Sony has announced the RX0 II, what they are billing as the “smallest and lightest premium ultra-compact camera.” A waterproof, dustproof, shockproof, crushproof and extremely small “premium” camera, the RX0 II is capable of internal 4K recording and now includes a flip-up screen that tilts upwards 180 degrees and downward 90 degrees (for selfies, as you could guess).
The main featured specifications actually look really good on paper:
- Superb image quality delivered by 1.0-type stacked 15.3MP image sensor condensed into waterproof, rugged, highly compact body
- Features a ZEISS Tessar T* 24mm f/4 fixed wide-angle lens
- Movie shooting with 4K internal recording and new image stabilization solutions
- Advanced functionality for stills photography, including up to 1/32000 sec. anti-distortion shutter and up to 16fps continuous shooting
- Diverse range of shooting scenes enabled by waterproof 180-degree tiltable LCD panel and Clear Image Zoom
- Multi-camera solution that enables creative video expression from various viewpoints
The
RX0 II offers 4Kp30 internal movie recording with full pixel readout
and no pixel binning to collect approximately 1.7x the amount of data
required for 4K video. By oversampling this data, the moire and
jaggies is reduced to deliver clean, high-quality 4K footage with
exceptional detail and depth. The RX0 II introduces in-body
electronic stabilization for steady footage, even when shot handheld.
This can be enhanced even further when footage is exported to a
smartphone or tablet running Sony’s “Movie Edit add-on”
application, where the additional information captured during filming
can be processed to produce a video with gimbal-like smoothness.
Additional movie features of the RX0 II include Super Slow Motion
recording at up to 1,000 fps, uncompressed 4K HDMI output and
simultaneous proxy movie recording. But more than video, the RX0 II
promises a high-quality photo taking experience. It boasts an
anti-distortion shutter of up to 1/32,000 sec. and can shoot at up to
16 fps. Rating and Protect functions can also be applied in-camera
and a grouped display of continuously shot images can be viewed on
the camera. Sony’s Eye AF, which is proving hugely popular with
portrait photographers across the world, has been upgraded on the RX0
II. The speed, accuracy and operation of the Eye AF are improved to
make it even easier to capture a stunning portrait; a simple
half-press of the shutter button will lock-on to the eye of the
subject.