Sony DSC-RX100 II, reviewed by grantiago

There are several of us that have RX100 series cameras, come on over to the Sony forum. The little guy is a useful beast, and the portability factor is huge.

Photo from mickeyb105's gallery.

I was a Sony R100 mk I early adopter until my wife gave it a perfect rugby drop kick whilst walking, it landing several metres in front of her on to a marble floor. Holding my breath didn't help; it ended badly for the camera.

I replaced the mk I with a mk II, choosing it over a mk III and a mk IV (the mk V didn't exist back then) simply because I wanted a hot shoe. This has proven to be the right decision as I travel extensively with my work and the mk II has become the core of an "always with me" portable system with which I do the majority of my photography; Lowepro 110 "video camera" bag, Well featured Sony HVL F32M flash gun, 52mm filter adaptor, 52mm 1A filter and lens cap as extra protection, 52mm ND8 filter in one of the bag pockets, turret viewfinder for bright light in another bag pocket, spare SD cards and cleaning kit in the top pocket, spare batteries (camera and flash) plus table top tripod in the front pocket.

The flash opens up range of options not available with the tiny built-in flash (softer fill light as well as rotated bounce and power advantages when needed) and the table top tripod gets a lot of use such as night time shots when holding it against a wall or item of street furniture and using the 2 second timer. The turret viewfinder is great in bright light as two of the lenses in it almost exactly match the extremes of the mk II zoom and the grid makes it easy to aim properly and retain good composition technique.

I have only two complaints with this amazing camera and what it enables; the lens rotary dial packed up after six months the same as it did on the mk I and the rear rotary dial became sticky to the point of unusable after 18 months; the former is still broken and I have semi-solved the latter with electronic contact cleaner and a can of compressed air but it is still troublesome and results in unwanted menus being opened through applying pressure when all I want to do is rotate the dial. I will probably glue a ridge on the dial so I can pinch it between thumb and forefinger and rotate without applying downwards pressure. (Edited to add: I found the repair instructions online to fit a new circuit board on which the rear dial in mounted. I have no desire to go down this route!)

Following are two quick smartphone images of the system I describe.

An example of using the turret viewfinder in bright light to grab a panned image that I would have struggled to get without it (Prescott Hillclimb in the UK), and of using the tabletop tripod on an item of street furniture (Wellington, NZ).