Sony RX10 M2 - first part of my review and a mini-comparison with the A7S and Canon 1D C

[Andrew Reid]

The Sony RX10 M2 is our first look at Sony's new 4K XAVC-S codec at 100Mbit/s, the same which will be on the A7R II come the end of July. The RX10 M2 also brings 1080/120fps and up to 1000fps at lower resolutions.

It features an extraordinary 24-200mm Zeiss lens with constant F2.8 aperture and built in ND filter.

Is this the run & gun camera you've been waiting for?

Read the full article

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

Would you describe the image to be clean and silky as the NX1/1DC or Muddy/noisy/gritty as the GH4? As an overal aesthetic, the blacks and saturation. 

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

Torture push to analyze break-ups.

Shadow DR seems phenomenal, this is +2 stop push and look great (no NR).

Noise pattern is A7s like, has blue/red colour and a bit chunky, not the best (GH4).

There's clear digital sharpening applied, in-camera sharpening actually from the look of it. I hope it can be removed entirely 

if it's possible I would love S-Log jpegs/Tiffs instead of Lut-applied ones.

[neosushi]

Interested to see how it compares to A7S or NX1 in terms of low light. 

Of course I don't expect it to come close to the A7S but who knows...

[The Chris]

What's the ISO from the sample frame? 

[Andrew Reid]

Torture push to analyze break-ups.

Shadow DR seems phenomenal, this is +2 stop push and look great (no NR).

Noise pattern is A7s like, has blue/red colour and a bit chunky, not the best (GH4).

There's clear digital sharpening applied, in-camera sharpening actually from the look of it. I hope it can be removed entirely 

if it's possible I would love S-Log jpegs/Tiffs instead of Lut-applied ones.

​That shot was pre-graded though and compressed for the web. I crushed the shadows 2 stops and baked that crush into the file.

Wait till you see the original S-LOG.

[Mat Mayer]

After seeing this on Amazon the other day for £1500 I had given up, but now it seems to be settled at £1200 there and elsewhere.  We know Sony will drop the price in the near future making it unsellable used, so I thought it would be a bad investment considering the small sensor.

I was all set for a new GH4 with a decent 17-40mm Canon/Nikon lens, cheap adaptor, variable ND filter for just over the £1500. I assume that would be a more future proof choice because GH4s sell for just £100 less than new price on eBay, despite being "pretty old". Then I can swap to a bigger camera in future or get the metabones speedbooster.

But this price means the upcoming tests will make things very interesting. The RX10 will be half the weight, cheaper and much longer range. I am glad the guy who literally wrote the book on the GH4 will be putting the RX10 up against an A7s, as that is the camera I am trying to compete with (get close to in 4K quality, not match) for this money. Will be glued to the screen for this one...

[Andrew Reid]

What's the ISO from the sample frame? 

​800

[Santiago de la Rosa]

Thx for the review, my next camera for sure.

Awaiting availability in Spain.

[Oliver Daniel]

I've been telling the guys in the studio about this camera. It's a no-brainer for us - quite frankly a steal when you think about the creative options and compact features. 

Thanks for covering the 120fps mode... sounds great.

[jagnje]

I used the rx10 III for two shots...while the lens was great I really missed the second ring on it. electronic zoom is way to slow to be used for anything really creative. making the ring act as a zoom ring worked great, but then you have no on lens focus.

 

[Oliver Daniel]

I used the rx10 III for two shots...while the lens was great I really missed the second ring on it. electronic zoom is way to slow to be used for anything really creative. making the ring act as a zoom ring worked great, but then you have no on lens focus.

 

​Oh yes that was a question, how is manual focusing on this lens? I'm assuming the obvious in which you can switch off the zoom function and just have manual focus. I would actually laugh if it didn't. 

[rs3d]

Would love to see some low light video from the RX10 M2 with higher ISOs... 

I'm currently thinking about getting the Panasonic G7(0) but this overall decent combination from Sony is very tempting...

[Jim Kroft]

Hi Andrew,

Thank  you for the review - still um-ing and ah-ing between the RX100 iv & the RX10 ii here....!

One question - 

Does the 100/120 frame rate on the RX 10 ii have a limited recording cap?

i.e Can you shoot more or less continuously at 100fps like on the A7s (though in 720p) or is it limited like the 240fps 2 -4 second burst mode?

Looking forward to seeing what you shoot! 

Best wishes, Jim

 

[aldolega]

He said in the article that 100/120p is unlimited.

I'm pretty intrigued by this camera now that Andrew has confirmed such minimal rolling shutter (it's dissappointing that the A7RII still has so much when it was advertised as having the same technology). I would like to see how it holds up with fast motion, at normal framerates and in high-speed modes. I find the intraframe mode on the GH4 to be pretty good.

[Andrew Reid]

He said in the article that 100/120p is unlimited.

​Didn't say unlimited... "continuous".

[Andrew Reid]

i.e Can you shoot more or less continuously at 100fps like on the A7s (though in 720p) or is it limited like the 240fps 2 -4 second burst mode?

​Yes continuously but not tried long runs 10min + yet. Might have the 29 min cap of the standard 1080p mode or it might be less.

Never heard of a continuous slow-mo take that long though!

[jagnje]

​Oh yes that was a question, how is manual focusing on this lens? I'm assuming the obvious in which you can switch off the zoom function and just have manual focus. I would actually laugh if it didn't. 

​you can use it for zoom or focus. it is smooth, very nice to operate, but no hard stops for focus, which takes a bit of getting used to...if you use a follow focus you can just use those. This is for mk3, I don`t know about the mk4. Dual ring lens would be far better in just about every way I think.

[The Chris]

This looks like a great all-in-one package. Looking forward to the full review with test video.

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

Looks really promising. For those in doubt between this and the RX100, I bought one RX100 mk1 and it wasn't really well built, it took a little bump and it has suffered from them. It's prosumer at its lightest. So if you need your cameras to be even a bit tough, you seem better fit with the RX10...