When you’re traveling, most of the time you’ve got to take the light as it comes. And much of the time, the level of illumination leaves something to be desired. So you want a camera that can take it in stride—there’s not much fun in putting your camera away when the sun goes down.
Sony’s new RX100 VII is a high-end compact camera that continues in a line of feature-rich and impressive compacts. I’ve recently been out shooting with it to put it through its paces. I thought it might be useful to post some real-world examples of its high-ISO performance in case it’s useful for anyone wondering how well it performs in low light.
- 20. 1MP 1. 0 Type stacked CMOS sensor, Zeiss Vario Sonnar T* 24 200 millimeter F2. 8 F4. 5 large aperture...
- 0. 02 sec. High AF speed, 357 point focal plane Phase detection AF and 425 point contrast detection AF
The Sony RX100 VII doesn’t have a particularly expansive ISO range. At least, not compared to some other cameras like the full-frame models that have ISOs up into six figures. I’ve previously posted some side-by-side examples throughout the ISO range. The RX100 VII’s full range is from ISO 64 to ISO 12800. Of that, ISO 100 to 12800 is native ISO, with ISO 64 and ISO 80 in the extended range (where software takes over from the hardware’s native sensitivity).
What I’m focusing on here are some examples taken at high ISOs. I’ve posted a more general collection of sample images taken with the RX100 VII separately.
Where “high ISO” begins is obviously open for debate. For the purposes here, I’m focusing on ISO 3200 through ISO 12800. ISO 3200 isn’t really a particularly high ISO these days—certainly not compared to what it was in early digital and film days—but I’m including them here as reference points.
I’ve tried to focus here on shots that are likely to show up issues with high ISOs. So things like smooth tones through the shadows and subtle colors. I’ve also included the same shot at different ISOs to allow for apples-to-apples comparisons.
I’ve taken all of these in RAW and processed them with a light touch in Lightroom. Doing so has bypassed the in-camera processing that’s applied to the JPGs. I haven’t applied any extra noise reduction beyond Lightroom’s defaults (Luminance: 0; Color: 25; Detail: 50; Smoothness: 50).
It’s worth noting that I haven’t applied any external noise reduction to these, either. There are specialized image editing apps available that can do pretty remarkable things in cleaning up image noise at high ISOs (eg. DxO’s DeepPrime and Topaz Labs’ DeNoise AI are good places to start; and if you’re shooting RAW, DxO’s PureRAW works a bit differently and isn’t only focused on image noise, but it can yield impressive results).
Sony RX100 VII High-ISO Sample Images
You can click on each image to open a full-size version for a closer look.
Wrap Up
For a compact camera with a small sensor, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the high-ISO performance of the RX100 VII. Although it probably shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise considering it’s coming from a camera manufacturer has been consistently producing some of the best sensors in the business for several years now.
Accessories
It’s possible to add filters to the RX100 VII, but you first need to attach the VFA-305R1 filter adapter kit as the front panel. You can then use 30.5mm filters. The kit also comes with a lens hood.
The Sony RX100 VII doesn’t come with a memory card as standard. I’ve put together a detailed post of Sony RX100 VII memory card recommendations separately.
Sony RX100 VII Price & Availability
Check the current price and availability of the Sony RX100 VII at:
- 20. 1MP 1. 0 Type stacked CMOS sensor, Zeiss Vario Sonnar T* 24 200 millimeter F2. 8 F4. 5 large aperture...
- 0. 02 sec. High AF speed, 357 point focal plane Phase detection AF and 425 point contrast detection AF
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