1" sensor

See here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_camera_tube#Vidicon, Chapter "Size".

Hi Phil. My two pence worth. Don’t bother with the sensor specs, look at an earlier version of the RX100 for a great value, good quality pocket camera. The later versions, not least the latest mk vii, are expensive and stuffed with features I don’t particularly want or need in a camera for the glove box.

My recently bought RX100iii goes with me everywhere, takes amazing images and was a real deal. Good revue here.

Good luck with your quest.

The compact size of the RX100 series is appealing especially if you have small hands (and small pockets and a large wallet ) but for me it is essentially a very expensive toy camera however good the performance is. It's simply too small to use and is so weak and plasticky it's not for me. A Nex is much nicer to handle.

But if that doesn't bother you, the image quality and feature set are pretty good.

For me, the Canon S100 is a nicer camera to use; it's about the same size and much cheaper. Less Mp though, if that bothers you.

Miranda F wrote: The compact size of the RX100 series is appealing especially if you have small hands (and small pockets and a large wallet ) but for me it is essentially a very expensive toy camera however good the performance is. It's simply too small to use and is so weak and plasticky it's not for me. A Nex is much nicer to handle. But if that doesn't bother you, the image quality and feature set are pretty good. For me, the Canon S100 is a nicer camera to use; it's about the same size and much cheaper. Less Mp though, if that bothers you.

I think we will have to agree to disagree on this one. I too have a NEX-5 (hasn't seen the light of day for ages due mainly to the impossibility of viewing the screen in bright conditions). I then bought a NEX-6 for its viewfinder, which is much better but, the OP is looking for a "pocket camera" and whatever size lens is fitted to a NEX body, even the diminutive 16mm f2.8, it doesn't fit into any of my pockets other than a safari type jacket.

Edit: But the NEX-6 has been a great tool for exploring the world of adapters and "interesting" lenses, so each have their own strengths IMHO.


Edited by bonneville - 29 July 2019 at 16:52

My strong advice is to stay away from one inch sensors, unless you only intend to take daylight snapshots that you won't develop much or make even medium size prints from. The small photo sites create too much noise for any other application. And yes, this is truly image destroying noise that is readily visible. On the other hand, I'm impressed with how far the sensors have come and they are certainly better than any cell phone camera. However, Micro Four Thirds is noticeably better than the one inch sensors in every aspect (except size for long telephoto focal lengths) for approximately the same size, weight, and cost. The Panasonic Lumix LX100 and Leica D-Lux Typ 109 are particularly easy to recommend.

Sensor size doesn't matter for noise. Lens size is the main thing that matters. There's always a depth-of-field/noise trade-off. And by lens size multiply crop factor by the relative aperture. There are relatively huge lenses in some formats.

Sony's one-inch sensors are more efficient than their current APS-C sensors. But even the 8.8 mm F1.8 wide end of the faster lens is quite limited.

addy landzaat wrote: But the most important, tree foliage is mush with all 1" sensors I have seen. I do not know why this is so, but it is what I see. Maybe if lenses get better it changes, but for now it is the way it is.

Well, I agree about mush, which seems to be be caused by over processing.

I am very disappointed in the images taken by my new iPhone 8 Plus. There's hardly even 3 MP of image data left at ISO 20 in bright sunlight. No third-party application can reduce Apple's processing either. I mainly use my phone camera for my job where detail is important. Evidently their market thinks reality should look like a poorly rendered video game.

My Pentax Q7 is similar.

And I see calls by photographers to add more computational photography to cameras to be more like cellphones. I want less. Sony, get rid of the star eater; get rid of the raw vignette correction. But at least Sony allows turning off sharpening completely for JPEGs.

Edited by QuietOC - 29 July 2019 at 20:46