Sony RX100 VI Performance

Faster AF and deeper buffers than the Mark V, but buffer clearing is still slow.

Startup to first shot time was about average for its class. Oddly, switching from Play to Record and taking a shot wasn't much faster.

The Sony RX100 VI's full autofocus shutter lag when shooting the same target multiple times was very fast for a compact camera, and about 40-60% faster than the Mark V. The RX100 VI's full AF-S shutter lag clocked in at about 0.12 second at wide angle using center AF mode. Full AF-S shutter lag was just a little slower at full telephoto, at about 0.15 second, but that's still quite fast. Enabling the flash raised shutter lag to 0.18 seconds, to account for the metering preflash.

Manual focus shutter lag was incredibly fast at 30 milliseconds, and prefocused shutter lag was even faster at only 10 milliseconds.

We also tested lag times in electronic shutter mode but as you can see above, they were slower than with the mechanical shutter, as they usually are.

Shot-to-shot cycle times were excellent in single shot mode, at about 0.5 second for Large/Extra Fine JPEGs or RAW + Large/Extra Fine JPEG files. Note that unlike prior RX100 models, the Mark VI does support capturing JPEGs using highest quality Extra Fine compression when shooting RAW+JPEG files, which is a nice improvement.

The Sony RX100 VI's Continuous Hi shooting mode burst rate was incredible at about 24 fps regardless of file type, and the Mark VI supports continuous autofocus at those speeds. Note that to attain that speed, the electronic shutter is used. This is the same speed as the Mark V, but buffers are much deeper, and as mentioned, Extra Fine JPEGs are now supported when shooting in RAW+JPEG mode. The RX100 VI also offers Mid and Lo settings rated at 10.0 and 3.0 fps respectively, and we've included test results at 10 fps with the mechanical shutter above.

Buffer depths were over 50% deeper than the already outstanding buffer depths of the Mark V, coming in at 229 best quality JPEGs, 109 RAW or 106 RAW+JPEG files before the camera slowed down from 24 fps in our tests. Buffer clearing was still quite slow, though, taking 77 seconds after a max-length burst of best quality JPEGs, 51 seconds for a max burst of RAW files, and 94 seconds for a max burst of RAW+JPEG files with our fast Lexar Pro 2000x UHS-II SDXC card. You can however make setting changes and review images which have been written to the card while the buffer is clearing, though. (Note that the RX100 VI does not support the faster UHS-II interface, but our Lexar Pro 2000x card is at least as fast as our SanDisk Extreme Pro card in UHS-I mode.)

The built-in flash took an average of 4.8 seconds to recharge after a full-power discharge, which is a bit slow.

Bottom line, the Sony RX100 VI's performance was outstanding in most respects: Autofocus is fast, shutter lag is extremely low, burst speeds go up to an incredible 24 fps (with continuous autofocus) no matter the file type, and buffer depths were outstanding even when shooting RAW files. The only real letdown performance-wise is slow buffer clearing with no UHS-II support, and sluggish flash recycling.

Battery Life
Poor battery life for its class.

The Sony RX100 VI uses a custom NP-BX1 rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and the battery is charged in-camera via the USB port. CIPA battery life is rated a little higher than the RX100 V's at 240 shots per charge when using the LCD monitor and 220 shots when using the electronic viewfinder, but that's still below average. We strongly 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))