Sony RX10 V review: the all-in-one travel camera
Unmatched reach held back by a nine-year-old sensor
🏆 Review score: 4.0/5
🏅 Editor’s Choice Award
✅ Pros
🔭 24-600mm f2.8-4 Zeiss lens combines the 25x zoom range of 5-6 lenses into one
📸 Ideal travel camera for capturing both wide landscapes and zoomed-in street subjects.
🖼️1-inch Exmor 20.1MP sensor is mid-range in resolution
⚙️ Stacked Bionz XR processor speeds up processing and burst shooting
🎬 Sony’s fully modern video suite adds 10-bit 4:2:2 S-Log 3 and LUT support
🧠 AI-powered real-time AF subject recognition and autoframing features
🔋 New Z-battery delivers dramatically longer life than the previous W-battery
❌ Cons
֎ Lens aperture starts narrowing after zooming to just 25mm
⌛ Nine-year-old sensor stumbles over narrow dynamic range
✨ Noise starts overtaking images at ISO 1,600
The Shortcut Review
The $2,299 Sony RX10 V is Sony’s most flexible camera ever, and that’s largely due to the incredible reach of its 24-600mm-equivalent f2.4-4 Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 25x zoom lens. That gives you the equivalent focal range of 5-6 lenses without having to lug all that gear around. Then that flexibility is bolstered by a 20.1MP 1-inch Exmor sensor that shoots up to 30fps bursts, a fully modern Sony AF system, and video standards including 4K 120fps capture, S-Log3, and the ability to import up to 16 LUTs.
Unfortunately, the Sony RX10 V trips over some fundamentals, including image quality that lacks dynamic range and poor high-ISO performance. Its AF system, while amazing most of the time, can struggle when pushed to the max by a busy background, a fast-moving subject, pushing maximum zoom, or a combination of all three.
Despite these key issues, I found myself consistently amazed by how well the Sony RX10 V handled every kind of shooting I threw at it with aplomb. From spontaneous birding to macro shots of food and wide landscapes, the RX10 V kept surprising me with its deft flexibility to capture anything. If you’re looking for the best hybrid bridge camera available, there’s no question it’s the Sony RX10 V. However, if you’re looking for impeccable image quality, you’ll be better off getting a camera with a larger sensor like the Sony A6700 with a wide focal range for the same $2,299 price.
Full Review
🔭 Big zoom. The biggest draw and first thing you’ll notice about this camera is its 24-600mm f2.8 to f4 Zeiss lens. That 25x range allows me to capture wide shots of the landscape and then zoom almost a mile away to capture far-off landmarks. This makes the camera a fantastic travel companion, as it essentially combines three to four lenses into a single piece of glass. The Sony RX10 V lets you go from shooting wide landscapes to portraits, up-close macro shots, and then long-range wildlife and sports all with one lens and one camera.
֎ Variable aperture. Unfortunately, the Sony RX10 V’s big zoom lens has the downside of a variable aperture that starts shrinking from f2.4 after the tiniest increment of zoom at 25mm. At 103mm, the lens locks in at an f4 aperture for the rest of the focal range. It’s not a huge pain to work around, but if you tire of tweaking your settings around the aperture changing all the time, you can just set the aperture to f4.
🖼️ 20.1MP sensor with leaf shutter. The Sony RX10 V features a 20.1MP 1-inch Exmor image sensor that’s mid-range in resolution, but fully stacked for faster image processing and burst speeds. The stacked Bionz XR processor allows the RX10 V to capture images at up to 30fps. The leaf shutter also makes the RX10 V a fast shooter with flashes and speedlights thanks to high-speed flash sync. That said, the RX10 V’s high-speed flash sync isn’t the best implementation, as it’s limited to just 1/2000 sec, or 1/1000 sec with wider apertures, whereas the Fujifilm X100 VI’s leaf shutter can achieve up to 1/4000 sec high-speed flash sync.
📸 Good, but underwhelming image quality. Image quality from the Sony RX10 V is sharply detailed, but using effectively the same 1-inch sensor from nine years ago causes the RX10 V to falter in two ways. Editing any of the RX10 V RAW images in Sony’s Imaging Edge Desktop software reveals how narrow the dynamic range of this camera really is. I can barely change the highlights or shadows before the image starts graying out.
Noise also starts overtaking images from the Sony RX10 V starting at ISO 1,600. Unfortunately, this is just one of the realities of using a 1-inch sensor. As of this review’s publication, both Adobe Lightroom Classic and Capture One haven’t added Camera RAW support for the Sony RX10 V, so we’ll be revisiting this review to see if it provides more latitude for editing images.
🎯 Hit Ratio. Sony’s latest Bionz XR processor and “AI processing unit” make the RX10 V’s autofocus system a mostly fire-and-forget affair. Once your subject has a tracking box around it, you can rely on this camera to capture it in sharp focus. That said, there were two scenarios where the RX10 V missed the mark, including tracking birds flying in front of an extremely busy background and subjects moving quickly towards me, and both happened while the camera zoom was maxed out.
The Sony RX10 V isn’t as reliable as a true sports camera like the Sony A9 III – especially since it lacks Pre-Capture to start taking a continuous stream of photos with a half-pressed shutter – but it’s a great starting point for would-be amateurs.
🧠 AI chip. As with all of Sony’s modern camera releases, the RX10 V comes rocking an AI chip that powers everything from subject recognition to color reproduction and exposure control. The useful benefit is Real-Time Recognition AF, which can recognize and track a variety of subjects, including humans, animals, birds, insects, cars, trains, and planes. This AI chip also powers the autoframing feature from the Sony ZV-E1 I keep coming back to, and it’s even more useful with the Sony RX10 V’s long zoom lens to keep far away, moving subjects in the center of the frame.
🎬 Top video specs. The best upgrades from the RX10 V’s new Exmor sensor are that it features all of Sony’s modern video features, including S-Log 3 shooting at 10-bit and 4.2.2. Sony has also upgraded the movie recording resolution and speed with up to uncropped 4K60p and slightly cropped 4K120p. It also supports LUTs, so you can see how your footage will look at the start of your edit as you’re filming. The Sony RX10 V is the best bridge camera for video, and the fact that you can smoothly zoom to 25x just makes it even better.
📐 Modern redesign. Sadly, the RX10 V no longer carries the classic streamlined and hunched-down design of bridge cameras from the 2000s. Instead, Sony has updated this new version with a squared-off body and larger grip that mimics the dimensions and controls of the Sony a7 series. As a result, the RX10 V now features three separate dials and a large AF stick. The buttons on the top and back of the camera are also more pronounced.
🔋 50% more battery. The RX10 V didn’t get Sony’s latest batteries, but the Z-batteries promised 50% longer run times with up to 630 shots per charge; in my experience, I actually saw even better performance. After taking 250 photos, including shooting some 4K video, I only saw my battery life decrease by 25%.
Should you buy the Sony RX10 V?
✅ Yes, if…
📸 You’re looking for the best hybrid bridge camera available
🔭 You constantly need more zoom range
🎒 You’re tired of carrying around multiple camera lenses
🎥 You’re looking for a travel camera with all the flexibility for video and photos
❌ No, if…
🖼️ You’re looking for impeccable image quality (get the Sony a6700 instead)
🌃 You shoot mostly at night and other dark environments (get the Sony a7S III instead)
🎞️ You want a camera for professional sports and nature photography (get the Sony A9 III instead)
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam