Sony RX100 VII & AGR2 Grip Sony - Review 🏆

The Sony RX100 VII is an advanced compact digital camera that packs impressive capabilities into a pocket-sized body. Part of Sony's premium RX100 series, it's geared towards serious photographers who want professional image quality and features without the bulk of a DSLR.

The RX100 VII features a 20.1MP 1-inch stacked CMOS sensor and an upgraded BIONZ X image processor, allowing it to capture high-resolution stills and up to 4K video. The 24-200mm equivalent zoom lens provides an extremely versatile focal range in a compact form factor. With its retractable design, the RX100 VII remains pocketable despite the 8.3x optical zoom range.

For autofocus, the RX100 VII utilizes 357 phase and 425 contrast detection AF points that cover approximately 65% of the sensor. This, combined with its continuous shooting speed of up to 20fps, makes the RX100 VII well-suited for action photography. The flip-up touchscreen LCD provides flexibility for composing shots from creative angles.

Overall, the RX100 VII provides unmatched portability, image quality, speed, and features compared to other compact cameras. It's an excellent choice for travel, street, and everyday photography when you want to go light without compromising on photo and video capabilities.

Build Quality and Design

The Sony RX100 VII premium compact camera features an impressive, durable build quality despite its compact size. The camera body is made of a magnesium alloy frame surrounded by a rigid plastic shell, giving it a sturdy yet lightweight feel.

Weighing just 302g, the RX100 VII can easily fit into a pocket or small bag, making it highly portable. Its dimensions are 4 x 2.3 x 1.7 inches, with a nice rounded grip on the front right side that allows for a secure one-handed hold. The smooth matte black finish looks sleek while also providing a textured, easy to grip surface.

The buttons, dials, and zoom lever all have a quality, sturdy feel. The pop-up 2.36m-dot OLED electronic viewfinder is also well-constructed and provides a clear image. Overall, the premium materials and compact but ergonomic design make the RX100 VII ideal for travel and daily shooting.

Image Sensor and Processor

The Sony RX100 VII features a large 1-inch type stacked Exmor RS CMOS sensor with 20.1 megapixels resolution. This provides excellent light gathering capabilities and contributes to the camera's outstanding image quality. The sensor's back-illuminated design improves light collection efficiency and signal processing.

The BIONZ X image processor works with the 1-inch sensor to enable fast continuous shooting up to 20fps, 4K video recording, and sensitivities up to ISO 12800. It also provides quick autofocus and overall operational speed. The fast processing enables advanced features like real-time eye AF and real-time tracking for reliable focus on moving subjects.

Overall, the combination of the high resolution 1-inch sensor and powerful BIONZ X processor enables the RX100 VII to deliver stunning images and video, even in challenging lighting conditions. The large sensor size provides a great balance of high resolution, low noise, and good dynamic range.

Lens

The Sony RX100 VII features a high-quality Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-200mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens with a versatile focal range ideal for everything from wide-angle landscapes to telephoto shots. Despite the long 8.3x zoom range, the lens maintains a fast f/2.8-4.5 maximum aperture for excellent low-light performance and depth of field control.

The advanced optics and Zeiss anti-reflective coating deliver superb sharpness and minimize chromatic aberration, even at the edges of the frame. The 9-blade aperture diaphragm produces attractive bokeh for out-of-focus areas. This allows you to capture professional-looking portraits with smooth, creamy backgrounds.

With a minimum focus distance of 8cm at the 24mm setting, you can shoot close-up subjects with fine detail. The built-in Optical SteadyShot image stabilization provides up to 4 stops of correction to enable sharp handheld shots and smooth video footage even at slower shutter speeds and longer focal lengths.

Overall, the lens offers an extremely versatile zoom range in a compact retractable body without compromising image quality, low-light performance, or stabilization. This makes the RX100 VII highly appealing for travel, street, landscape and general everyday shooting scenarios.

Autofocus and Continuous Shooting

The Sony RX100 VII has a fast and accurate autofocus system with 357 phase and 425 contrast detection AF points that cover around 65% of the image area. This allows for precise subject tracking and detection.

For tracking moving subjects, the RX100 VII utilizes Sony's advanced Real-time Tracking and Real-time Eye AF technology. Real-time Tracking utilizes AI-based object recognition to keep focus on a selected subject, even if they momentarily move out of the frame or behind an object. Real-time Eye AF detects and focuses on a person's eye for crisp portrait shots.

The RX100 VII offers quick continuous shooting speeds up to 20 fps with AF/AE tracking, allowing you to capture fast action shots. The buffer depth when shooting JPEG images is over 100 frames. The camera also has a fast Anti-Distortion shutter that can shoot up to 1/32,000s.

Overall, the autofocus system and continuous shooting capabilities of the RX100 VII make it well-suited for shooting moving subjects and action sequences. The accurate subject tracking and fast burst speeds give you flexibility when capturing fleeting moments.

Video Capabilities

The Sony RX100 VII is an excellent choice for videography thanks to its impressive video capabilities. It can shoot 4K video at 30fps and 24fps, resulting in ultra high definition footage.

Slow motion video is possible at up to 960fps for incredible slow motion effects. Full HD 1080p video can be recorded at up to 120fps.

The RX100 VII utilizes full pixel readout without pixel binning when recording video. This means that it reads and processes data from every pixel on the sensor for sharper, more detailed video.

Image stabilization is also available when shooting video to help smooth out shakes and bumps when handholding the camera. The Active SteadyShot mode provides advanced stabilization for especially shaky footage. This allows you to capture usable video even when walking or in motion.

Overall, the video features allow the RX100 VII to shoot very high quality 4K and HD footage. Slow motion, stabilization, and full pixel readout help make this a great choice for videographers and vloggers.

Features and Controls

The RX100 VII has an impressive array of features and controls packed into its compact body. Some of the highlights include:

Flip Screen

The 3-inch touchscreen LCD can flip up 180 degrees and rotate down 90 degrees for flexible monitoring and selfies. The screen provides sharp, detailed viewing even in sunlight.

Electronic Viewfinder

In addition to the rear LCD, the RX100 VII has a retractable 2.36M-dot OLED Tru-Finder electronic viewfinder. This allows for eye-level composition and viewing, which can be especially helpful in very bright lighting conditions.

Menus

Sony menus can be complex, but the RX100 VII allows for customization of the Function menu for quick access to your most-used settings. This helps streamline the shooting process. There are also "My Menu" options for saving your preferred menu items.

Ports

For connectivity, the RX100 VII has both microphone and headphone ports for advanced audio capabilities. It has a USB-C port for charging, data transfer and has HDMI output to external monitors/recorders. The camera also has Bluetooth and WiFi built-in for wireless remote control and image transfer.

Battery Life

The Sony RX100 VII has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery rated for around 260 shots per charge based on the CIPA standard. This is lower than many DSLR and mirrorless cameras, but fairly typical for a compact camera of this size.

The battery life allows you to shoot all day intermittently, but you'll want to pack a spare battery or two for travel or all-day shooting. The camera charges via USB, so you can top up the battery on the go with a portable USB battery pack.

Overall the battery life is decent given the compact size of the RX100 VII. Just be aware you may need spare batteries for extended outings or trips. The camera gives you ample warning when the battery is low, so you won't be caught off guard.

Image and Video Quality

The Sony RX100 VII excels when it comes to image and video quality.

Still Images

Still images captured with the RX100 VII show impressive detail and dynamic range. The 20.1MP 1-inch Exmor RS CMOS sensor and latest generation BIONZ X image processor deliver excellent image quality with low noise. Photos have rich, vivid colors and plenty of resolution for large prints. The lens is extremely sharp edge-to-edge.

4K Video

For video, the RX100 VII can record 4K video at 30fps with full pixel readout and no pixel binning. This results in very detailed, sharp 4K footage. The SteadyShot stabilization effectively reduces camera shake for smoother videos when handholding. Autofocus and auto exposure work quickly and accurately when recording video.

Low Light Performance

Low light performance is also excellent thanks to the fast f/2.8-4.5 lens and great high ISO noise reduction. Images shot at ISO 3200 and even ISO 6400 show minimal noise and retain good color and detail. This makes the RX100 VII highly versatile for low light events, indoor shooting, and night photography.

Pros and Cons

Pros: - Excellent image quality and high ISO performance from 1-inch sensor - Versatile 24-200mm zoom lens with fast f/2.8-4.5 maximum aperture - Fast and accurate autofocus tracking for stills and video - 4K video recording with full pixel readout, S-Log2 and S-Log3 profiles - Flip-up touchscreen great for selfies and vlogging - Compact, lightweight and sturdy metal body - Useful features like mic input, headphone jack and clean HDMI out

Cons: - Lens not as bright at telephoto end (f/4.5) - No built-in ND filter - Battery life could be better - Menu system can be confusing - No in-body image stabilization - Pricey for an advanced compact camera

Overall, the Sony RX100 VII packs great imaging capabilities into a highly portable body. The versatile zoom lens, fast autofocus, 4K video and flip screen make it a great choice for travel, vlogging and everyday shooting. Image quality is excellent, but the price is on the high side. Lack of in-body stabilization and ND filter may limit video uses somewhat. Still, the RX100 VII offers impressive performance and features for its size.