame your shot with such a long zoom, Sony has provided a ‘Zoom Assist’ feature that lets you jump back to wider framing so that you can re-find your subject, before releasing the button to jump back to your chosen zoom level.
Hands-on with Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III
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The RX10 III boasts a powerful video feature set, based around 4K capture which samples a 17MP chunk of the sensor then down-scales to 4K, . In theory, this should mean that video quality is pretty darned good, and we’ll be posting some samples as soon as we can.
As we’d expect from a camera with such solid video credentials the RX10 III offers headphone and microphone sockets, as well as HDMI out and USB (2.0). This view also shows the articulating rear screen, folded out. As usual (sadly) for Sony, the screen is a magnet for finger prints and general crud, and isn’t touch-sensitive.
Hands-on with Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III
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The RX10 III’s built-in flash is (as usual for cameras like this) pretty weedy, but its pop-up mechanism raises it unusually high above the lens axis, which should reduce the risk of red-eye in portraits, and minimize shadowing caused by the massive lens.
Hands-on with Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III
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The rear control layout of the RX10 III is exactly the same as the RX10 II. Twin control dials (one to the right of the movie button and one around the 4-way controller) allow control over exposure parameters, and a generous rubber thumb grip helps to get a firm hold on the camera.
The RX10 III’s electronic viewfinder is very nice indeed, boasting 2.35 million dots (giving 1024 x 768 pixel resolution).
Hands-on with Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III
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The RX10 III is rated for 420 shots from its supplied NP-FW50 lithium-ion battery, which is a modest increase from the 400 shot rating of the RX10 II (as per CIPA ratings in both cases). For maximum battery life, deactivate the built-in Wi-Fi and NFC when not in use.
Hands-on with Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III
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One of the things we liked about the RX10 and RX10 II is the physical aperture ring. The RX10 III also boasts two additional rings for focus and zoom – the latter function doubled by a conventional compact camera-style ‘W-T’ rocker around the shutter release. And note that the shutter button is threaded for a mechanical cable release – a nice touch, and a subtle indication of the RX10 III’s high-end positioning.
Hands-on with Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III
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We’ll be posting images and video samples from the RX10 III as soon as we can – keep an eye on our homepage!
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)