Sony RX100 VII | Advanced Premium Bridge Camera (1.0-Type Sensor, 24-200 mm F2.8-4.5 Zeiss Lens, Eye Tracking Autofocus for Human and Animal, 4K Movie Recording and Flip Screen)

As a big fan of sony cameras and owning a couple of their higher end mirrorless cameras I knew I had to stick with Sony for a compact camera. So I recently picked up the Sony RX100 VII, and it has exceeded all my expectations. It’s a perfect blend of portability, performance, and advanced features, making it ideal for both casual users and professionals who need a compact powerhouse. 📸 Incredible Image Quality The 1.0-type sensor delivers stunningly sharp photos with vibrant colors and excellent low-light performance. The Zeiss 24-200mm lens provides incredible versatility, covering everything from wide-angle landscapes to zoomed-in shots with superb detail. ⚡ Lightning-Fast Autofocus Sony’s Real-Time Eye AF (a feature i knew i wanted from my higher end cameras) is game-changing—it locks onto subjects instantly and tracks them effortlessly. Perfect for portraits, pets, and fast-moving subjects. 🎥 4K Video & Vlogging-Friendly Features 4K video recording with no crop, ensuring high-quality footage. Flip-up touchscreen – great for vlogging, selfies, and creative angles. Built-in mic jack – improves audio quality for those bothered about the improvement such as content creators. 🔋 Compact & Travel-Friendly Despite its pro-level features, the RX100 VII is pocket-sized, making it perfect for travel (which is why I originally got it), street photography, and everyday use. It’s lightweight but solidly built. 🎯 Who Is This For? Travelers & Street Photographers – Compact yet powerful. Vloggers & Content Creators – 4K video, flip screen, and mic input. Final Verdict: A powerful premium compact camera, will It replace my mirrorless cameras? No, but thats not what it is designed for. Fast, sharp, and packed with features, it’s worth every penny for anyone who values high-quality photography and portability. Would I buy it again? Absolutely!

This is an excellent travel camera with only a few drawbacks. You've probably seen loads of YouTube videos and online reviews of this already, and they are worth looking at to get a general feel of the camera. I've listed some things that are generally missed, plus my own observations. The camera comes with a battery, lanyard, wall charger and micro-USB lead. First thing to do is buy a rear screen protector and spare set of batteries with external charger; https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WH9RWCZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B074J9QFVQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It uses batteries fairly quickly, so having four extra is certainly worth while, especially at the initial "play around with the functions" phase. It's quite a slippery camera and pretty heavy compared to my older Panasonic, so a grip makes all the difference; https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KOUIBRU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 The online manual is OK and can be downloaded as a PDF, but it's not the easiest to go through. I'd play around with it to try and do what you need rather than read it and try to remember all the functions you won't touch again. The ON button is quite recessed and won't be accidentally pressed. Unfortunately some of the rear buttons are just as small, so not so easy to use with gloves. Focus, zoom and shutter are easily performed though, and the screen is clear and bright. The EV is excellent, having dioptre adjustment for glasses (varifocal) and short sighted eyes with no glasses. It's responsive too and doesn't make me feel queasy looking through it like some do. Image quality is excellent, as is video. There's a lot of settings to get it just how you like it and the "best" isn't always best for you. Focus is very quick and I've had very few out of focus shots. Face detection is amazing, so it can latch on to you in a crowd and focus on the right thing (even choosing face or eyes, and then even the left or right eye!). Correct focus on even a poor camera is better than out of focus on an expensive one, so don't underestimate just how useful it is. When you turn the camera on the lens pops out. This uses power, so if you just want to review images, press the "Play" button and it turns just the viewfinder on for showing pictures and playing video. The power button turns it off. Zoom is very good and has excellent stabilisation. I enabled both "clear" and "digital" zoom and it has a distinct visible change on screen so you know when you're using them. I love the way the ring around the lens can be set to focus or zoom, and both can be relative position or direction. High speed video is really a nice feature, although implementation is quirky. It records a short burst called "buffering" then goes to "Recording" where you choose when to stop and save the seconds you want to keep. The 1000fps is quite dark and low res, but certainly fun to play with. Overall it's a great camera for travel, and could well replace a big DSLR kit, bar the ability to put filters on it. There is a filter kit (52mm) that sticks on the front, but it masks some of the flash and IR focus, plus stresses the zoom, so I won't be getting one of those.

Small enough to fit in pocket, high quality vids & pics, wide-range zoom, fast autofocus. In fully automatic mode, it seems to opt for small depth of field, which is good if you want to have subject in focus and background and/or foreground out-of-focus, and hence distinguish the subject from the the other stuff. It seems good at guessing which thing is the subject, and then very quickly focusing and locking-in the focus on that thing if the camera is moved. In tricky situations, manual focus is reasonably easy to control once you have managed to find that option. It took me a while to remember how to switch to manual focus though. There are so many options that it can be tricky to know which one you want. I made a mistake with the Wind Noise Reduction feature. I initially had that turned ON as my "normal" setting. On a previous camera I think I did this and it was not a problem. On this camera though, it severely cut the bass, and I just thought it had a very low quality mic. This was partly because I had read a review that said its mic was low quality, and that it really needed an external mic, connected via the camera's audio input. When I read that originally, I thought that the reviewer was comparing the camera's mic with some quite expensive mic, and that the camera's mic was just average for this level of camera. Anyway, when I turned Wind Noise Reduction OFF, the bass was fine. I have had this camera for a few months now, and I have nowhere explored all its possibilities.

Excellent camera. So many short cut settings available from a plethora of adjustments. A very useful zoom but at the expense of slightly noisier performance in low light. Overall I am very pleased with my purchase and would buy again. So much optical and processing power in your pocket.

I bought this as I wanted a compact yet capable camera for days out and walks when photography was not the main object of the exercise as I was getting fed up of lugging the weight of my A77 and various lenses with me. From a portability point of view it is brilliant and I just don't notice it dangling around my neck in the Sony case I also bought for it. Image quality-wise I wasn't expecting much given the small sensor but I have to say I am very impressed. I am sure if I took the same shots on larger sensor cameras they would beat it especially at higher ISO's but I have yet to look at a photo and think it's been ruined due to JPEG noise reduction or lack of resolution. The lens is pin sharp and I was also surprised at how well when in JPEG mode and using "clear image zoom" which is a crop and interpolation back to 20mp ging you 400mm equivalent worked. The shot of the Orangutan's was taken like that. The photo of the Black Cap is a RAW image with minimal processing in Capture One 21 for Sony (it's also cropeed a bit and was taken through a window). If you read online reviews from digital photo sites they rave about the auto-focus once you have it set up as they recommend (wide-area, AF-C & tracking) with the recommendation to leave it at that. It is exceptional and far better than on my old A77 but I dropped it a star for two reasons. First it hasn't (as these review sites would lead you to believe) always picked the right object to focus on. It gets it right most of the time but has occasionally picked the wrong subject. The way to correct this is have touch screen focus enabled so with a tap of the rear LCD screen you tell it what to focus on. This works fine but with this enabled I find it easy to accidentally touch the screen to end up overriding the AF when I don't mean to. The animal eye AF mode worked very well on the photos of the Lemurs. Another reason for the star dropped is the control wheel around the lens is easy to move unintentionally. By default this is configured to perform a related function to the mode you are in so in shutter priority mode it will change the shutter speed, in aperture priority mode the aperture and so on. You can change the function of the wheel to zoom the lens if that suits you but then you must use the rear dial to change settings. You also need to factor in buying another battery. It's necessarily small given the size of the camera but expect to change the battery on a day out. One final negative that may apply to beginners looking to move beyond a smartphone is this is a very complex camera to set up. It's almost as complex as Sony's full frame cameras with many options on the menus. I'd recommend Gary Friedman's guide to the camera even for experienced users to help get the best from it. If this all sounds unduly negative it's not meant to be. I am so impressed with the camera that I am reevaluating finally upgrading my old A77 to a Sony E mount camera. If Sony bring out an RX10 V with the RX100 VII's AF (currely the 10 uses the previous generation of AF) I'd seriously think about going that route for when photography is the reason for picking up the camera not just a casual walk.

Bought as a backup camera + alternative to heavy kit. I am so impressed I'm now selling my DSLR. It obviously isn't as good as a DSLR + lenses but for me it is practical + better than a mobile phone camera. Love the zoom + versatility of this camera. I did add a stick on grip which makes it very comfortable to hold. Also got extra batteries. The camera is well built but not waterproof. Expensive maybe but for me it has exceeded my expectations so worth it.

Absolutely love this compact camera. Wonderful range of features, great manual settings and easy to use. Would recommend buying a quality HD card with a fast read speed to take advantage of the high FPS ability. So far it has been excellent to use. It may be more difficult for those with bigger hands as it is a neat compact. Worth the money, I feel that I did not compromise overall picture quality for size. Will make my weekends away a breeze to pack. ( would recommend the manfrotto pixi mini tripod to use with it)

I bought this as a walk about camera to supplement my large and heavy Panasonic G9 II. For me, the RX100 VII has only two downsides: it’s awkward to hold and has poor battery life. But these are not showstoppers. I purchased an excellent glue-on rubber grip and several spare batteries - problems solved. The performance of the Sony is astonishing, considering it was first released about five years ago. It was way ahead of its time and remains highly competitive, even having a BSI stacked sensor that most recent cameras lack. Its AF tracking is amazingly fast, accurate and tenacious, and its hight speed burst modes are impressive. It is a tiny powerhouse, with many technically advanced features. Lastly, it has excellent image quality. Keep in mind that the small body means that it’s largely menu driven. I’ve not found this an issue.