360Photography

Intro

Sony’s RX100 may have ushered in the era of the 1″ sensor compact, but it took Panasonic to combine these larger sensors with the long-lens flexibility that defines a travel zoom. This shouldn’t be a surprise, since Panasonic spearheaded that type of camera back in the days when small sensors ruled the Earth.

The RX100 VI, with its 24-200mm equivalent lens, marks Sony’s entry into the travel zoom sphere, pitching it squarely up against Panasonic’s ZS/TZ models: the ZS100 and ZS200. So how do they compare?

Body

The Panasonics, with their longer lenses, are a little larger in every dimension. They have viewfinder eye-pieces extending slightly from their upper left-hand corners. This extra space finds some use, though, with both cameras offering control dials on their top right shoulders, which the Sony lacks. The ZS200 even finds space for a rubber strip down the front of the camera, making it much easier to grip in a stable manner.

The RX100 M6 is still a pretty reasonable size for an 8x travel zoom

The Sony comes closest to counting as pocketable. The RX100 series have added a couple of mm here and there over their lifetime, but although they’ve been creeping up in size compared with enthusiast compacts, the RX100 M6 is still a pretty reasonable size for an 8x travel zoom.

All three cameras have metal bodies but in each case it’s a fairly thin shell, so don’t expect any of them to put up with much rough-and-tumble.

Lenses

The Lumix DC ZS200 has by far the greatest lens range of this trio but, in order to keep the size of the camera down, also has the least bright lens of the three. Its F3.3-6.4 maximum aperture is the most limited in terms of low light performance, and it gives a little less control over depth-of-field at traditional portrait focal lengths.

The ZS100 sits in the middle of the group, with a 25-250mm equivalent lens and F2.8-5.9 maximum aperture, while the Sony opts for the most modest zoom range (~24.5 to 200mm equivalent) but in combination with the brightest aperture range.

The RX100 VI maintains a value of F4 up to and a little beyond 100mm equivalent, meaning it can shoot passable portraits

F2.8-4.5 isn’t much to shout about if you compare it with the short, bright zoom on the RX100 V, but it’s noticeably brighter than those of the Panasonics. The RX100 VI maintains a value of F4 up to and a little beyond 100mm equivalent, meaning it can shoot a passable portrait, as well as a wide range of holiday snaps.

Autofocus

We’ve been pretty impressed with the autofocus performance of the Panasonic ZS / TZ cameras. It’s not pro sports level but it’s pretty good at subject tracking and produces a pretty reasonable hit-rate, even when shooting at 10 fps.

However the RX100 VI is playing at a rather different level. One of the main things you’re paying for in this camera is its fast sensor with on-sensor phase detection. This, along with algorithms Sony developed for its a9 pro sports camera, means hugely impressive autofocus performance. Even at its maximum shooting rate of 24 frames per second, it’s able to track moving subjects very effectively.

Sony’s Eye AF system outperforms the Panasonics by a significant degree, in terms of both speed and accuracy.

Even if you don’t shoot fast-moving subjects or rattle-off 24 fps bursts, the RX100 VI’s autofocus can be very useful. While the Panasonics are able to identify and focus on subjects’ eyes as part of its Face Detection mode, the Sony’s Eye AF system outperforms it by a significant degree, in terms of both speed and accuracy. If you hold down a button to engage Eye AF you can essentially depend on your subject being perfectly focused.

Viewfinders

All three cameras feature viewfinders, which is hugely useful when shooting in bright light, adding to the flexibility of all these cameras. The ZS100 has the smallest, lowest-resolution finder of the three, followed by ZS200, with the RX100 VI offering the highest resolution as well as the largest viewfinder image.

The Sony has the upper hand in this respect, since it has a bright contrasty OLED viewfinder, whereas the Panasonics use field-sequential lower contrast LCDs. These refresh one color after another, rather than showing red, green and blue at the same time. The resulting ‘rainbow effect’ can be off-putting for some users and becomes more visible in low light.

Image Quality

All three cameras perform very well in terms of image quality, compared with older travel zooms or contemporary smartphones, thanks to their large, 1″-type sensors. A 13.2 x 8.8 mm chunk of silicon isn’t much when compared with most interchangeable lens cameras, but it’s enough to offer in the region of a 3EV difference to a smartphone shot at the same F-number (though multi-shot and computational techniques allow some of the latest phones to compete).

Panasonic and Sony have historically ranked somewhat poorly in our estimation when it came to JPEG color, but both have made significant improvements with their recent models. These improvements, combined with some of the most sophisticated noise reduction and sharpening available see us leaning towards the Sony when it comes to JPEG quality.

Lens performance tends to be somewhat variable with the complex, collapsible lenses used in this class of camera

Lens performance tends to be somewhat variable with the complex, collapsible lenses used in this class of camera but we’ve been impressed by what we’ve seen of the Sony lens, so far, whereas we haven’t encountered a ZS200 that could maintain sharpness across its full (extensive) zoom range.

Low light performance is somewhat hindered by the cameras’ relatively slow maximum apertures, which give them less access to light, meaning noisier images than you can get with the likes of the RX100 V or LX10 with their shorter but brighter lenses.

Video

All three cameras offer 4K video at up to 30 frames per second but they achieve it in very different ways. The Sony samples the full width of its sensor then processes and downsizes this higher-res footage to UHD 4K resolution. This allows it to capture more detail than the Panasonics, which use a 3840 x 2160 pixel crop from the center of their sensors.

Using a crop means the Lumixes are effectively using smaller sensors, which means less total light capture and noisier footage, as well as losing any wide-angle capability from their lenses. The Sony also offers a range of advanced video features such as the ability to shoot Log footage.

However, a major drawback for all three cameras is that none of them incorporate ND filters in their lenses, nor do they include filter threads for attaching one. This suggests video was fairly low down on the list of priorities in their design.

A major drawback for all three cameras is that none of them incorporate ND filters in their lenses, nor do they include filter threads for attaching one

Aftermarket options exist that glue a threaded mount onto the front of the lens. However, given how delicate these lenses are, we think you’d have to be pretty committed to shooting video to take this approach (and, ideally, fairly careful each time you apply torque to attach a filter).

The Panasonics limit their 4K recording to 15 minutes, while the RX100 VI claims only 5. In each case, these results are likely to be even shorter when shooting in warm environments, which may further restrict your shooting.

Add to this the lack of mic sockets on all three cameras, and you can pretty much rule them out for serious video work, unless you’re really fond of the booming, rasping interruption of wind noise or are willing to give up the convenience and compactness of the camera by carrying a separate audio recorder.

Controls

All three cameras have comparatively limited direct control. Each has a mode dial from which it’s entirely possible to engage P, A, S or M exposure modes, but none of them appears designed with constant settings changes in mind.

As alluded to earlier, the Panasonics do have an edge here though, thanks to the additional control dial on their top right corners. The function of this dial can be reconfigured, which you may wish to do, depending on how you like to shoot. This ability to customize the dial’s function and its more convenient location make it much more convenient than the small, fiddly dial on the back panel of the Sony, which you need to re-arrange your hand position to reach.

The RX100 VI has the most sophisticated Auto ISO system, whereas the ZS200 doesn’t offer quite so much scope for fine-tuning

The RX100 VI has the most sophisticated Auto ISO system, reducing your need to directly control this, the ZS200 doesn’t offer quite so much scope for fine-tuning and the ZS100 is the least clever, with you just having to hope it’ll make the right choices for you.

All three cameras have free-rotating dials around their lenses. These are great for controlling continuously adjustable settings, such as zoom or manual focus but give no tactile feedback to help indicate when you’re adjusting discrete settings, such as aperture value, ISO or exposure compensation, which can lead to accidental settings changes.

Touchscreen

The RX100 VI is the first of its line to include a touchscreen and, like other recent Sonys, this can be used to position the AF point, both when the rear screen is being used and as a touchpad when the camera is to your eye.

Panasonic was the first brand to use the rear screen as a touchpad, so it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that its touchscreen implementation is rather more polished. The Lumixes may lack the ability to specify which areas of the screen should/shouldn’t be active in touchpad mode, but they allow the use of the touchscreen for a much wider range of functions.

Panasonic was the first brand to use the rear screen as a touchpad

The menus in the ZS100 and 200, while different, are both touch sensitive. Both cameras also offer a customizable version of their Q.Menus, which are designed with large, easy to press buttons. You can customize the Sony’s comparable ‘Fn’ menu but you can’t interact with it via the touchscreen.

Conclusion

Overall, then, it looks like an easy win for the Sony. It’s the smallest, and has the brightest lens. It may be the shortest zoom of the three, but it includes a range that will be enough for most applications, so this shouldn’t be limiting.

Our impressions so far are that it also has the best lens, the best autofocus and video that’s both cleaner and more detailed. There are also a couple of things the RX100 does that the Panasonics can’t. Its frankly ridiculous continuous shooting performance may be a differentiator for some photographers, and its Eye AF performance alone would make a huge difference for anyone taking portraits.

Where it loses out is in terms of control. The Panasonics have an extra control dial and make much more extensive use of their touchscreens, which makes it easier to take control over them when you’re shooting. They also trounce the Sony in terms of battery life, offering between 25 and 50% longer battery life depending on the model. This may be a deciding factor for anyone traveling.

The Sony certainly promises a lot more but you also have to pay for that.

Then, of course, there’s the price. Even at list prices, the RX100 VI’s $ 1200 price tag makes it 50% more expensive than the ZS200 and 70% more expensive than the ZS100. This price difference on the street is likely to be still larger, given how long the ZS100’s price has had to drop since launch.

The Sony certainly promises a lot more but you also have to pay for that. Whether it’s worth it for you is something we’ll try to establish in our forthcoming review.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)