Sony Cyber-shot RX100 II review

Popular premium compact gets an upgrade

Sony RX100 Mark II review
The Sony RX100 Mark II is a high-end compact camera

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We shoot a specially designed chart in carefully controlled conditions and the resulting images are analysed using DXO Analyzer software to generate the data to produce the graphs below.

A high signal to noise ratio (SNR) indicates a cleaner and better quality image.

For more more details on how to interpret our test data, check out our full explanation of our noise and dynamic range tests.

Here we compare the Sony RX100 Mark II with the Panasonic LF1, Sony RX100 and Canon G15.

JPEG signal to noise ratio

Sony RX100 Mark II review

These results show that the Sony RX100 Mark II's JPEG files have a stronger signal to noise ratios than those from the Panasonic LF1, Sony RX100 and Canon G15, at every sensitivity setting.

Raw signal to noise ratio

Sony RX100 Mark II review

As we can see from this chart, TIFF images (after conversion from raw) from the Sony RX100 Mark II have a stronger signal to noise ratios than TIFFs from the Panasonic LF1 at every sensitivity. The Sony RX100 Mark II's TIFFs have similar signal to noise ratios to those from the Sony RX100, coming out slightly stronger at every sensitivity but ISO 100, 400 and 6400. TIFFs from the Sony RX100 Mark II are beaten by those from the Canon G15 in terms of signal to noise ratio.

JPEG dynamic range

Sony RX100 Mark II review

The Sony RX100 Mark II's JPEGs contain impressive dynamic range, beating JPEGs from the Canon G15 at every sensitivity setting. The Sony RX100 Mark II's JPEGs contain greater dynamic range than the Panasonic LF1's JPEGs at every sensitivity setting except ISO 800, and beat the Sony RX100's JPEGs at every sensitivity but ISO 800 and 3200.

Raw dynamic range

Sony RX100 Mark II review

This chart indicates that TIFF images (after conversion from raw) from the Sony RX100 Mark II show a greater dynamic range than those from the Panasonic LF1 at every sensitivity setting except ISO 100, and a greater dynamic range than those from the Canon G15 at ISO 400 and above. The Sony RX100 Mark II's TIFFs show almost identical dynamic range to the Sony RX100's TIFFs at ISO 400 and 800, and greater dynamic range at ISO 1600, but at other sensitivity settings the original camera's TIFFs were stronger.

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Amy Davies

Amy has been writing about cameras, photography and associated tech since 2009. Amy was once part of the photography testing team for Future Publishing working across TechRadar, Digital Camera, PhotoPlus, N Photo and Photography Week. For her photography, she has won awards and has been exhibited. She often partakes in unusual projects - including one intense year where she used a different camera every single day. Amy is currently the Features Editor at Amateur Photographer magazine, and in her increasingly little spare time works across a number of high-profile publications including Wired, Stuff, Digital Camera World, Expert Reviews, and just a little off-tangent, PetsRadar.