Reversing Regrets: Sony ZV-1 – The Franken-RX100 Is Back.

Reversing Regrets: Sony ZV-1 – The Franken-RX100 Is Back.

Queue the music.

I recently wrote a post about reversing regrets. A start of a short series. This is one of the decisions that gave me the idea for it. The point of reversing regrets, besides the obvious, is twofold.

• Admitting I was wrong.
• Correcting the situation.

The G1 was an example of this from a couple of years ago. Some cameras are not at risk of this. They are so great you know right away that these are cameras to keep. The gear discussed here will be those cameras I did not fully appreciate while I had them. They have no cult following online. No insanely overpriced purchase price. Which is a benefit of not having a following. But they were perfect for me… and I only realized it after I no longer had them.

The subject of this post is the Sony ZV-1.

Sony ZV-1: They made my ultimate Franken-RX100. Also good for vlogging I hear.

Now looking at the title of that post…

Sony ZV-1: They made my ultimate Franken-RX100. Also good for vlogging I hear.

…and this video I made about it…

…you would I would have known enough not to sell it. But nope.

As I said in the first post on this topic I was wrong. My mistake was right there in the title of that post.

I viewed this camera through the lens of RX100 expectations.

Which makes sense on paper. The size, lens, and aesthetic similarities are obvious. And it keeps the best things from the RX100 series.

• 1″ sensor.
• That small size and weight mentioned above.
• Stellar AF.
• IBIS.
• Practical 24-70mm equivalent focal range.
• Built in ND filter.
• Fast f/1.8-2.8 aperture range.
• A ZEISS lens.

Changes were made for its vlogging ambitions.

• A tilty flippy screen was added.
• One touch background blur was added.
• Feature focus mode added.
• A gripper material and built in little grip.

Add all of that up and I sold this camera short. I largely sold it short because of the 1″ sensor. It took me a year of trying out different cameras and camera systems to realize this was a mistake.

Now I like those cameras a lot. I will be keeping them. They did not cost much and I do not want to be writing a post like this about them later. Especially the MFT gear. After multiple cycles of buying and selling them it has become obvious that I need to just keep them. And the RICOH GXR gear is too weird to let go of. They were all better than a 1″ camera at one thing.

• Image quality.

But I did not buy these cameras with image quality as top priority. I bought them in pursuit of a small camera to be used in candid situations.

None were anywhere near as small as the Sony ZV-1.

And what is most important in candid situations? Fast and accurate AF.

This is the main issue I had in the end. They had fair to good AF. Static scenes were fine. But candid scenarios are often not static. And these cameras all missed the mark if they chose to focus at all. This is when I remembered something.

The ZV-1, like most any modern Sony, has amazing AF regardless of the situation.

An epiphany was had.

A missed photo with an overachieving 1″ sensor camera that is truly pocketable is better than a camera with a larger sensor that cannot keep up.

Thankfully for me this is a camera with near no following so new cameras are in good supply and used ones actually depreciate.

And yes, as billed, it is good for video.

So AF is what got me thinking about the ZV-1 again. But back to image quality. Here is a photo I took when I first got the ZV-1 last time.

I took this photo all wrong because I had left it in a burst mode. And it still came out just fine. But it was a different set of pictures that put the ZV-1 back on my claw-back list. I was recently reviewing photos from a trip to New York City a few years ago for a future exhibition. I only used the ZV-1 at the start of the day because I could palm it. Much easier to use for candid shooting and brought no unwanted attention. Nearly every one of these photos was a keeper.

I love this photo above. Here the ZV-1 was perfect. One thing I love about the ZV-1 is that to turn it on you simply open the screen. And it is quickly ready to go. Opened the screen and snapped the photo. To turn it off just fold the screen back in to the body and it is protected and the lens quickly collapses. Then I used it again that night on the way back home near the house. I did not want to reach into my bag and I did not need to.

And a few days later I caught this scene where two folks almost escalate into FAFO territory. The guy in the background widely stood down.

Bottom line. This was the perfect camera for my use case.

This is when I decided to let go of my issues with a 1″ sensor.

It has a fantastic lens like the RX100 II and III. At the wide end it focuses closely.

Very sharp and makes great use of those 20MP. Very nice subject isolation.

I also appreciate the hotshoe, lost after version II (pictured below), for attaching the great little mic dead cat…

…and compatible flashes and triggers.

In my original post I said:

I keep talking about stills for a camera marketed as a vlogging camera first and foremost. I view this camera slightly differently than the marketing. I see this camera as the perfect RX100 for my purposes that also happens to be great for video.

Other notable features:

• HFR for slow motion.
• 24fps second burst.
• The excellent 24-70mm f/1.8-2.8 lens from the III, IV, V and VA for low light performance and bokeh.
• RX100VII hybrid AF features like animal AF and Eye AF during video.
• ND Filter and 1/32000s E Shutter to shoot wide open for the brightest scenes.
• A great built in directional mic, mic jack, and a 180 screen would be great for a portable video all in one even smaller.
• Optical and digital stabilization not offered on my a6100.

Down sides

So there must be down sides, right? Not for me considering the price.

• No EVF. Not a necessity with such a small camera. My trusty old NX300 has no EVF with much worse AF and I get great use out of that camera.
• Lost the lens surround programmable control ring and lack of dedicated dials. Personally never remembered this was there. I use this camera as a point and shoot mostly. Any variations in settings are handled by the programmable modes and I use 1 or 2 of those 90% of the time.
• Some have lamented that they wish it had a wider lens. I expect my long arm will do just fine.

Sony ZV-1 II Sidebar:

Why did I not consider the newer model? Easy. One “improvement” and a few downgrades.

“Improvement”

• The lens is wider at an 18mm equivalent focal length answering the main complaint lobbed at the first gen camera.
  • Perhaps because of my longer than usual arm length this was not an issue for me. 24mm works fine so this was an unnecessary change as far as I am concerned.

Downgrades

• 50mm at the long end.
  • Seeing as I use this more as a photography tool I prefer the 70mm focal length offered with the gen 1 camera.
• No IBIS.
  • Only digital stabilization where gen 1 has both optical and digital stabilization. For more money?
• Slower aperture.
  • f/2.8-4 as opposed to f/1.8-2.8 with gen 1.
• More expensive.
  • More money for a net loss in features? Nope.

Usually, I applaud a company for listening to its customers. But it went wrong here. Since all other specs are identical the first gen ZV-1 is an easy choice for me. My understanding is that the added space the wider lens took up in the small body required the other changes and omissions. 18mm may be worth it to some, but not for me. Personal preference.

Here are some updated images below.

Closing thoughts.

The more I think about it this is a camera I would recommend to anyone. It would make a great camera for someone that wanted great capabilities and di don’t want to spend a fortune. Purchased used like I did this go around you would be hard pressed to find a better value.

Happy capturing.

-ELW