Sony puts one-inch sensor in premium bridge camera

A new "premium" bridge camera, the Sony RX10, has been announced, featuring a one-inch, 20.2 million-pixel back illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor.

The sensor has already proven its mettle in the Sony RX100 II premium compact cameras. It is approximately four times as large as standard compact camera sensors (found in most bridge cameras).

Along with the one-inch sensor, the premium camera includes a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T 24-200mm (35mm equivalent) lens with an f/2.8 constant aperture. It also features a 3cm close focusing distance, ideal for macro photography.

Speedy

A new processing engine, the Bionz X processor, also found in the top of the range A7 full frame compact system camera joins the sensor. Sony claims that the new processor delivers a 3x improvement in processing speeds compared with previous Bionz processors and helps boost image quality.

Autofocusing is powered by a new Direct Drive SSM mechanism which is designed to work in conjunction with the sensor and processor for speedy focusing speeds. Lock-on AF has been designed to accurately track moving subjects, while newly developed Eye AF is designed with portraits in mind.

Movie recording is available in full HD and can be recorded at selectable 50p (AVCHD) or cinematic 25p frame rates with full control over P/A/S/M exposure modes. Clean HDMI output is also available.

On the back of a camera is a tilting 3 inch, 1.2 million dot LCD screen, which is joined by a 0.39 inch electronic "TruFinder" viewfinder with 1.3 million dots.

Inbuilt Wi-Fi and NFC technology is included for remote controlling and instant sharing.

The Sony RX10 price will be £999 / approx US $1,600 / approx AU $1,680 and will be available from mid-November.