Sony launches Cybershot RX1, full-frame compact camera

First discovered in a leaked photo back in September, the Sony Cybershot RX1 is the closest successor the popular RX100. It claims the title as the first full-frame compact camera.

Normally, when you talk about camera with 35mm full-frame imaging capabilities, you’re talking about huge and heavy professional dSLRs like the Sony Alpha A99 (which they also launched tonight) or the Canon 5D Mark 3 (to the un-initiated, a full frame camera gives you the exact picture as you see it in the frame; there’s no cropping factor to consider).

Well, the Sony RX1 does not look anything like that — it has a huge 24.3-megapixel Exmor CMOS sensor in a small and lightweight body. It’s so compact you might mistake it for a regular-point and shoot.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX1 specs:
35mm full-frame Exmor CMOS sensor
Appx. 24.3-megapixel
Carl Zeiss Sonnar T lens, f/2.0
7.5cm 1.2MP TFT LCD
Electronic Image Stabilization
AF/MF focus capability
25-point multi-point AF
1/2,000 sec to 30 sec. shutter speed
ISO 100 – 25,600
Continuous mode @ 2.5fps (AF-S)
Speed priority continuous mode @ 5fps
Built-in flash (GN 6)
Still: 14-bit RAW, JPEG
Movie: MP4, AVCHD v. 2.0
BIONZ processing engine
8GB Sony Memory Card (included)

In expanded sensitivity mode, it can shoot to as low as ISO 50 or expand to as high as ISO 102,400 using multi-frame noise reduction.

The RX is set to be released in local stores by end of this month, February 2013. The suggested retail price for this camera is Php139,999USD 2,386INR 202,243EUR 2,272CNY 17,374. And no, that’s not a typo.