This little, baggy-pocket-sized, 20mp, wonder machine has been reviewed in-depth elsewhere. See especially the very complete analysis at THIS dpreview LINK.
My brief experience…
–Its files don’t compare to the files I get from my Nikon D800 DSLR but, for a small camera, they aren’t that bad either!
–The files are “good enough” (or better!) for most purposes, including decent prints to at least 13″ x 19″ as long as you don’t crop away too many pixels.
–The Zeiss wide-aperture (f/1.8-2.8) lens, the superb 1″ sensor, and the image stabilization really help those indoor or late evening shots.
–The 24-70mm equivalent lens is a little lacking on both ends for my dream machine (I would love 18mm to 120mm, for example, but that would compromise the optics), but it is adequate and much more versatile than the fixed lens on my Fuji X100s (a pretty darn good street camera in its own right).
–The Electronic Viewfinder and the built-in flash are very nice bonuses.
This has become my preferred street camera and it may well accompany me on climbs, long hikes, or backpacks when weight is an issue. It is perfect for the jersey pocket when out cycling.
If it fits your budget (around $1,000), I would highly recommend it, assuming you prefer something light and pocket-able.
The following three example images were all hand-held in low light.
Some details: I set the ISO on “Auto” with the “Slower” option selected (see the manual for an explanation). Also, these were JPEGs from the camera that I worked for a maximum of about five minutes each in Lightroom and Photoshop (noise reduction, straightening, lifting shadows, pulling back highlights, contrast, slight crop, etc.). I don’t yet have the update to open these Sony raw files–with which I know they will be even more capable of shadow/highlight/noise manipulation.
Here ya go:
La Catedral de Barcelona. In this one, not only was the light quite low, but the highlights in the higher domed area and the shadows on the pillar really pushed the dynamic range of the sensor. Even with a JPEG image, though, I was able to pull some detail out of the column shadows after mainly exposing for the dome highlights…
La Catedral, #1. Barcelona, 2015
Yes, the Moon is blown out, but that is hard to avoid with even a massive camera, unless you combine images. There is a lot of dynamic range in this one, too, that was handled fairly well by the small sensor…
Night Concert. Barcelona, 2015
I probably could have taken this one with my iPhone as I wanted the silhouettes black anyway–I wasn’t concerned about shadow detail. I just liked the photograph, so included it here as a bonus. What the heck…
It’s All About the Image. Barcelona, 2015
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