Here we are. new camera, new name: ZV-1. That big red button, the tally light the
video centric touches that indicate that this camera is for...vlogging! Look it's got a
tilty-flippy screen and it flips this way which I believe is a first for Sony
I don't think I've seen any Sony camera with a screen that flips this way other
than a handycam. Comments below if you know of one. Winner gets an emoji handshake.
It always tends to flip up or down. I know you're thinking: it looks a bit like
the RX100 and yes you're probably right. Similar dimensions, slightly wider,
slightly thicker. It just flips in a different way. It's got a smaller focal
range 24-70mm equivalent instead of the 24-200mm of the RX100 VII but with F1.8
max aperture instead of F2.8 and it's got a built-in ND filter that the RX100's
used to have otherwise it's obvious that at its heart, it's an RX. And why not? I
mean I love the RX100 VII. I bought this one recently on a trip to Hong Kong. I love
its compact size I mean you can just put it in your bag in your pocket. Whatever.
You take around with you everywhere, but it's not just an RX100 with a flip screen.
Things have changed with the ZV-1 though, the body is a bit more plasticky
than the rx100. There's a little rubbery grip here to stop you from accidentally
dropping your camera, turning it into thousands of tiny shards of plastic and
now there's no mode dial, just a mode button which kinda implies they don't
think you'll be using this for stills. It takes 20 megapixel stills with 315 phase
detect AF points but for stills the RX100 VII is the better camera. Woohoo! Machine gun!! It's
20 frames per second. It does a 20 frames per second burst. But, look, the ZV-1 is
cheaper and it's obvious what this camera is meant for. They've kind of prioritized
the purpose of this camera, I mean, look, where the flash once was is a built-in
mic and where the EVF once was it's a hot shoe. Interestingly, although it looks
like Sony's multi interface shoe you can't actually use this with their fancy
mic, which is a bit of a shame really. I'm talking about their ECM - b1m - yeah
rolls off the tongue, perfect name for Elon's next kid - shotgun
mi shoe mic. It is shame because I like this mic and I like this selfie stick-
tripod-thing and if I get to use both of these on the
camera then that is a wire-free setup. The sound from the built-in directional
three capsule mic is pretty decent, I mean it picks up some nice environment noise
although you should use that Don King style dead cat on the camera because
it does pick up wind noise. FYI when I say dead cat I mean...no, not you, don't
worry...this YouTuber hack inspired thing included with the camera. And for vocals
it's kind of alright. Standard steady shot. Testing, testing.
The built-in mic benefits from Clear Voice Recording as they call it, which
means it works better in noisy areas. It's sort of like noise cancelling. But
it does leave me wishing I could use one of these with the ZV-1. No point dwelling
on it, it has a hot shoe so I'd still mount an external mic on it which is
still a tidier vlogging setup than what you'll need to do the RX100 to get a mic
on it. That's the audio though what about the video?
Of course the benefit with the ZV-1 is that you've got a ND filter, I've switched it
off here just so I can have exactly the same look as the R100 VII.
I think stabilization probably makes ZV-1's footage a little bit smoother
looking because this has improved stabilization over the RX100 VII.
Video quantity is pretty much the same as the RX100 VII and also the same
Real-time AF, Real-time tracking Real-time Eye AF
and that's the good stuff, it really is a good auto focusing system. Quick, reliable,
accurate but what have they changed? We've got this thing called product
showcase now, which is all about showcasing...a product. So the idea is that
it will focus on your face and then when you put your product in the frame it
will quickly and accurately focus on that. It's basically like a tweaked
algorithm for products, it's like face detection for products but it works with
face detection as well so it switches between your face and product really
well. The one caveat is that in product showcase mode stabilization is disabled,
you have to use it on a tripod, I guess that kind of makes sense. Also you have to
show the product in the center portion of the frame
for the camera's AF to pick up on the product. Right let's try a pen, just an
ordinary pen. At least I think it's just an ordinary
pen. There we go the product showcase works really well even on small products,
it's quick and it's accurate. Tell you what, though, it is getting pretty hot out
here. You're probably wondering "does it overheat?" Well, earlier I set up the ZV-1,
from cold, hadn't used it before that, for an overheating test. Okay let's set
this up so I'm gonna do overheating test. So, 24 degrees direct sunlight, in the
settings I've changed it to high temp to make sure the camera really fries before
switching itself off. Let's give it a go! The camera gave a warning about the
temperature after about 14 minutes and then cut off after 19 minutes but here's
the weird thing: I could wait a couple of seconds, switch it back on and hit record
and it would record for a few more minutes then it would cut out again, wait 2 seconds
and then record again I repeated that process for about thirty five more
minutes, where the time it would record gradually diminished until it was just a
minute each recording. I probably could have gone on for a bit longer but I got
bored. I think overall that's okay that's already better than some recent Fuji's
and if you don't need long clips, after 19 minutes you can keep shooting for up
to an hour of short clips and that is direct sunlight, of course, otherwise
video performance is great for the same reason I like the RX100.
I like hybrid log gamma, although end up shooting mainly with movie picture
profile most of the time. They look good with minimal work, it's less fussy than
S-log3 and the Z-V1's got great autofocus and that is really all I need
in a camera for vlogging. That and good stabilization which is why I took the
ZV-1 and RX100 VII for a walk. Now one thing I
noticed was that the ZV-1 looks a little more cropped, perhaps due to the fact
that the widest end is actually 9.4mm instead of 9mm
for the RX100. When walking with the standard steady shot it didn't
seem to offer up a huge improvement, you still get quite a bit of shakes and
bumps but the ZV-1 does seem steadier in active steady shot versus the RX100.
Why? Just why did I go for another round?! Like, I just can't believe it. Otherwise
this wouldn't have happened.
That has to be the worst conclusion I've ever come to in a review: that I'm shit at
holding cameras. I think the thing I'm most upset with is that usually I'm not
a clumsy person so this was a bit of a shock really.
I mean, look even my cat's crying about it, oh man. I've got to apologize to Sony
and say thank you for letting me borrow the camera but you're getting it back with
a bent end. I'm really, really really sorry. You know I don't usually
have that effect on ends, but I managed to write off my own camera as well, so
now both of them don't work. End's not bent, so there you go, told you I don't
have that effect on ends. Anyway, the ZV-1: it's different in name but not all
that different to an RX100 in many ways.I mean they're both broken. It is an RX100
tweaked more for vlogging/video use. I didn't get to test out a couple of features:
skin tone and face exposure; de-focus mode, well, I did sort of test it before but
not a proper test. It makes the background a bit blurry for shallow
depth-of-field. The BOKEH effect! It's quite nice actually, it makes it look
like a bigger sensor camera. Nice. But, yeah, now this ZV-1 is all bokeh,
fantastic! And also vertical video so if you're shooting like that it detects
that - like the RX100 VII - and when you play it back it will be vertical.
So, yes, the ZV-1: same, same but different. Different enough to make this the ideal
video version of the RX100. And if that's your thing, then this is
the one to go for. Just try not to drop it, yeah?