The Mini Mighty

The lightweight, shirt-pocketable 20.1-megapixel advanced compact camera – RX100 Mark VII – was launched in India on 21st October 2019.

- Rohinton Mehta

With a powerful Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-200 mm equivalent zoom lens, backed by a newly designed 1-inch Type stacked CMOS imaging sensor and the latest BIONZ X imaging processor, the RX100 Mark VII is a formidable carry-around compact for day-to-day use. Let’s see how it performs on our test bench.

Design & Build Quality

Beautifully finished, the Sony RX100 VII is a delight to hold. Weighing under 300 g with the battery and memory card, it is a great compact camera to lug around the whole day. The camera, with its tough metal exterior and the base made with engineering plastic, appears adequately strong. The camera is made in China.

Key Features

The RX100 Mark VII is very sleek. In ‘off’ position, the maximum thickness is just 42 mm. When the lens is extended fully to the telephoto position, it measures approximately 98 mm from the camera back to the front of the lens. The ‘on/off’ button is slightly recessed to cut down chances of unintentional operations. The electronic viewfinder (2.35 million-dot XGA OLED True-Finder) is hidden; to use it, you have to press down the tiny switch marked FINDER on the left side of the camera. You won’t see the built-in flash either. It too is hidden and to use it, you need to slide the small flash switch to the right which will pop up the flash. Once the camera is put ‘on’, the lens can be set to W (wide) or T (telephoto) as required. The 3” display monitor has a resolution of 921,000 dots. It can be tilted upwards by 180° and downwards by around 90° to suit the shooting situation. It can be angled to face the subject in case of a selfie. The monitor cannot be swung sideways.