News

Some cameras lend themselves to dropping into an underwater housing more than others… and then there are cameras that you could never put in a proper underwater housing even if you wanted to—the new Sony RX10 V is just such a camera. Still, there’s no reason we can't spend a little time marveling at this new-and-improved model, perhaps with our eye on it as a great all-in-one topside camera for our travels.

What hasn’t seen much, if anything, of an upgrade is the RX10 V’s sensor and lens. It’s still the same 20-megapixel stacked Type 1 Exmor RS CMOS sensor and Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 24–600mm f/2.4–4 equivalent lens used in the Mark IV from 2017. Thankfully, that’s where the similarities end, including the processor—now the latest Bionz XR processor (from the a7 Mark V), which features an integrated AI processing unit. That should mean excellent real-time subject detection and tracking.

Other welcome upgrades include: an Alpha-series-inspired body featuring Sony’s new menu system and autofocus joystick, a new 3.69M-dot EVF with 0.78x magnification (up from 2.36M dots and 0.7x magnification), a higher-resolution 3-inch rear LCD touchscreen with 1.62M dots, USB-C as opposed to Micro USB, and a modern NP-FZ100 battery. The new processor brings blackout-free continuous shooting at 30fps (up from 24fps), and 4K/60p full-width recording and 4K/120p with a slight crop.

The camera will retail for $2,300. Just don’t look for it at Backscatter…