Sony RX100 20.2 MP Premium Compact Digital Camera w/ 1-inch sensor, 28-100mm ZEISS zoom lens, 3” LCD

Awesome camera.Let me start by saying that I am a chronic review reader and gear nut. I love my gear almost as much as my photographs. I am also not easy to please, given my other two kits are a 5D Mark II and an OM-D E-M5.This camera produces the best image files (by a country mile) of any camera remotely close to this size. ISO 125-400 is definitely the sweet spot for the little guy and with enough light, i.e. outdoor shots, the resolution rivals the 5D II. I know that sounds crazy but it is true. Sony hit a home run with the lens / sensor combo.Keep in mind, it cannot perform miracles in low light or for fast moving subjects. Also anything above 800 ISO starts to look a little rough, although I have not had a chance to play with the RAW files in LR4 (waiting for adobe to release an update). The f/1.8 is only available at the very widest focal length but it is still very helpful to have, and f/4.9 is not terrible for the long end. The focus is quick and accurate. Colors and Metering are also great.The only feasible addition that would have made the RX100 even better and warranted a 5-star rating would have been touchscreen focus and touch shutter release. Changing focus points is not hard, but that would have made the camera even more transparent. I cannot understand why Sony did not include this given the touch focus already exists on the NEX-5n. I guess they are saving some tricks for the next generation.Also, the size takes a little getting used two. It's TINY!!!! This is great for pocketing the camera but not as great for keeping it steady. I will also say the in-body stabilization on the OM-D is much better than the Steady-shot on the Sony RX-100. Still, it definitely helps.Overall, the RX100 makes a great, easily pocketable camera for sightseeing, landscapes and well lit conditions. Thinner DOF is much more attainable than any previous ultra compact. It performs admirably in lower light conditions, given what it is; a camera that is credit card sized and ways next to nothing. I humiliates the likes of the S100, LX5, etc. Just don't expect to get the performance in low light that you can get from a larger sensor (M43, APS-C, FF) and brighter, bigger glass.Thanks for reading, hope this is helpful.

With the RX-100, Sony has raised the bar for compact cameras. This small camera provides most of the flexibility of a much larger, heavier, and more expensive digital SLR (dSLR) or digital Semi-Transparent Lens (dSLT) camera, or even of a somewhat larger, heavier, and more expensive Mirror-less Interchangeable Lens Camera (MILC) such as Sony's NEX line of cameras. The RX-100 allows the photographer to control the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, auto-focus area, etc., and creates RAW format images, in addition to the less useful JPEG images. Also, the RX-100 menu system is reasonably intuitive, and easier to manage than the menu system of Sony's NEX line of cameras, about which you can read numerous complaints. The RX-100's 1" sensor is roughly 3 times larger than the 1/2.3" sensor of the typical compact camera, and consequently provides much better image quality than any other compact camera, with the obvious exception of the Sony RX1 compact camera that has a full-frame sensor, and that is roughly 4 times more expensive. The RX-100 boasts a high-quality Zeiss 28-100mm lens, which at 28mm has a maximum aperture of f/1.8 that is very impressive for a compact camera. The RX-100 is a valuable addition to a serious photographer's toolkit, and is as well a viable entry point for the amateur photographer to learn and practice the basic principles of serious photography.However, you get what you pay for, and although the RX-100 sensor is superior to the sensor of any compact camera of similar size and somewhat similar price, its sensor is no match for the sensor of a full-frame compact camera, a full-frame digital SLR, a half-frame digital SLR, or a half-frame MILC camera. For example, the dxomark website provides the following ratings of the sensors for various Sony (and other) cameras, based on measurements of the Color Depth, Dynamic Range, and Low-Light ISO characteristics of those sensors: RX1 full-frame compact (93), A99 full-frame dSLT (89), A77 half-frame dSLT (78), A57 half-frame dSLT (75), NEX-7 MILC (81), and RX-100 compact (66). Viewed from the perspective of these DxO ratings, the RX-100 sensor is in a class with Sony's first dSLR camera, the A100 that DxO gives a rating of 61. So, on one hand, the RX-100 provides equivalent image quality to the A100 dSLR, but on the other hand, the RX-100 image quality falls far short of the quality of the A99 dSLT or RX1 compact.But even considering the superior image quality of a dSLT camera such as the A99, this large, heavy camera is of no use to you unless you are able to take it with you. And taking a large, heavy camera everywhere you go is impractical. So, finally, this issue shows the strength of the RX-100. It is small, light, and unobtrusive, so you can take it with you frequently, and you will have it available to take high-quality photographs, even if those photographs are not of the highest possible quality that you might obtain with a larger, heavier, and more expensive camera.If you insist on the highest-possible image quality in a compact camera, and you are willing to pay for that quality, consider the RX1 instead of the RX100. The dimensions of the RX1, in terms of height, width and depth, are 113mm by 65mm by 70mm, whereas for the RX-100 those dimensions are 102mm by 59mm by 36mm. The weight of the RX1 is 482 grams, whereas the weight of the RX-100 is 240 grams. So, the RX1 has twice the depth and weight of the RX-100, a fact that makes the RX-100 a less obtrusive compact camera. The RX1 has a 35mm f/2 lens, whereas the RX-100 has a 28-100mm f/1.8 zoom lens, but the aperture of the RX-100 lens is f/1.8 only at 28mm, and decreases steadily to f/4.9 as the focal length increases from 28mm to 90mm: f/1.8 at 28mm, f/2.8 at 35mm, f/3.2 at 50mm, f/4 at 70mm, and f/4.9 at 90mm. The RX1 costs $2,800, whereas the RX-100 costs $650.Sony provides a downloadable, 68-page English/Spanish "Digital Still Camera / Instruction Manual" in PDF format for the RX-100 that doesn't give enough detail to be fully useful However, if you perform a Google search, you will find a 227-page or a 261-page much more comprehensive "Cyber-shot User Guide / Sony RX-100 User Guide" in PDF format, that is similarly downloadable from a Sony web page, although Sony doesn't provide any apparent clue that this more comprehensive manual exists. And, if you need even better instructions on the use of the RX-100, you can perform a Google search for Friedman Archives and buy the 425-page "The Complete Guide to Sony's CyberShot RX-100", which, at a price of $21.45 in PDF format, would still be cheap at twice the price.One caveat that you can find on page 203 of the 227-page version of the comprehensive "Cyber-shot User Guide / Sony RX-100 User Guide", or on page 235 of the 261-page version of that guide, is the fact that connecting the RX-100 to a computer via the USB cable can be idiosyncratic. In particular, you may need to connect the USB cable directly to the computer, instead of to a USB hub. Also, you may need to disconnect from the computer any USB devices other than the RX-100, the computer keyboard and the computer mouse. Additionally, you may need to configure the RX-100 "USB Connection" to "Mass Storage" using the RX-100 menu system. This idiosyncratic behavior is the first such behavior that I have noticed in any Nikon, Minolta or Sony digital camera that I have owned, and I have owned more than a few.In conclusion, the RX-100 sets a new benchmark for compact cameras, and is well worth its price.