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Lisa Chandler photo
Thailand, Bangkok
1 Level
480 Review
0 Karma

Review on πŸ“· Sony RX100 VII: Premium Compact Camera with Stacked CMOS Sensor (DSCRX100M7) - Unbeatable Image Quality and Portability by Lisa Chandler

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Liked so far: Digital cameras

I won't mention anything you might find by reading the description , and I'm certainly not a professional photographer, more of an amateur, but alright Keep all my memories, I need my photos to look good. I currently have a Sony A7R III with a pre-order for the A7R IV, but as I travel quite a bit I wanted something smaller. Small enough to fit in my pocket without drawing too much attention. The Sony A7R just looks expensive and combined with the 24-70mm 2.8f it can get heavy after a few hours cruising around town. This is my very first Sony compact camera so I can't really compare it to others but what I can say is that it takes really great photos (at least outdoors in natural light). I am attaching two that I have made in the past for my cat and garden. I've been playing around with the settings and from what I've gathered I didn't have an option to make fstop permanent even in manual mode, although I could change shutter speed, ISO etc. If there's a way I'm sure I'll find it, or I'd like to know how to do it. While photos look amazing in natural daylight, I also love the ability to have a built-in dedicated flash, although I personally never use a flash. Photos look crisp both in camera and once uploaded. So why did I give 4 stars? Because of what it wasn't. Due to its size, the camera can get very slippery after a few uses, so I ended up having to buy an attachment. While it's not overly expensive, it would be great to have one, especially when you're paying over $1,000 for the camera itself. Sony didn't include a real battery charger, instead it plugs into USB so you'll technically need to plug it into your computer to charge. As I have a new MacBook Pro this wasn't possible for me so again I had to buy a real charger. Also, there are no written instructions. Aside from the two highlights above that annoyed me the most, this is an amazing camera. I also bought a detachable grip so I can take it with me and shoot my own without having to ask anyone, and I also bought a camera bag. If you're looking for something REALLY compact and tired of walking around with your mirrorless or DSLR then I say get this. I'll update this if I run into any other issue along the way, but for now I like it. Update: Took it on a trip to Portugal for a week and it worked as expected, surprisingly well. Battery life was good for a few hours after taking a few hundred photos, but I bought another one to be on the safe side. I prefer to shoot in aperture priority mode, so I set the aperture and set everything else to auto and all my photos have come out great. I attached the camera grip and was able to take selfies without asking anyone to take a picture of me. The camera is the perfect travel camera due to its size and now I can easily cancel my pre-order for the M4. I could zoom in and out and capture all the details I wanted. I've attached some other photos I took, one of the statue at 24mm and another in close-up for more detail. I still won't adjust my rating by 5 though. Someone mentioned that he has an outlet. in their camera kit but mine was missing so I had to buy a charger. And once again, after running in the heat for a while and holding this "tiny" camera in my hands, it gets slippery, so I recommend the attachment. I bought a cheap Sony camera case for less than $15 and it fit perfectly, with the handle attached and the extra battery, no problem.

Pros
  • 0.02 sec Fast AF speed, 357 focal plane phase detection AF points and 425 contrast detection AF points
Cons
  • It's ok