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First Impressions: Sony RX100 M2

Chris Gampat
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06/27/2013
3 Mins read

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony RX100M2 product photos first impressions (8 of 8)ISO 32001-30 sec at f - 4.5

Sony’s RX100 has been called by many to be the best point and shoot camera ever made. Sony has announced a modification of the camera and is calling it both the RX100 M2 and RX100 II. It still sports the same 1 inch sized sensor (but with 40% more light sensitivity), same great lens, and mostly the same ergonomics. But the major difference is the addition of WiFi, NFC touch capability, the new Sony Hot Shoe, and the LCD is now 3 inches and tilts/flips.

Coming in at $750, we’re not sure that it might be worth an upgrade.

Tech Specs

  • 20.2MP 1″ Exmor CMOS Low-Light Sensor
  • WiFi capability
  • Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T Lens
  • Xtra Fine 3″ LCD Display with WhiteMagic
  • Optical 3.6x Zoom & Digital 7.2x Zoom
  • Optical & Electronic Image Stabilization
  • Full HD 1080/60p Video Capture
  • Ultra-Fast 0.13 Sec High-Speed AF
  • Face Detection & 10 fps Burst Mode
  • Record Stills Using JPEG, RAW, or Both
  • Aluminum Body with Built-In Pop Up Flash

Ergonomics

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony RX100M2 product photos first impressions (1 of 8)ISO 32001-50 sec at f - 3.5

When Sony first announced the RX100, it was quite the sexy compact cam. With its smooth lens dial, fast aperture zoom lens, compact frame, and excellent build quality at an affordable price, who could say a bad thing about it.

The front of the camera is sleek–and a tad too slippery for my liking. Sure, there is a nice accessory grip, but all I want is the equivalent of a little gaffers tape on the side to give me some better grip.

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony RX100M2 product photos first impressions (7 of 8)ISO 32001-30 sec at f - 4.5

The camera has a big, beautiful, tilting LCD screen–and that makes it nicer to shoot from the hip.

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony RX100M2 product photos first impressions (5 of 8)ISO 32001-20 sec at f - 4.5

The back of the camera is characterized by dials and buttons–but since this camera is targeted at those reaching for lower hanging fruit, it is also far less complicated than its RX1 and RX1R brothers. The buttons in this case are much more straight forward and labelled in a better way.

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony RX100M2 product photos first impressions (3 of 8)ISO 32001-100 sec at f - 4.5

 

The top of the camera features a pop-up flash, new hot shoe, on/off switch, shutter release and zoom rocker, and a mode dial. By all means, it is really cool.

Ease of Use

We see most users of this camera being part of the point and shoot crowd–quite literally and no pun intended. If you’re looking to set it in Auto and take photos, then you’ll have no problems. But the camera is capable of doing so much more than that. We saw lots of video footage shot with it, and it will breaktakingly awesome.

Then there is that buttery smooth control ring around the lens, and the fact that it’s buttery smooth.

Did we mention it was buttery smooth? Like butter? Right…okay.

Build Quality

This is an extremely solid and compact pocket cam. In fact, it is extremely dense too–but without being too heavy. Due to its compact design, we see it being able to take a bump or two.

Autofocus

The autofocus of the RX100 M2 is super speedy. If you’re photographing your kid running around like a maniac in the backyard, you’ll be super happy with the results that this camera can give you.

Image Quality

We couldn’t stick a card in the camera because it is a pre-production model. But what we’re really interested in seeing are the high ISO results.

First Impressions

Let’s put this one out there: if you have the RX100, stick with that camera. This is for the person that is looking for a pocket camera with WiFi built in, doesn’t need the largest sensor possible, and is on a budget.

But we’re going to have to save our final word for the review.

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1 inch sensor autofocus camera ergonomics point and shoot RX100 II RX100M2 sony
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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