Sony RX100 makes Time Magazines “50 Best Inventions of 2012”!

November 4, 2012 cool links, Gizmos, News, Sony 35

Sony RX100 makes Time Magazines “50 Best Inventions of 2012”!

I was sitting in my office last week thinking to myself “what has been my favorite camera release of 2012”? There have been so so many but I whittled the list down to 3 and the RX100 was in that top 3 for me. I have still not decided what camera will make my #1 of 2012 but I thought that Time Magazine was spot on when they put the RX100 in their top 50 Inventions of 2012 article at TIME.COM.

The RX100 is a marvelous piece of equipment. It is small, has a solid nice build, amazing IQ for the small sensor and it is FAST and hassle/fuss free. This has been the hottest seller for Sony in 2012 and I know why..because it is worth it. It beats just about every other compact pocket cam and does so with the same size sensor that is in the Nikon 1 series which they call a 1″ size sensor (though it is a bit smaller in reality).

So congrats to Sony for this one, it is well deserved! BTW, Amazon sells the RX100 and is where I bought mine!

You can read my RX100 review HERE. You can read other mirrorless and compact camera reviews HERE.

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35 Comments

  1. Steve, I wanted to ask a question of you as I value your opinion, tremendously, when it comes to this market. I am looking to make a purchase within the next month or two and I have narrowed my choices to the Sony RX100, the Fujifilm X100 or the Sony NEX-6 (an upgrade from my current NEX-3). This year I want to step out of my comfort zone and begin shooting some street portraits but I still want the flexibility to create great landscape images as well. If this was your choice to make, which camera would you choose? Thank you, and whoever else may respond, in advance.

    • Fuji X100 focal length is fix on 35mm. You must buy Fuji X100 wide converter and the wide also not wide enough. To me, 24mm is the minimum wide angle. Also Fuji X100 can’t good enough focusing in low light situation.

      Sony NEX-6, to be honest, their lenses are not good. But if landscape you are after, it will works since landscape usually “play” on F11 above. For street, it’s can work too but for low light situation i think not so different with Fuji X100.

      Sony RX100, almost complete camera. But for landscape photographer who needs to add more filter (3 or above which is ND, 2 ND graduates), this can’t work since RX100 is a pocket camera except there is some photographer, glue their RX100 (the called it adhesive), please look for this link. It’s from lensmate.
      http://www.lensmateonline.com/store/RX100QC_49.php

      Also RX100 has limit on F11. Can’t go any further. There is no hotshoe either. The flash also pre-flash. Can’t set it off.

      Flash on slave mode works with my YongNuo 460II though (set it to S2).

      Hope this will helps you

  2. I’ve had this in my B&H wish list since your review. But after my recent climb of Mt. Whitney, I think I’m off point-and-shoots forever. I find it too hard to compose accurately and hold steady while holding the camera at arm’s length. In fairness though, I did make one of my best photos ever on this trip with the P&S.

  5. I am really enjoying my RX100. It has replaced my S95. Now, finally, I don’t feel like I am making a huge compromise when I just want to carry a camera in my pocket, not around my neck.

    • Ok, not all that bad.
      When I look at DPReviews test image, especially the following areas look bad:
      – playing card (center)
      – watch (bottom right)
      – paper clips
      – the kodak logo (top)

      On the other hand the RX100 is better at
      – the earth (top)
      – the logo of the martini bottle

      I’m a bit confused about this…

      • two possibilities, i think?
        – those bad parts are out of plane because of they are out of the main focus plane chosen during the test (doubted for still such a small sensor to have thin plane on such a distance)… or…
        – field curvature (if this is true… this is not good… since this could only mean that the lens(es) is not aligned properly…)

      • DPR has one major problem with there test setup. When they shoot, they set the camera to AF field metering and then, the camera chose the place where it focuses. They should set the AF to spot or selective field and focus the center of the set-up. Only then you can get an idea. If every camera chose a different point to focus on, you never can compare in a correct way. I have compared many cameras, in sharpness, jpeg and raw, and chose different places of the image, and, I find the focus point to change all time, what proves that they do not focus on the same spot at every test. I take the playing card, queen’s head, as my reference point to start with, then I go in an X shape to different points in 3 frames of different sizes and here i find the pint where the camera focused. I notified that in many comments on their site, despite that, they do not change it. DPR has good test reports, nut, the picture samples are quiet often crappy, blurred and look “fast done”. I like the pictures that Steve shows here on site, they show the mastering of the camera settings, and the mastering of the rework and finishing software, and only by that we can get a real view of what a camera can do. I prefer a test report made on the field with pictures in many different situations, ISO ranges and light conditions to a test setup or any DXO lab testing. DPR is a reference for many, but to my opinion there is other, better places to complete what is missing their tests, real field work and experience written in words by someone who has that experience, like Steve, for example.

    • I’m in the same boat; when I look at the dpreview test shots I don’t see anything special. Having said that and even if the RX100 dpreview tested was somehow defective, I don’t think the RX100 high ISO image quality will be superior enough to the likes of the Panasonic LX7 and the Canon G15 to offset the markedly faster lenses of those cameras. In practical terms, the image quality obtained from all those cameras should be broadly similar since there will be little need to use high ISO (where the RX100 is better) on the LX7 or the G15 due to the faster lenses on those cameras.

      So, again, I don’t know what the fuss is all about!

  10. This is Time we’re talking about… Time once maed George W. bush prson of the year in 2004. so Time magazine is not as credible as some may think.

    • Not that I like Time, but Herman makes a common error here: “Person of the Year” is a judgment of the person’s influence on world events, not his character. Hitler was Man of the Year (back before we all got gender-neutralized) in 1938, but they weren’t saying Adolf was a great guy. Time named Mohammad Mossadegh Man of the Year in 1951, but considered him a “menace” because of his determination to make Iran independent of the West (Mossadegh, Iran’s democratically elected Premier, was overthrown by an Anglo-American engineered coup in 1953).

  11. I just never warmed up to the RX100. The grip helped and the Clearviewer added a pseudo viewfinder at the expense of more bulk. I think the real reason is that I prefer to use the OM-D since it is usually small enough.

  14. It’s an amazing camera, never been happy with the iq of pocket cameras until I bought the rx100 a few months ago.

  15. Nice review, Steve. However, despite the obviously good Zeiss lens on the RX100, my real question is how sharp is the combo of the OM-D EM-5 and the Oly 60mm m.Zuiko Macro.

  16. Very nice camera indeed. It can be a little slipper to hold because it is small in size. However that can be fix with a custom grip by Richard Franiec RX100 Grip for I think $34 dollars.

    • You’re so right. My RX100 is at Sony right now being repaired. I’ve dropped it three times. Thanks to you, I just ordered the Franiec Custom Grip.
      And by the way, the Time article is “The 25 Best Inventions”, not 50, which makes the camera just a bit more special.

  17. Nice camera. Just too small and slippery for me. Returned it and went back to my GX1 w/ 20mm.

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