SONY RX0 II
A huge sensor makes this more about the camera and less about the action
Stills shooting with the RX0 II is fantastic, capturing bags of detail
Despite the rugged design, Sony describes this as a ‘tiny tough’ as opposed to an ‘action camera’. Like the GoPro and DJI, it’s designed for survival and features its own take on image stabilisation, plus some very nifty imaging hardware, but its more involved operation means it’s less suitable for capturing impromptu bursts of action, and better suited to supercharging vlogs and outdoors photography.
One of the standout features is a 180-degree tiltable 1.5-inch screen. That’s smaller than its rivals here, but enables you to capture cool angles, avoid sunlight when framing a shot, or see yourself in frame. Getting up and running with the camera presents little drama, however it’s when you start delving into settings that your patience is tested. Prodding fiddly buttons to navigate almost 30 menu pages on the tiny screen seems misjudged in a world where the touchscreen is king.
The RX0 II isn’t geared up to quickly point and shoot when those off-the-cuff moments occur. That said, Sony’s Intelligent Auto mode can choose the right set-up for every shooting scenario, leaving you to focus on framing. The camera delivers autofocus of sorts, but won’t refocus during shooting. It focuses on whatever it’s first fixed upon when you start filming, and that’s it. This is frustrating if, like us during testing, you plan on shooting continuous action with moving subjects.
The RX0 II is similar in size, weight and build to the likes of a GoPro and DJI, and you may even prefer the
Sony’s ribbed duraluminium body – this thing is tough! Inside is a powerful one-inch sensor, which is around four times the size of what’s in the others here, and offers wide dynamic range, reduced noise and superb detail from both stills and videos. It shoots video at a higher bitrate than other cameras of this ilk, meaning there’s way more detail packed into each frame.
Sony’s stabilisation tech is called SteadyShot, but its performance isn’t a patch on the others. As such, the RX0 II is much more at home on a gimbal or tripod. In that situation, its video is the best quality here, but the better smoothing on the others means we’d choose them for most true action camera purposes. Stills shooting is undeniably fantastic, capturing bags of detail, particularly when there’s plenty of light to play with.
Battery life is shorter than with other cameras in this field, coming in around the 60-minute mark, but the batteries are removable so you could invest in spares. Sony offers smartphone connectivity for basic editing and sharing of footage, but these are fairly limited.