Sony RX100 VI Compact Camera Review

where we start to see the value of the RX100 VI emerge is when we consider it as a “do-it-all” camera. It truly is a jack of all trades.
Pros
  • Lightning-fast autofocus
  • Fantastic burst-shot-rate
  • Covers all imaging and video areas rather well
Cons
  • Cost
  • Image quality not quite up to predecessors
  • No external battery charger
Final Rating
calcRating
Rating Details
Bottom Line
where we start to see the value of the RX100 VI emerge is when we consider it as a “do-it-all” camera. It truly is a jack of all trades.
Table of Contents

Specs

  • Sensor : 1-inch CMOS 3:2
  • Lens : 24 – 200mm
  • Max. Aperture : f/2.8(W) – f/4.5(T)
  • Focal-length : 9 – 72mm
  • Video : 4K 30p; up to 1000fps
  • Burst-shot : Up to 24fps

Accessories

There really isn’t much included with the RX100 VI. We get a little lanyard to hook around our wrist, a regional wall-adaptor, and a micro-USB cable for data transfer and to deliver power to the camera via the aforementioned wall-adaptor to charge the battery. Notice how I’ve not mentioned anything about a dedicated battery-charger. More on that in a little while…

rx100vi-accessories

Design

Design-wise not a huge deal has changed with the RV100 VI and it stays very true to the RX100-series. What we have here is a very high performance camera in the compact body of a point-and-shoot.  This is of course highly desirable for travelling or just more general on-the-go scenarios.

rx100vi-front

In the hand the build-quality doesn’t exactly scream super premium at you, but it doesn’t feel poorly constructed either. There’s enough heft to reassure you that you are indeed handling a quality product, not a toy.

rx100vi-top

In typical Sony fashion, we do get a fair number of buttons and other switches. Along the top is the electronic viewfinder, the built-in flash, flash release, the power button, the shutter button/zoom toggle, and mode dial.

The right side (looking from behind the camera) is reserved for the data and HDMI ports (both of which have protective dust-covers), whereas the left side has the viewfinder release switch and the location for the NFC chip. One feature Sony added in here is the fact that you can also use the viewfinder release button as a power-button as well. By popping it up the camera will automatically power on, and likewise when you push the viewfinder back down again the camera will power off. This is something that can be changed within the settings.

rx100vi-bottom

The front is, of course, where we find the lens. But, there’s another future here in the form of what almost looks like a focusing-ring or zoom-ring. In fact, you can assign it to be a zoom-control, but it doesn’t appear that you can set it to adjust your focusing. The rotation of the ring is pretty smooth for the most part, but there is just a little bit a frictional noise and some play with reference to being able to slightly move the ring forwards and backwards.

rx100vi-behind

As is the case with all cameras, the rear is where the main controls are located. The most prominent feature is the 3-inch touch panel. Unfortunately, as I discovered in my review of the A6500, the actual touch functionality is limited only to selecting a focus point and as a touch shutter option. You can’t navigate through menus, etc. I’m really not sure exactly why Sony has chosen to take this direction, as it almost renders the whole purpose of the touch display to be useless. But still, at least being able to use it to select the focusing point is very useful nonetheless.
The display is articulated, giving you around 180-degrees of movement. Being able to move it around is great, especially when you start taking pictures or videos at all kinds of funky angles.

Moving on over to the rest of the rear panel, we get a dedicated recording button for video shooting, a function button, a menu button, a play button, and a delete button. Then, in the centre of all that is the multi-functional dial/button combo. This allows you quick access to some of the most important settings such as the flash settings, exposure settings, and drive-mode.

Overall, whilst I feel that the controls are rather well laid-out given the compact nature of the camera, I can also see those with larger digits experiencing some finger troubles. Not only are the buttons quite small, but some of them also sit almost perfectly flush with the body of the camera. Once Sony gets around to make a MK VII, I do hope that they consider either increasing the size of the buttons, or at least raising them slightly.

rx100vi-lens

It should also be noted that Sony did a bit of a switcheroo with regards to the lens. Whereas the previous RX100 had just a 24-70mm lens, the RX100 VI has a 24-200mm lens. So, at first glance, this seems like a decent upgrade. But, it’s not all that great if you care about what the new lens means for low-light photography. Unfortunately, this lens change has affected the maximum aperture at both the wide and tele end of the lens. Instead of a nice big f/1.8 for the wide end, we’re now only getting a maximum of f/2.8, and likewise for the tele side we’re now getting a max of f/4.5 instead of f/2.8.

Functionality

Sony’s cameras are pretty much known for being stuffed with features, and the RX100 VI is no different. Where the A6500 caters more for photographers, the RX100-series is more aimed at vlogger and other amateur videographers. But, don’t let that fool you into thinking that it lacks photography features, on the contrary, some of it surpasses what the A6500 has to offer.

Let’s deal with the video first. Here we have a camera that’s capable of shooting up to 4K video resolution and this is at 30, 25, or 24 frames per second.
Moving down to Full-HD resolution we have a choice of shooting at up to 120 frames per second for some nice slow-motion capturing.  This is the same as we saw on the A6500. But, where the RX100 VI takes things to a whole other level is by being able to shoot at up to 1000 frames per second, albeit at a pretty low resolution. By low resolution, I mean 912 pixels by 308 pixels, which is quite low by today’s standards.

One absolutely amazing stand-out feature of the A6500 was its blisteringly fast auto-focus system. At a mere 0.03 seconds required to acquire focusing, Sony proudly boasted the A6500 had the fastest focusing speed around. Now, despite the RX100 VI not having as many focusing points as the A6500, we are once again seeing that 0.03 second auto-focus speed popping up. As was noted in the A6500 review, such an incredibly fast focusing system is phenomenal for fast action sports or perhaps even wildlife photography.

A feature that is quite strange is the fact that the RX100 VI has both a slightly larger burst-shot buffer size as well as being able to capture twice as many photos per second as the A6500. As mentioned, the A6500 tends to be catered more towards photographers in mind, so it’s a bit weird to see the more “do-it-all” RX100 VI to be more capable with respect to burst shots. With a continuous burst-shot-rate of just under 24 frames per second and a maximum buffer of 109 images in RAW format, it’s unlikely that the RX100 VI will let you down.

rx100vi-ui

As far as the user-interface is concerned, if you’re familiar with the way Sony structures its menus, then you’ll likely navigate around the RX100 VI’s menus like a champ. But, if you’re new to Sony, then be forewarned that you’ll have a bit of a learning curve with the RX100 VI. It’s not that it’s horribly unintuitive per se, but because Sony stuffs so many features and settings into their devices, it can be a little overwhelming at first, and navigating your way through it all can be a little daunting.
For example, it took me a good couple of minutes to figure out where the setting is to change the function of the control ring on the lens. After searching through a couple of times I discovered that it lies on the 9th page of the 2nd camera settings tab. The issue was that, because the first couple of options under that specific tab were all related to various video settings, I had just skipped over this tab and instead looked for the setting for that control ring under more general settings. But again, that’s mainly an issue for people who aren’t familiar with Sony’s cameras.

An area we do need to talk about is that battery-life, or rather the lack there of. Unfortunately, there’s really no such thing as “the best of both worlds”. If you’re gonna stuff such high performance camera bits into such a compact device, well, then there’s not much space left for a decent battery. As a result we get a maximum of just 240 shots when using the 3-inch panel on the rear, or down to 220 shots when using the electronic viewfinder. And here I was thinking that the 350 shot limit of the A6500 was pretty low!

Image quality

Despite being more of a performer in the video department, as noted, the RX100 VI does have some very decent imaging features as well. But features only mean so much – the actual image quality is arguably far more important.

rx100vi-colours4
rx100vi-colours3
rx100vi-colours2
rx100vi-colours
rx100vi-zoom

Overall Sony has done a great job here and the RX100 VI is capable of producing some very good photos. We’re seeing a nice consistent sharpness over the vast majority of the range for the new lens.
Colours seem reasonably accurate and there isn’t too much of a problem when it comes to the noise reduction when shooting JPEGs.

Video quality

Honestly, this is the RX100 VI’s forte. If we take into consideration the 4K capability and the relatively good slow-motion capabilities, then the RX100 VI makes for more than just a decent compact camera.
With regards to the 4K video, what Sony did here was somewhat clever. Instead of just using the sensor in 3840×2160 resolution, the video image is actually captured from the entire 5500 pixel width and then down-sampled to 4K. This results in a noticeably more detailed capturing of the scene. But, unfortunately, doing things in this manner does require a substantial increase in processing power, and so we are limited to only being able to capture 4K video for no more than 5-minutes. So, this is best left for shooting short scenes.

The RX100 VI also gives you the option to record in what is called S-Log. If you’re unfamiliar with what this is, essentially what it attempts to provide you is a capturing of the scene with as little processing as possible being done to the data. This is to give you more headroom when doing colour correcting and grading in post-production.

Value

So, when we consider everything that the RX100 VI is, we’re left with 2 main ideas in terms of value. On the one hand, the RX100 VI, as far as imaging is concerned, has taken a bit of a turn from its predecessors. That new lens may have improved, or rather extended, the focal range, but it has come at the cost of some low-light performance and shallow depth-of field effects. What this means is that, for more avid photographers who want an ultra-compact high performance camera, perhaps the previous iteration would be more suitable (unless you need the super fact auto-focus).
But, on the other hand, where we start to see the value of the RX100 VI emerge is when we consider it as a “do-it-all” camera. It truly is a jack of all trades, offering very respectable image quality, very decent video features, and again that incredibly fast auto-focus. It’s a “master of none”, but a very good all-round compact offering form Sony.
It’s the type of camera that you buy if you want something that does everything well, rather than doing one or a few specific things very well. If you need more focus on imaging performance and perhaps the ability to exchange lenses, then perhaps consider something like the A6500 which has the same price-tag.