I’ve had the RX10 for around 14 months now so I should be in a position to say if it’s a good camera or not. Had you asked me this question 12 months ago I would probably have said (if I was being totally truthful) that it was a bit of a letdown.
You see my expectations were way too high having previously owned a Sony R1. The reason I expected so much was that the R1 had an amazing lens and the RX10 looked pretty much identical. It’s a huge Zeiss lens with a tiny sensor bolted to the back and a bit of a grip to hold on to. It won’t win any awards for being beautiful but it certainly feels good in the hands.
Part of the reason I felt let down also was that the EM5 produces such sharp, crisp, detailed images. I had dearly wanted the RX10 to produce the same “quality” but it doesn’t. It also has corners that are a little distorted and soft in comparison. What I had failed to realise and what only dawned on me when I bought the Nikon D800 is that most cameras suffer from this. In fact the RX10 is a very good performer, it’s just different. In fact, I’m now really quite pleased with the image quality I am able to achieve. The images make lovely prints all the way up to A2 (I haven’t tried anything larger).
But it’s not the image quality that I like, it’s the handling. It’s very easy and intuitive to use. I like the aperture ring on the body of the lens (isn’t this something we had on all lenses at one time). I also like the huge zoom range from 24mm to 200mm and the fast f/2.8 constant maximum aperture. It even has a great battery life.
In all, this is a very impressive camera and great when you don’t want to carry around multiple lenses. I am starting to find myself reaching for this camera more and more, especially when I am out walking.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Brilliant photo again Robin…..
Thank you.
It seems that most of your photos are excellent, no matter what camera you’re using. This leads one to the conclusion that most good cameras on the market can give you the resolution, sharpness, contrast, color, et cetera, that you desire. Further, for most of us that have a high skill level, we achieve great results by knowing our camera’s abilities, using good technique and composition, and post processing that has always been part of the process including film. I think you have “hit the nail on the head” by concluding that you like a camera for its handling characteristics more than anything, given the above that all cameras have more in common for their photo ability than their physical design. So is it really necessary to carry a loaded Nikon D810 or, now, the 50 mega pixel Canon rigs that cost nearly as much as a small car and seem to weigh as much? Well there will always be purists and pixel peepers, but the joy of traveling or hiking with a small light weight rig that does feel intuitive and can give you 90 per cent plus of anything the behemoths can, is the real deal!
Thank you very much John for praising my work. It is true though that any decent camera from a quality compact upwards will produce images of a quality that we could only dream about 10 years ago. Usability for me is the key, something I learned the hard way with the Nikon D800 experiment. It just wasn’t a good camera for my shooting style where I just love using the RX10, EM5, GM1 etc. I do have a hard job deciding which to take with me.