Sony RX10 III Review

Sony complements the RX10 series with the new Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 III: 4K Super Zoom Bridge Camera

The third model of the RX10 series Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 III now offers an F2.4-4.0 bright 25x zoom, which covers a small picture equivalent focal length range from 24 to 600 millimetres. The larger lens features an aperture ring, zoom ring, focus ring and focus hold button. The rest of the technology comes from the RX10 II, such as the 20-megapixel 1″ sensor, which also records 4K videos, or the numerous professional video functions.

Short evaluation

Pros

• Ergonomic, large handle
• High resolution, which however decreases towards the telephoto
• Good image quality up to ISO 1,600
• Very wide range of functions for photographers and videographers

Cons

• Large and heavy
• Plastic housing in the price class inappropriate and also not protected against environmental influences
• Low-power internal flash is not even suitable for wireless control
• On the tripod, very top-heavy camera
• No touch function in the screen.

With the third generation, Sony not only missed another faster sensor and processor for its RX10 series, but also a completely new lens with a significantly extended zoom range. The RX10 III now zooms at a light intensity of F2.4 to 4.0 25x from the equivalent of 24 to 600 millimeters. The camera is correspondingly more voluminous, which can, however, benefit ergonomics. In the test the Sony DSC-RX10 III must now show which performance and picture quality leaps are possible.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 III now has a new lens with more zoom and a variable speed of F2.4-4. [Photo: Sony]

The Sony DSC-RX10 III’s 20-megapixel 1″ CMOS sensor also records 4K video. [Photo: Sony]

 

The Sony DSC-RX10 III offers a 0.7x magnifying OLED viewfinder with a fine resolution of 2.36 million pixels above the foldable 7.5 centimetre screen.

 

The Sony DSC-RX10 III also has a 2.36 million pixel OLED viewfinder and a 7.5 centimeter folding screen, which unfortunately has no touch function. [Photo: Sony]

Sony replaces the previous F2.8 8.3x zoom with the equivalent of 24-200 millimetres with a much more zoom-intensive new design, which loses light intensity. F2.4-4.0 and 24-600 millimetres (35mm equivalent) are now the new benchmarks. This of course inflates the already voluminous camera even more. With 133 x 94 x 127 millimeters, the RX10 III surpasses many a DSLR and also the operational weight of a good 1.1 kilograms is not to be scoffed at. But the RX10 III also wants to be an egg-slaying wool milk sow with high resolution, a large focal length range, fast continuous shooting function, rapid autofocus and high-end video function. But one thing at a time.

The new lens is a Zeiss Vario-Sonnar with T* coating. It consists of 18 elements arranged in 13 groups. Eight ED glass elements, including one Super-ED element, are used alone. A total of six aspherical elements, two of which are ED glass elements, one of which is an Advanced Aspherical lens, show the superlatives of this lens. This is intended to minimize image errors of all kinds over the entire zoom and focus range. The orifice is made up of nine lamellas for as round an opening as possible. Thanks to the close-up limit of 72 centimetres in the telephoto range, a maximum magnification of 0.49 times is achieved for macro photography. In addition, an optical image stabilizer reduces camera shake and allows up to 4.5 f-stops longer exposure times.

The now more voluminous lens has a 72mm filter thread and allows more controls. In addition to a zoom ring and a focus ring, there is also an aperture ring and a focus hold button, which can also be assigned a different function. Apropos focus: According to Sony, it should focus on the subject within 0.09 seconds. The RX10 III captures the subject even before the shutter release button is pressed. The fast camera achieves 14 continuous frames per second, but with autofocus tracking activated this value drops to just five frames per second. To keep the larger, heavier camera secure, Sony has also optimised the handle accordingly.

The new, larger lens on the Sony DSC-RX10 III offers space for an aperture ring, zoom ring, focus ring and focus hold button. [Photo: Sony]

The new lens of the Sony DSC-RX10 III optically zooms 25x from 24 to 600 millimeters to 35mm. [Photo: Sony]

The 1″ CMOS sensor (13.2 x 8.8 mm) is designed as a stacked sensor and has a particularly fast DRAM chip for fast readout. This is intended to reduce the rolling shutter effect, for example, and enables short exposure times of up to 1/32,000 seconds with an electronic shutter. But also the noise behaviour should be positively influenced by the fast sensor, up to ISO 12.800 are possible. This sensor records videos in 4K resolution with 1.7x oversampling. This should help to reduce moiré and staircase effects. The videos are stored at up to 100 Mbps in XAVC-S format. Videographers will not only enjoy the microphone input and headphone output, but also functions such as Picture Profile, S-Gamut, S-Log2, Gamma Display Assist, an optimized Zebra function, an HDMI clean output, TC/UB, recording control, double recording and marker function. A high-speed function also allows images to be captured at up to 960 frames per second with reduced resolution.

The RX10 III also features a built-in pop-up flash, a TTL flash shoe, a 2.36 million pixel electronic OLED viewfinder and a 1.23 million pixel 7.5cm screen. The latter can be folded 107 degrees up and 42 degrees down, but still lacks a touch function. With an eye distance of 23 millimetres, the viewfinder should be quite eyeglass-friendly, and with 0.7x magnification in 35mm equivalent, it is also pleasantly large.

Ergonomics and workmanship

The Sony RX10 III is a real chunk. With its giant lens, it weighs in at almost 1.1 kilograms, and its dimensions easily match those of a DSLR with a large lens. So this compact camera is not compact in the truest sense of the word, but only because of its fixed lens it belongs to this category. Thanks to its very pronounced grip, it nevertheless lies perfectly and securely in the hand. This is not least ensured by the non-slip rubber coating. The RX10 III can easily be held with one hand, zoom and shutter release can be operated with the index finger. Even the little finger still finds a little space on the handle. Despite the high price, the case is made of plastic, and Sony has also saved on sealing against environmental influences. The case is well finished and makes a quite robust impression, but the last bit of high quality is missing.

The Sony DSC-RX10 III has a new lens that zooms 25x from 24 to 600 millimeters according to 35mm. The plastic housing lacks protection against environmental influences.

The Sony DSC-RX10 III offers a 0.7x magnifying OLED viewfinder with a fine resolution of 2.36 million pixels above the foldable 7.5 centimetre screen. [Photo: Sony]

The huge lens tube offers space for all kinds of controls, but they control everything electronically, including the zoom. When switched on, the lens extends by a further 3.5 centimeters, when zooming to 600 millimeters it extends by a full eight centimeters. The luminous intensity starts with F2.4 at 24 millimetres of focal length equivalent to a small-format image and initially even very brightly. When zooming, however, the light intensity drops quickly and reaches an initial aperture of F4 at 100 millimetres 35 mm equivalent, which is maintained until the end of the telephoto image. The focal length is not only shown on the display, but at 24, 100, 135, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 millimetres (each 35mm equivalent) lines on the lens barrel also reveal the focal length.

The tube has such a large diameter that it looks quite robust again – no comparison to the relatively shaky constructions of other compact cameras. As with a DSLR, the lens is equipped with a large thread measuring 72 millimetres, which allows a wide variety of filters to be connected. A lens hood is even included in the scope of delivery. The zoom ring on the lens allows a very fine zoom, but the motor doesn’t follow in fast movements. In addition to the zoom ring, there is also a focus ring that is also very easy to use. The aperture ring, on the other hand, runs rather tightly and requires some force to be moved. This prevents inadvertent adjustment, but is still not nice to use. Videofilmer will be pleased with the slide switch, which deactivates the locking of the aperture ring; then it also turns a little easier. Thanks to the optical image stabilizer, handheld photography is no problem even with long focal lengths.

The RX10 III does not only have many controls on the lens, but also on the camera body. Beside the program selector wheel, there is a quite fixed exposure correction wheel on the top of the camera, which is certainly only occasionally accidentally adjusted. Furthermore, there are two thumbwheels on the back of the camera, but unfortunately no index fingerwheel on the front. Many of the numerous keys are freely assignable and labeled C1, C2 and C3 respectively, or in the case of the four-way dialer not labeled at all. The keys are preassigned in a meaningful way. But it’s a pity that it wasn’t enough for a “real” ISO key, one of the function keys has to be used for this.

Pressing the Fn key brings you to the quick menu, which is also configurable. The main menu looks like any Sony. This means a structure in six main groups with numbered tabs as submenus. Depending on the category, these are one to nine tabs. This gives you an idea of how many settings the RX10 III allows, but it also requires a certain amount of training. In any case, the menus can be quickly browsed without annoying vertical scrolling.

On the top, the Sony has a status display that provides information about many set recording parameters, the battery status or the remaining number of images. It can even be illuminated at the touch of a button, but the keys unfortunately don’t. The rear screen measures about 7.5 centimeters in diagonal and has a sufficiently fine resolution of 1.23 million pixels. However, it is not a touch screen, but at least the display can be folded up and down, which makes it easy to use for near-ground or overhead perspectives.

The lens of the Sony DSC-RX10 III offers three electronic adjustment rings, with which focus, focal length and aperture can be adjusted.

The large zoom of the Sony DSC-RX10 III drives very far out. Thanks to the printed markings, the focal length equivalent to a small image can be read off.

As befits a bridge camera, an electronic viewfinder is also built in. Typical for an OLED, the display flickers slightly in bright areas, as long as you can see it at all. The resolution is high at 2.36 million pixels. Thanks to 0.7x magnification (compared to 35mm), this viewfinder doesn’t need to hide behind DSLRs. Due to the 23 millimetre exit pupil, even spectacle wearers can use the viewfinder quite well, but you have to press it a little against the glasses to be able to see the entire image from left to right without shadows. The proximity sensor automatically activates the viewfinder if desired, and Sony has also thought about diopter correction.

In the live image on the monitor or in the viewfinder, all kinds of recording information and aids can be displayed, such as different grid patterns, a 3D spirit level or a live histogram. If you wish, you can also use the monitor as a pure status display. The image is bright enough, but in brightest sunshine it can be a bit too dark, so that you better use the viewfinder instead of the monitor. After all, the screen is quite well anti-glare.

The RX10 III also doesn’t lack interfaces. The remote release thread in the release may seem a bit anachronistic and doesn’t fit so well with this thoroughly modern camera, but some photographers will certainly enjoy digging the old mechanical remote release from grandpa’s times out of the drawer. There are four interfaces on the left side of the housing. In addition to the microphone input, there is also a headphone output, a Micro-HDMI interface and a Micro-USB interface. By the way, the replaceable lithium-ion battery is charged via the latter. This is practical on the one hand, but can also be annoying, since charging the battery blocks the camera. On the way with a power bank, however, the battery can also be recharged quickly from time to time far away from a socket.

The lithium-ion battery is removed from the bottom of the camera. Although according to the CIPA standard it should be sufficient for 420 photos in monitor mode or 370 photos in viewfinder mode, the battery discharges quite quickly when the camera is switched on, so you should use the power-saving functions or switch the camera off completely if you are not taking pictures. The latter is a bit annoying with the over two seconds long switch-on time. If you want, you can also supply the RX10 III with power from a power supply unit. By the way, the metal tripod thread is located in the optical axis, but extremely far back, which makes the camera on the tripod quite top-heavy. The battery remains removable on the tripod due to the large camera. The SD memory card (optionally also MemoryStick possible) is removed in a separate compartment on the side, which is extremely convenient.

Equipment

The Sony RX10 III wants to cover a wide range of users. From the automatic clipper to the ambitious photographer who likes to control the exposure himself, to the videographer, no matter whether occasional clips or more extensive camcorder functions are required. The Sony even records high-speed videos. Thanks to the program selector wheel, you can quickly switch between the corresponding shooting functions, without missing the classic exposure programs P, A, S and M, of course. In addition, three recording configurations can be saved and quickly recalled, and even saving and recalling via file is possible. The RX10 III offers special functions such as an HDR recording function or the panorama function that is standard with Sony.

 

With its size and full weight, the Sony DSC-RX10 III could easily be considered a DSLR.

The metal tripod thread of the Sony DSC-RX10 III is located in the optical axis and also far away from the battery compartment, but the arrangement at the rear edge ensures a clear top-heaviness.

In addition, the photographer can influence the image settings and activate various filter functions. In playback mode, on the other hand, the editing options are extremely limited. Sony relies entirely on camera applications, some of which can be installed on the camera free of charge and some of which are subject to a fee. Some of these apps upgrade functions that other cameras bring with them, but some special functions of an app cannot be found anywhere else. But the operation is not exactly trivial, because the apps do not fit into the camera menus, but have to be started via the menu. This is particularly annoying when remotely triggering and controlling the camera via the smartphone app.

The powerful zoom lens not only covers a large focal length range, but also a large focus range. This becomes particularly clear at the long end of the focal length, as the RX10 III allows a minimum shooting distance of 72 centimeters despite the enormous focal length of 600 millimetres corresponding to 35mm. This allows telemacro shooting with sufficient distance to the subject. Motifs about 6.5 x 4.3 centimeters in size can be imaged full-frame, which corresponds to a small image equivalent reproduction scale of almost 1:2. But the long focal length is also the catch, because the telemacro function is best used due to the increased risk of blurring despite the image stabilizer from the tripod. But for macro lovers the RX10 III is a real tip.

Sony promises a 0.09 second fast autofocus, by the way. In our lab, the wide-angle autofocus took 1.5 times as long, 0.13 seconds. In addition, there is a 0.02 second shutter release delay, which also occurs without focusing. If, on the other hand, you zoom in properly, the autofocus becomes significantly slower. He takes just under 0.4 seconds to complete the long end of the focal length. This is still quite fast, but the focus time depends strongly on the selected focal length. In contrast to zooming, focusing itself is absolutely silent. Manual focusing is not only very successful due to the beautiful focus ring, but also thanks to the aids such as focus magnifier and focus peaking.

In continuous shooting mode, the RX10 III also wants to score with high performance. Sony promises 14 serial pictures per second – and even surpasses them slightly, at least if you shoot in JPEG. In Raw, on the other hand, the continuous shooting rate drops to a good eight frames per second. After all, the RX10 III can withstand 43 JPEG or 28 raw shots for a long time. As soon as the internal buffer is full, however, the recording rate drops drastically to well below two frames per second. The fast UHS-I memory card, which guarantees a minimum write rate of 30 MByte per second and is supposed to be up to 94 MB/s fast, cannot actually be the reason for this. In general, the RX 10 III takes 26 seconds to write the buffer away. During this time you can take more photos, but the menu and playback mode are locked. After all, there is a clearly visible writing LED, which Sony liked to hide on the underside of other models or even in the battery and memory card compartment.

Video recordings should also be fast, at least if this is desired. The video quality, in any case, is truly impressive with 4K resolution and 1.7x oversampling. The focus is gently adjusted and the exposure and video experts will find numerous setting options that are a book with seven seals for pure photographers. The internal microphone, for example, records in stereo, but can of course be leveled out or replaced by an external microphone. Thanks to the headphone socket, the videographer can control the sound live. The Clean HDMI video output, for example for an external recording, is already part of the good sound. If the resolution is switched down, the frame rate can be increased accordingly to up to 960 (NTSC) or 1,000 (PAL) frames per second. 40 times slow motion is possible. However, the very high frame rates (over 120 fps) are only available for a short recording duration (two or four seconds). However, as a videographer, one should pay attention to the crop that varies, depending on the mode, between 27-650 mm corresponding to 35mm and 60-1390 mm corresponding to 35mm.

The handle of the Sony DSC-RX10 III is very pronounced and has plenty of rubber leathering, which provides a very good grip in the hand.

The Sony DSC-RX10 III offers a total of four interfaces: microphone input, headphone output, Micro-USB and HDMI-Micro.

The integrated pop-up flash jumps up very high if unlocked mechanically. However, the folding mechanism does not allow the most “tricky” indirect flash, as the flash cannot be folded back with the finger. However, this can be tolerated because of the low power of about 5.5 as the guide number. For a bridge camera, the flash is quite inefficient. The flash functions are also limited to the essentials, such as flash exposure compensation, long-term sync, sync to the second shutter curtain, flash at the end of exposure, and red-eye correction. Unfortunately, the integrated flash is not suitable as a wireless master, but an external flash has to be inserted into the multifunction shoe. After all, the RX10 III has a central shutter and thus allows a 1/2,000 second short flash sync time – at least as long as at least F8 has been dimmed. With an open aperture, the shortest mechanical shutter speed is 1/1,000 second. With the 1/32,000 second fast electronic shutter it is unfortunately not possible to flash, which is opposed by the rolling shutter effect. Regardless of whether the shutter is operated electronically or mechanically, it is always very quiet to inaudible.

Picture quality

The best camera isn’t much use if the image quality isn’t good. This results from the interaction of lens and image sensor. The latter offers good conditions with 20 megapixels on the one-inch sensor (13.2 x 8.8 millimeters), which is quite large for compact cameras. Since the lens was also designed with great effort without regard to compactness, this also promises good quality.

With the 20-megapixel sensor, the lens scrolls past just below the mark of 60 line pairs per millimeter (lp/mm) in 35mm equivalent at 50 percent contrast. The highest wide-angle resolution is achieved at F2.8 and F4 in the center of the image. At F5,6 the diffraction already starts to start, but only at F11 and even more at F16 the resolution decreases significantly. At the edge of the picture, the resolution in the wide-angle is almost 30 percent lower than in the centre of the picture. This is a quite visible edge loss, at least with larger output formats, but not yet dramatic. From F2.4 to F8, the resolution is loosely over 40 lp/mm at the edge of the image. If you zoom the lens, the resolution decreases steadily. At 120 millimeters corresponding to 35mm, only just over 50 lp/mm are achieved – but both in the center and at the edge of the image. The resolution is exceptionally uniform. With a long focal length there is again a drop in resolution, but even in the center of the image the 50 lp/mm are at best a wet dream. Only at F4 and F5.6 there are more than 40 lp/mm, at the edge of the picture one has to be content with a maximum of 36 lp/mm. Nevertheless, even such a rather moderate resolution is clearly superior to a digital zoom.

The distortion as well as the edge darkening of the lens are completely uncritical. There is simply no distortion, the edge darkening is minimal. The colour fringes, on the other hand, look a bit different. On average if they are low, but in wide angle the extremes are easily visible near the edges of the picture, in telescope position a little stronger. The medium focal length is the best with the smallest color fringes.

The good performance of the 20-megapixel 1-inch sensor that Sony has come to expect from the RX10 III also performs without any problems. Thus the signal-to-noise ratio in the range from ISO 64 to ISO 200 is in the good range of over 40 dB and up to ISO 1,600 in the acceptable range of over 35 dB. The noise is generally fine-grained, with brightness noise from ISO 3.200 slowly becoming visible. Color noise, on the other hand, plays practically no role. The noise suppression remains so restrained that no loss of detail occurs up to ISO 800 and even at ISO 1.600 only minimal losses can be reported. Only from ISO 3.200 on do the detail losses become more visible. The measurement curve itself shows a high measured value, especially from ISO 64 to ISO 400, with an over-sharpening that begins to sink above ISO 400.

The lithium-ion battery and memory card (SD or MemoryStick) of the Sony DSC-RX10 III are removed in separate compartments.

The input dynamics range from ISO 64 to 3,200 at a high level of ten to eleven f-stops, and only at the highest sensitivity of ISO 12,800 does the dynamic range drop significantly to just eight f-stops. The tonal value curve, still somewhat damped at ISO 64, shows a slight, but by no means exaggerated steepness at all other sensitivities. The pictures seem crisp, but by no means artificial. The RX10 III is capable of displaying fine differences in brightness, especially at ISO 64 to 1,600. At ISO 3,200 and 6,400, the measured value drops significantly into the still acceptable range; at maximum sensitivity, only about one third of the brightness levels are still present. The color fidelity of the RX10 III is still just good on average. Individual measured values deviate in favor of a “beautiful” color representation. So the cyan is shown blueer, which results in a more beautiful sky. Warm colours, especially violet and red, shine more strongly than in reality, but magenta and orange tones are also affected. The manual white balance, on the other hand, worked in the measuring laboratory without any mistakes or criticisms and is also generally of good service in practice.

Bottom line

With the Mark III, Sony is once again clearly drilling out the egg-slaying wool milk sow RX10. The grown case has a very good grip, even if it is bulky. The bombastic lens makes the camera of a DSLR nearly equal not only in the image quality, but also in the size, whereby one will look in vain for a DSLR lens with such a zoom range and such a quality. Also the video capabilities of the RX10 III are enormous and should satisfy many users. Thanks to the many keys, the good viewfinder and the foldable monitor, the Sony is also easy to use, even if Sony would like to install a touch screen. The concept of the camera apps is on the one hand flexible, but also somewhat complicated and does not fit well into the ergonomics of a camera. The performance of the RX10 III, on the other hand, is unexpectedly mixed. Autofocus is fast, but not always. The continuous shooting rate is very high, but the memory speed is not. The image quality, on the other hand, is hardly a cause for criticism. The RX10 III can take photos up to ISO 1,600 without hesitation.

Sony DSC-RX10 III Datasheet