Sony has announced the RX100 VII, price tag $1,198 / €1,300 / £1,200, which boasts professional specs such as a mic socket, ‘A9-level’ AF performance and 90fps ‘single burst shooting’.
Pre-order the Sony RX100 VII from Adorama or B&H Photo Video in the US, or from Wex Photo Video or Park Cameras in the UK.
Inside Sony’s new compact camera is a newly designed 1-inch, stacked 20.1-megapixel Exmor RS CMOS sensor with a DRAM chip and Sony’s latest Bionz X image processor. On the outside is a ZEISS® Vario-Sonnar T* 24-200mmviii F2.8-4.5.
What should really get people excited, though, is the technology the RX100 VII inherits from Sony’s flagship Alpha 9 mirrorless camera.
Like the A9, the RX100 VII’s image sensor realises blackout-free shooting for a completely live view, even when continuous shooting at 20fps.
The RX100 VII also promises ‘A9-level’ AF/AE tracking performance during continuous shooting, meaning the camera performs AF/AE calculations up to 60 times per second and captures fast moving action at 20fps with AF/AE tracking.
Calling it ‘world leading,’ the RX100 VII brings 357 focal-plane phase-detection AF points and 425 contrast-detection AF points. What’s more, thanks to a revamped lens control the RX100 VII can deliver a 0.02sec high AF speed.
The Sony RX100 VII also debuts a new Single Burst Shooting mode, which captures a high-speed shot at up to 90fps in JPEG or Raw format using the anti-distortion shutter.
Sony describes the mode as enabling photographers to frame fast-moving action and shoot as if capturing a single frame, but the RX100 VII will deliver seven frame, taken at 90fps, 60fps or 30fps.
Sony’s Real-time Eye AF and Real-time Tracking modes also make their debut for the first time in a compact camera.
Video Specs
Aimed at vloggers, the Sony RX100 VII brings some solid movie-making credentials:
- 4K in-body movie recording with full pixel readout and no pixel binning in high bit rate XAVCS
- Real-time Tracking and Real-time Eye AF for video
- 4K Active SteadyShot that is 8x more effective than 4K Standard SteadyShot
- Integrated Microphone input
- Hybrid Log-Gamma (HDR) / S-Gamut3.Cine / S-Log3, S-Gamut3/S-Log3
- Compatibility with ‘Movie Edit add-on’ from the ‘Imaging Edge’ mobile application for movie stabilisation and editing
- Vertical-position data recording for movies
- Interval Shooting[xix] for stunning time-lapse videos
- Super Slow Motion[xx] recording at up to 1000fps
- 180-degree flip screen for ease-of use whilst vlogging
What’s more, there’s a new Shooting Grip Kit aimed at vloggers, which includes the RX100 VII, the VCT-SGR1 Shooting Grip, a bracket with an accessory shoe to attach the microphone and two rechargeable battery packs.
Sony RX100 VII Price & Release Date
The Sony RX100 VII will be priced £1,200 / €1,300 for the camera only. Price information for the Shooting Grip Kit wasn’t available at the time of writing.
Sony is also releasing the LCJ-RXK leather-look body case for the RX100 series, which includes a lens jacket and shoulder strap and will be priced £85.
The Sony RX100 VII release date will be August 2019.