Monday, June 2, 2014

The RX100 Mark III – Faster Lens

Clearly Sony have not heard the adage “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”. The RX100 MK II was a fantastic camera and was only released in September last year so when I got news of a Mark III version ready to come out, the first version that I’m using now just seemed to be that much more obsolete. The RX100III takes the same tried and tested design from the previous 2 models and injects a new lease of life to it with several interesting features. While it retains some of the same specs as its predecessor like the 20.1MP 1inch CMOS sensor, it adds that much extra speed with a new ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T* 24-70mm f/1.8-2.8 lens and couples that with a Bionz X processor that the a7 series uses and thrives on. In addition to that, the RX100III also includes an articulating LCD that has become commonplace in most point and shoot cameras for maximum selfie potential. Perhaps the most interesting feature is the addition of a pop-up 1.4M-dot OLED “Tru-Finder” that allows you to use a camera how it’s intended, right up to your eye. The downside however is that you will lose the hotshoe that the RX100II introduced. Is the tradeoff worth it? Until I can test it out fully for myself, I’ll leave that up in the air. There is no word on availability on this in Malaysia just yet but US sites are reporting that it will arrive next month and cost a fairly decent US$800.

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