Sony RX10 II Image Quality

At base sensitivity -- which is now just slightly lower than before -- the Sony RX10 II looks to have just a slight edge on its predecessor. Sharpening haloes in the bottle crop aren't quite as prominent, and there's just a little more detail in the mosaic label, as well. The RX10 does just slightly better with the fabric swatches, though, holding onto the thread patterns slightly better and showing more contrast in the red swatch.

Against the Canon G3X, the Sony RX10 II looks to have a little bit more of an edge. (And again, a slightly lower base sensitivity.) As well as a crisper mosaic label and more detail in the fabric swatches, Sony's noise reduction better handles the bottle crop. (Even at base ISO, Canon's NR gives the edges of the bottles a slightly stippled look.)

The Panasonic FZ1000 proves to be a tougher rival. There's clearly more detail in the fabric swatches than Sony was able to gather, and the FZ1000 also yields an even crisper mosaic label.

We've included the Olympus Stylus 1 in this comparison as an example of an enthusiast-grade, small-sensor long zoom that, like the RX10 II, has a constant-aperture f/2.8 zoom lens. And right off the bat, you can see that at base sensitivity the Sony RX10 II does a better job. Olympus' noise reduction leaves mottlin in the bottle crop even at ISO 100, despite a lower resolution that offsets its smaller sensor size. And that lower resolution shows itself in the mosaic and fabric swatches, both of which contain far less detail. In fairness, though, it's also a much smaller and lighter camera than is the RX10 II.

And finally we come to the Nikon J5. It uses the same sensor size as does the Sony RX10 II, but allows for interchangeable lenses. The rumor mill has it that unlike past 1-series models which uses sensors from Aptina, this one may in fact feature a Sony chip. Whether that's true or not, the Nikon J5 seems to gather a little less detail than the Sony RX10 II in the mosaic label. It also has less aggressive sharpening, though. The bottle crop doesn't show as much haloing, and also looks a little cleaner.

Stepping up to ISO 1600-equivalent, we have a more interesting comparison between predecessor and successor. Sony seems to have dialed back its noise reduction, leaving more grain in the bottle crop but perhaps holding onto a touch more detail in the mosaic label. Clearly, both cameras are starting to have a little difficulty, though, and noise reduction is squashing some finer details, yielding a somewhat smudgy look.

Canon's approach looks to have even less noise reduction processing, but despite this the mosaic label looks muddy and has lost most of its finer details.

At ISO 1600, Panasonic still seems to have an edge over Sony. The FZ1000 shows a bit more detail in the mosaic label, along with better-controlled noise in the bottle crop. And while it really struggles with the red fabric swatch, it holds onto some thread patterns in the pink swatch that the RX10 II has lost.

At ISO 1600, the Olympus Stylus 1 is really handicapped by its smaller sensor. Almost all fine detail is gone in both the mosaic label and fabric swatches, and the bottle crop is much noisier too.

Again, Sony holds onto detail better than Nikon in the mosaic label, which is a bit muddy in the J5's image. And the RX10 II also wins in the red fabric swatch, albeit not by a huge margin. However, the Nikon still shows a little thread detail in the pink fabric swatch and does a noticeably better job with noise reduction in the bottle crops.

Finally, at ISO 3200 the Sony RX10 II definitely shows more noise than did the RX10 in the bottle crop, but thanks to that less aggressive noise reduction holds onto more detail in the mosaic label. The fabric crops are a wash: Neither model does a great job in them this time around.

The Canon G3X's mosaic label and fabric swatches are both muddy and have relatively little detail. At the same time, its bottle crop is noisier, although that noise has a finer and more film-like grain to it.

At ISO 3200, the Panasonic FZ1000 still has an edge over the Sony RX10 II, but it's much more modest. There's a little more fabric detail in the swatches, and the mosaic label also shows a touch more detail as well as better contrast. Completing the sweep, noise is also better controlled in the bottle crops. Not a huge difference in any area, but a worthwhile one across the board, we'd say.

No two ways about it: At ISO 3200, the Olympus Stylus 1's results from that small sensor are pretty ugly. Chroma and luma noise run rampant, and most fine detail is obscured. The Sony RX10 II's image is still pretty usable so long as you don't pixel peep, by contrast.

Very different approaches from Sony and Nikon at ISO 3200. If these truly are related sensors, then it just goes to show how much the processing affects the final result. The J5 somehow still retains a touch of pink fabric pattern and better tamps down noise in the bottle crop, but detail in the mosaic label really suffers.