The result? burst shooting with full autofocus and auto-exposure. For a compact camera, that is still, as of 2024, mind-boggling.

In the long, storied lineage of digital cameras, few series have commanded as much respect as Sony’s RX100 line. For half a decade, the formula was simple but ruthless: take a 1-inch sensor, pair it with a fast, bright Zeiss zoom lens (f/1.8-f/2.8), wrap it in a chassis that fits in a jeans coin pocket, and unleash it upon the world. The RX100 Mark III, IV, and V were darlings of vloggers, street photographers, and luxury travelers because they prioritized light gathering and bokeh in a tiny body.

Four years later, with the benefit of hindsight and the rise of computational photography in smartphones, the RX100 VI is no longer a controversial anomaly. It is a fascinating time capsule—a camera that bet on versatility over raw emotion, and in doing so, predicted the future of hybrid shooting. Let’s address the elephant in the room: the lens.

The 24-200mm lens is an optical marvel. To fit a 8.3x zoom ratio into a body that is only 1.5 inches thick required aspherical elements, ED glass, and a lens barrel that extends like a mechanical symphony. At 24mm, it is sharp corner-to-corner. At 200mm, while there is some softness wide open, stopping down to f/5.6 yields images that rival entry-level mirrorless kit lenses.

To the casual observer, the RX100 VI looked identical to its predecessor. But under the skin, Sony performed a radical operation: they ripped out the beloved fast lens (24-70mm equiv.) and replaced it with a slow, super-telephoto zoom (24-200mm equiv.). The photography community erupted. “Sacrilege,” they cried. “They ruined the best pocket camera.”