The Sony RX100, with its larger than average one-inch sensor has made fantastic waves both with the critics and the public, now Sony has stashed a 35mm (full-frame) sensor inside a body which is roughly the same size.

As a trade off, you get a fixed length, 35mm f/2.0 Carl Zeiss lens and it will cost you £2,500 or $2,800.

Clearly taking on the likes of the Fuji X100 and potentially even the Leica M9, the Sony is an exciting new proposition in the ultra-premium compact camera market.

It’s got the same 24.3 million pixel Xmor CMOS full-frame sensor as found in the also recently announced Sony a99, so it’s fair to say that people will be expecting big things in terms of image quality from the RX1.

Also on board is a new Bionz processor, which helps facilitate full HD video recording and sensitivity capabilities ranging all the way up to ISO 102,400 (and starting at 50).

As Sony develops the three main components of cameras in-house (processor, lens and sensor), it believes this gives it an advantage over competitors in the market.

Other features include a 3-inch LCD screen which incorporates White Magic technology for a brighter screen with better contrast.

With an estimated retail price of £2,500 ($4,025) this certainly isn’t a cheap proposition, but it’s being pitched at high-end professionals which may even want to use this as their main or only camera.

Build Quality and Handling

As samples of the RX1 are extremely limited at the moment, we have been restricted to looking at non-working sample.

Never the less, the body quality is easy to see and feel even without switching the camera on. It’s sturdily heavy, giving it a good sense of quality, but it’s also incredibly light considering it’s housing a full-frame sensor inside the pretty small body.

The lens is much bigger than that found on the RX100, and almost feels like it should be an interchangeable optic. It’s not, but Sony says this allows the camera to offer the best possible optical quality as it can maximise all of the features of the camera to get the best from the lens.

When holding the camera, even one-handed it feels pretty secure in your hand, while an additional thumb grip which can be attached to the hotshoe will also be available for greater purchase. This gives it that extra security that some may appreciate. The good thing about the extra grip is that other hotshoe accessories, such as on optical viewfinder can be used with it. It’s worth pointing out that electronic viewfinders can’t be used with the grip as it removes the contact with the electronic points in the hotshoe, turning it into a coldshoe.

Those who appreciate dials and buttons to access commonly used settings will likely enjoy using the RX1 which comes with a dial at the top for adjusting exposure compensation along with a customisable button just in front of the dial. There’s also other buttons on the back of the camera which can be customised, along with a scroll dial for making changes to parameters such as aperture.

A mode dial on the top of the camera can be used for switching between manual and semi-automatic modes, along with fully-automatic, scene and panoramic modes. Up to three sets of functions can be saved to be accessed directly via the mode dial as well, which is a handy feature if you often find yourself shooting in a particular condition.

Around the Carl Zeiss optic are three rings which can be used to set aperture, adjust manual focus or switch to macro focusing. Sony claims that the macro focusing component of the lens almost makes it as if the camera had two lenses in one, and it’s great to see a quick way to switch between the two modes, and one we’ll be keen to try out further when working samples become available.

Sony says that the menu system of the camera is very similar to the recently announced a99, which itself is of course pretty similar to other cameras in the Alpha and NEX range. We’ll be keen to see how user friendly the menu is, especially to those looking for minimalistic controls.

Performance

Of course we can’t fully comment on the performance of the RX1 until we get our hands on a full working sample, but impressions so far are particularly promising.

As it uses the same sensor as the a99, which we have been testing for a couple of days, we feel fairly confident in saying that the a99 is likely to produce the best possible quality from a compact camera currently available on the market and will likely be very appealing to street photographers and those looking for something relatively simple to use which still delivers extremely well.

Although it only has 35mm fixed focal length lens, it’s worth pointing out the camera will also incorporate Sony’s Clear Image Zoom which will offer further reach in the form of digital zoom. We’ve been impressed by the results of this zooming technology in the other cameras in Sony’s range, such as the Alpha a37 and RX100, so we’ll be hoping to see it executed just as well in the RX1.

Early verdict

£2,600 ($2,800) is undeniably a lot of money for a camera of any description, let alone a compact without interchangeable lenses.

That said, for those looking for something which doesn’t compromise on image quality while also having the benefit of being light and small, we can see this being extremely appealing.

As Sony rightly points out, this camera is entering a segment of the market which doesn’t really exist, so the company will be carving out a new category for the RX1. How will it will perform is a bit of a guessing game at the moment, but if image quality lives up to expectation we can see it being a very aspirational camera that many will save up for.

Look out for a full review and assessment of image quality as soon as we can get our hands on one of these exciting new cameras.