Camera Reviews / Sony Cameras / Sony Cybershot i Review

20.10 Megapixels	2.92x zoom	1 inch size sensor

Sony RX100 V Review

by Mike Tomkins, Zig Weidelich and Dave Pardue
First posted: 10/06/2016

Updates:
10/07/2016: Gallery images posted!
10/11/2016: First Shots lab images posted!
12/18/2016: Field Test posted!
12/29/2016: Image Quality Comparison posted!
02/24/2017: Performance test results posted!
04/11/2017: Print Quality Analysis posted!
05/02/2017: Conclusion posted!

Sony has done it once again: The company responsible for creating the 1"-sensor, fixed-lens camera market has taken it to the next level with a new model -- and the Sony RX100 V is truly a pocket powerhouse!

Almost identical to the RX100 IV in terms of body design, sensor resolution, lens and controls, the Sony RX100 V differentiates itself by providing greater full-res burst capture performance and burst depth than we've ever seen in such a pocket-friendly camera.

The Sony RX100 V is all about performance

For the fifth generation in the RX100-series, Sony has clearly focused on performance. The Sony RX100 Mark V is simply unrivaled in this area: It can shoot full-resolution images at a truly staggering 24 frames per second, and that's with autofocus and autoexposure adjustments between frames. (For bonus points, you can also enable silent shooting at this rate, so you won't even distract your subject.)

And that performance is not available just for a handful of frames, either: A roomy buffer allows space to store as many as 150 JPEG frames at full resolution, and even raw shooters should be able to manage an impressive 72 frames in each 24-fps burst. Even if you favor raw+JPEG capture, you should be able to shoot around 62 images in a burst, a fair bit more than twice as many as was possible with the RX100 IV. (And all of those figures are from our in-house testing, incidentally. Sony's own claim of 150 JPEG frames in a burst nicely matches our own findings.) See our Performance page for details.

A new hybrid autofocus system with more points than you can shake a stick at

Sony has achieved this level of performance in part thanks to a redesigned image sensor with a brand-new hybrid autofocus system. The RX100 V's new 20.1-megapixel image sensor might not offer any higher resolution than the previous generation, but it now includes a generous 315 on-chip phase-detection autofocus pixels. These cover 65% of the image frame, besting the recently-cancelled Nikon DL-series cameras by around 5%.

The on-chip phase-detection pixels are first used to quickly determine the required focus adjustment and direction. To complete the AF cycle, the system switches to using contrast-detection to fine-tune the precise point of focus. And you can manually adjust both the AF drive speed and tracking sensitivity.

The result, according to Sony, is "professional-level AF performance" capable of determining a focus lock in just 0.05 seconds. (Our own in-house testing using center-area autofocus at wide angle and telephoto positions turned in times of around 0.19 to 0.21 seconds, very respectable performance for such a compact camera.)

The Sony RX100 V is the latest to gain a high-speed LSI chip

Of course, the image sensor is only part of the story. The Sony RX100 V also derives some of its epic performance from a change in the way data from the sensor is handled. Just as in the A99 II interchangeable-lens camera, the Sony RX100 V now supplements its BIONZ X image processor with a new front-end LSI chip for even greater performance.

A little back-of-the-envelope math provides a testament to the power on offer. Since it can capture 150 images in a burst, each at full 20.1-megapixel resolution, that means that the RX100 V is handling some three gigapixels of raw sensor data in each burst. And with a claimed capture rate of 24 fps, each full burst is completed in just 6.25 seconds. That's a whopping 482.4 megapixels of data being processed each second!

Even more capable 4K and high-frame rate video capture

All of that performance isn't just harnessed for stills, either. The RX100 IV was already an exceptionally capable video shooter for a pocket-friendly camera, providing for both 4K ultra-high definition recording and up to a maximum capture rate of 1,000 frames per second at reduced resolution. Now, the Sony RX100 V follows with improvements on both fronts.

For one thing, when shooting 4K video you have access to the same new hybrid autofocus system used for still imaging. Also, 4K footage is captured with almost the full sensor width, without any line skipping or pixel binning. This means that the video is coming off the sensor at higher than 4K resolution, and then being downsampled to its final output resolution. And it's not by a small margin, either: 4K video is effectively oversampled by about 1.7 times. And compared side-by-side with 4K footage from the RX100 IV, the Sony RX100 Mark V's output is noticeably wider-angle at the same focal length.

At the same time, Sony has managed to double the maximum length of high frame-rate movies captured with the RX100 V. Where the RX100 IV had a maximum HFR capture time of either two or four seconds, the RX100 V is now be able to capture as much as eight seconds of HFR footage. And while that might not seem like much, it's important to bear in mind that depending on your recording and output frame rates, that's potentially as long as a five-minute output video with a 40x slow-motion effect.

All this, and the Sony RX100 V isn't even any bigger!

Perhaps most impressively of all, Sony has managed to cram in all of this extra performance with almost no increase in size and weight. At 4 x 2.4 x 1.6 inches, the Sony RX100 V is the exact same width and height as its predecessor, and an indistinguishable 0.02 inches (0.4mm) thicker than its predecessor. And its weight, too, is basically unchanged. It packs amazing performance into a body so small you can forget you're carrying it!

Most other features are similar to the preceding model

In most other respects, the Sony RX100 V is very much like the camera in whose footsteps it follows. It sports the same ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T*-branded lens, for example, with focal lengths ranging from 24-70mm equivalents and a bright maximum aperture of f/1.8-2.8 across the zoom range. It also retains the same high-resolution XGA electronic viewfinder, which is based around a 2.3-million dot Organic LED display, and whose eyepiece features a Zeiss T* coating.

Also making the leap from the RX100 IV to V is a 3.0-inch, 1.3-million dot LCD monitor. This still sits on an articulation mechanism which allows tilting upwards by 180-degrees for shooting from the hip or even selfie shooting, and downwards by 45 degrees for easier over-the-head shots. And like its predecessor, the Sony RX100 V also includes Wi-Fi wireless networking connectivity with a choice of either NFC pairing for Android devices, or QR code pairing for iOS and those few Android devices which lack an NFC antenna.

Updated VA version brings boosted performance and some VI features

In July of 2018, Sony quietly upgraded the Mark V's BIONZ X image processor to the same chip used in the Mark VI, and dubbed the camera the RX100 Mark VA (DSC-RX100M5A). The processor update brought along with it some of the performance enhancements, image quality tweaks and new firmware features found in the VI while keeping the rest of the hardware and battery life the same as the V.

See our Sony RX100 VA preview for more info, and our RX100 VI review for an indication of the performance, image quality tweaks and some of the new firmware features that the Mark VA inherits from the Mark VI.

 

 

In the Box

The Sony RX100 V retail box ships with the following items:

• Sony RX100 V camera
• NP-BX1/M8 lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack
• AC-UUD12 USB charger (charges battery in-camera)
• Wrist strap
• Shoulder strap adapter
• Micro USB cable
• Instruction manual
• Warranty card