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Sony RX10 II Performance


Timing and Performance

Generally excellent performance, but buffer clearing can be slow.

Startup/Play to Record

Power on
to first shot
~1.7 seconds

Time it takes for LCD to turn on and lens to deploy and capture a picture.

Play to Record,
first shot
~1.0 second

Time until first shot is captured.

Startup to first shot time was faster than average for its class, and Play to Record switching was quite fast.

 

Shutter Response (Lag Time)

Full Autofocus
Center-area AF
Wide Angle
0.157 second

Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at wide angle position.

Full Autofocus
Center-area AF
Telephoto
0.149 second

Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at telephoto position.

Full Autofocus
Center-area AF
Flash enabled
0.268 second

Time to capture while forcing flash to fire, zoom lens at medium focal length.

Manual Focus
0.030 second

For most cameras, shutter lag is less in manual focus than autofocus, but usually not as fast as when the camera is "prefocused".

Prefocused
0.012 second

Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.

The Sony RX10 II's full autofocus shutter lag when shooting the same target multiple times was fast for its class. The RX10 II's full AF shutter lag clocked in at about 0.16 second at wide angle using center AF mode. Full AF shutter lag was a little faster at full telephoto, at about 0.15 second. Enabling the flash raised shutter lag to 0.27 seconds, to account for the metering preflash. Manual focus shutter lag was very fast at 30 milliseconds, and prefocused shutter lag was even faster at only 12 milliseconds.

 

Cycle Time (shot to shot)

Single Shot mode
Large Extra Fine JPEG
0.38 second

Average time per shot.

Single Shot mode
RAW + LF JPEG
0.44 second

Average time per shot.

Early shutter
penalty?
No

Some cameras don't snap another shot if you release and press the shutter too quickly in Single Shot mode, making "No" the preferred answer.

Speed Priority Continuous mode
Large Extra Fine JPEG
0.07 second (14.18 frames per second);
44 frames total;
31 seconds to clear

Time per shot, averaged over buffer size of 44 frames. Then slows to an average of 0.74s or 1.35 fps when buffer is full.

Speed Priority Continuous mode
RAW
0.13 second (7.97 frames per second);
29 frames total;
16 seconds to clear

Time per shot, averaged over buffer size of 29 frames. Then slows to an average of 0.61s or 1.65 fps when buffer is full.

Speed Priority Continuous mode
RAW + LF JPEG
0.13 second (7.97 frames per second);
27 frames total;
23 seconds to clear

Time per shot, averaged over buffer size of 27 frames. Then slows to an average of 0.88s or 1.14 fps when buffer is full.

Flash recycling
3.1 seconds

Flash at maximum output.

*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec UHS-I SDHC memory card. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity also affects cycle times and burst mode performance, with higher ISOs generally increasing cycle times and reducing burst performance.

Shot-to-shot cycle times were excellent in single shot mode, at about 0.4 second for Large/Extra Fine JPEGs or RAW+Large/Fine JPEG files. Note that the Sony RX10 II does not support capturing JPEGs using highest quality Extra Fine compression when shooting with RAW files, dropping JPEGs down to Fine quality. We no longer test just RAW file cycle time in single-shot mode, as it's usually somewhere in between JPEG and RAW+JPEG.

The Sony RX10 II's Speed Priority Continuous shooting mode burst rate was outstanding when shooting just Extra Fine JPEGs, averaging about 14.2 frames per second in our test. When shooting RAW files, the RX10 II's burst speed slowed to about 8 frames per second for RAW or RAW+JPEG files, but that's still quite fast. Do note that Speed Priority Continuous mode locks autofocus at the first frame of a burst, though, however it can be setup to adjust exposure between frames. We didn't test the RX10 II's standard continuous mode in the lab; Sony rates it at about 5 fps and continuous AF is supported.

Buffer depths were excellent at about 44 best quality JPEGs, 29 RAW or 27 RAW+JPEG files. Buffer clearing was sluggish, though, taking 31 seconds after a max-length burst of best quality JPEGs, 16 seconds for RAW, and 23 seconds for RAW+JPEG files with our 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC card.

The built-in flash took an average of 3.1 seconds to recharge after a full-power discharge, which is good.

 

Bottom line, the Sony RX10 II's performance was generally excellent with fast AF, very low shutter lag and an outstanding 14.2 fps full-res burst speed when shooting JPEGs. It does slow down to 8 fps when shooting RAW files, but that's still quite fast. Buffer clearing was however quite sluggish, taking up to 31 seconds after a max-length burst of Extra Fine JPEGs with a fast UHS-I card.

Battery

Battery Life
Decent battery life for its class.

Operating Mode Number of Shots
Still Capture
(CIPA standard, LCD Monitor)
400
Still Capture
(CIPA standard, EVF)
360

The Sony RX10 II uses a custom NP-FW50 rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and the battery is charged in-camera via the USB port. CIPA battery life is about average for its class at 400 shots when using the LCD monitor, though it drops a bit to 360 shots when using the electronic viewfinder. We recommend you pick up a spare battery for extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery as appropriate), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

 

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