Sony ZV-1 – Review 2020

The Sony ZV-1 ($799.99) is the company’s first compact camera built just for vloggers. It shares a lot of its tech with the RX100 family, including the lens from the RX100 VA and the imaging engine from the RX100 VII. Those models are stills-first, though, while with the ZV-1 you get a more video-friendly design, with a flip-forward LCD and a best-in-class internal microphone. It’s a good camera for vloggers, but not a home run—the lens is a little tight for walk-and-talk footage, and the battery life is underwhelming.

Small Enough for Pockets

The ZV-1 is a small camera, just 2.4 by 4.2 by 1.7 inches (HWD) and 10.4 ounces. Its lens doesn’t completely retract into the body—it juts out a little bit—but it’s compact enough for most pockets.

Sony has opted for a composite material for the body, a departure from the metal exterior used by the RX100 series. It’s a fine change if you ask me—the body feels solid and the finish is likely to hold up better over time. There’s still a bit of metal around the lens, giving it a little extra protection.

ZV-1 and GP-VPT2BT Wireless Shooting Grip

The ZV-1 also includes a small handgrip, something missing from the RX100 family. Unfortunately, it’s not a great grip. If anything, it makes the camera less comfortable to handhold in most situations, though I did appreciate it for selfie shots and vlogs.

I recommend adding the GP-VPT2BT Wireless Shooting Grip. The $150 add-on attaches via the camera tripod socket and communicates with the ZV-1 via Bluetooth. It doubles as a handheld pistol grip and a tabletop tripod.

The ZV-1 is more comfortable to use with the grip attached. It includes basic controls, too—buttons to snap photos and start and stop video recording, the customizable C1, and a zoom rocker. There’s also a lock switch, so you can disable controls as desired. The head features tilt and rotation adjustment.

Adding the grip certainly keeps the ZV-1 out of pockets, but the package is still small enough to stow in a small bag. It’s worth it, though, if you plan on doing a lot of handheld video recording.

Controls and Screen

The ZV-1 has more control buttons and options than you find on the grip itself. The top plate houses the On/Off, Mode, Record, and C1 buttons, as well as the shutter release and zoom rocker. The hot shoe and built-in mic are also up top—if you use the included windscreen to protect the mic, the On/Off button is visually obscured, but still accessible.

The rear is dominated by the swing-out LCD. It doubles as a power control, hepful if you’re using the windscreen and having trouble finding the On/Off button by feel. When the LCD is closed the screen is protected and the camera is powered off—swivel it around so it’s showing, or swing it out to the side, and the camera turns on automatically.

Rear buttons are squeezed into the right side, below the thumb rest. There’s a flat command dial, with a center button and four directional press controls, as well as Fn, Menu, Play, and C2/Delete buttons.

Fn launches an on-screen menu. It gives quick access to some of the useful features, including focus settings and skin smoothing options, but despite having touch support, Sony really limits the touch functionality. With a camera like this, one that’s made to have the screen facing you while recording, you should be able to tap the screen to launch and navigate the Fn menu, but that’s not the case.

It’s a shame, because the only thing you can really do via touch when making images is to tap and select an object of interest for focus. The 3-inch screen is certainly large enough to allow for a tappable icon to launch Fn. It’s reasonably crisp (921k dots) and has a Sunny Weather setting that makes it bright enough for use on the brightest days.

There is one big downer for vloggers—the screen has issues with polarized sunglasses. When I put my prescription Ray-Bans on, the screen appears absolutely black. It leads to some very squinty vlogs, especially on bright days.

Connectivity and Power

The ZV-1 is a small camera, but does include a hot shoe. It’s there primarily for microphone use, but can also be used for an external flash or a radio transmitter for an off-camera strobe, a plus for photographers who may already own interchangeable lens Sony gear and are thinking about adding the ZV-1 to their creative toolkit.

9.4mm (24mm equivalent), f/1.8, 1/800-second, ISO 125

There’s also a 3.5mm input for an external microphone, a micro HDMI output port, and a micro USB port for charging. We’d have definitely preferred to see USB-C here—it’s the current standard and supports headphone adapters.

There’s no way to plug a set of earphones into the ZV-1, so you can’t monitor your audio in the field without offloading it to another device; the in-camera speaker is there, but it’s no substitute for a proper set of headphones.

Battery life isn’t great. The ZV-1 uses the slim NP-BX1 battery. It’s rated for about 260 shots or 45 minutes of video recording time per charge. I netted less than that in the field, nearly draining the battery in a few hours of normal use, mixing video, photography, and playback. A liberal use of the Sunny Weather LCD setting, as well as using the Bluetooth grip, take a decided toll on the battery.

You can top it off on the go via the USB port, lessening the issue, but we’d like to see Sony come up with a better power solution for its compact cameras.

25.7mm (70mm equivalent), f/2.8, 1/640-second, ISO 125

The memory card slot supports SDXC cards at UHS-I speeds, as well as Sony’s obscure Memory Stick Duo format.

There’s also in-camera Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The ZV-1 works with a smartphone app, Sony Imaging Edge for Android and iOS, so you can send footage to your phone or use your handset as a remote control.

Speed and Autofocus Performance

The ZV-1 is built on the same sensor platform as the RX100 VII, one of the fastest-focusing point-and-shoots around. It locks without any noticeable display, supports burst capture at 24fps in Raw or JPG format without any sort of loss of view of your subject, and offers all of the same advanced subject tracking options as its professional full-frame offerings.

25.7mm (70mm equivalent), f/2.8, 1/320-second, ISO 125

The shooting buffer is big, but still easy to fill if you hold the shutter button down with the burst mode set to 20fps. I netted about 75 Raw or Raw+JPG shots, and about 165 JPGs in a full burst.

You will have to wait a bit for files to write to the card if you fill up the buffer, though—a full minute with the Sony Tough 300MBps card I used for testing. During that time you’ll be able to capture more shots, but many other functions, including video recording, are unavailable. It’s not a bad idea to use a slower burst rate—the middle setting is 10fps and the low is 3fps. The 10fps setting is still very useful for action photography, and won’t fill up the buffer nearly as quickly.

As for autofocus performance, I’m generally happy here. Sony’s tracking system turns on when the focus is set to AF-C, and it does a wonderful job tracking subjects. Its face and eye detection are particularly of interest to vloggers, and work in conjunction with the camera’s metering system to ensure your face is properly exposed, even when recording video under changing light.

Face Priority Metering

It faltered a bit, though, when it came to identifying my face under a protective mask. With a mask on, the camera focused on me without issue in video and stills mode alike, but it didn’t detect my face as a face. You can see that the camera handles a tricky backlit exposure correctly when it finds a face, but slightly underexposes when it can’t.

Lens and Sensor

The ZV-1’s lens is a known quantity. The 24-70mm f/1.8-2.8 zoom has been a staple of 1-inch sensor format cameras from Sony for years, dating back to the RX100 III from 2014. It’s very sharp, delivering excellent resolution through its entire zoom range, and its bright f/1.8 aperture is ideal for blurring out backgrounds, so your photos and videos obtain the shallow bokeh look without the need for the software tricks that smartphones use to net similar results.

9.4mm (24mm equivalent), f/1.8, 1/500-second, ISO 125

The zoom range is a bit short; Sony has opted for a 24-200mm f/2.8-4 zoom in recent entries in its RX100 series, and Canon puts a slightly longer 24-100mm f/1.8-2.8 zoom in its livestream-capable GX 7 Mark III.

It’s tough to argue with the quality of the short zoom, though. Its design also includes an integrated three-stop neutral density filter, a benefit for videographers who want to keep an eye on shutter angles and photographers looking to make long exposure images in daylight. The filter can be toggled, so there’s no detriment to low-light photography.

See How We Test Digital Cameras

And it’s in dim light where the f/1.8 aperture comes in handy. The ZV-1 uses the 1-inch sensor format, one that’s physically larger than you find in basic point-and-shoot cameras and smartphones, and makes the ZV-1 (along with the RX100 VA) one of the best pocket cameras out there for low-light photography.

25.7mm (70mm equivalent), f/2.8, 1/200-second, ISO 125

Image quality is excellent through ISO 800, and very good through ISO 3200 when shooting in JPG format. Detail is blurred a bit at the highest settings, ISO 6400 and 12800. Out of the box the camera is limited to ranging to ISO 6400 in automatic mode—you can set the threshold higher or lower if desired.

For work in very dim light, you’ll want to consider Raw capture. Adobe Lightroom hasn’t yet been updated to support the ZV-1’s files, but I was able to work with Raws converted to DNG format. The files are just as good as you get from the RX100 VII—there’s plenty of room to adjust highlights, shadows, and color. You can also expect a bit more detail, but also more grain, when working at ISO 3200 and 6400. Output is very grainy, without a lot of fine detail, at ISO 12800.

Vlogging Features

The ZV-1 is as adept for video as for stills. It offers 4K footage at 24 or 30fps, and 1080p at up to 120p, adding some flexibility for slow-motion playback when working on HD projects. You also get High Frame Rate (HFR) capture at 240, 480, or 960fps for extreme slow-motion effects—it works well, but requires a bit of time for the in-camera processing to render out clips.

The in-camera microphone is good enough that you can probably skip using an external one. I tried it both indoors and out, and while it picked up some ambient background noise in both situations, it captured my voice clearly without distortion. Of course, there’s a mic input jack if you prefer a shotgun or lapel mic.

You can also tune how your video looks. I used the default (Standard) profile, but there are others available, including Vivid, Portrait, Black-and-White, and Sepia. More advanced editors can enable flat Log profiles for more flexibility fine-tuning colors and tone.

Sony has put some extra digital stabilization into the video here, and it does a good job keeping handheld footage steady. I’m not the most graceful person, but the ZV-1, along with the add-on grip, did a fine job keeping my walk-and-talk footage steady.

9.4mm (24mm equivalent), f/1.8, 1/250-second, ISO 125

It crops footage a bit to get there, though, netting a tighter angle of view at 4K, similar to a 30mm lens. It’s a downer for travel vloggers, as you really can’t get a view of the environment around you when recording at arm’s length.

A selfie stick would certainly help, and you might already use one in your vlogging. If you’re a multi-camera creative, though, I’d say a GoPro Hero8 Black is still a good tool to reach for when you want a wider view. Its stabilization is fantastic in its own right.

But you’ll never get the blurred background look with a GoPro. The ZV-1’s lens will get there when set to f/1.8. For vloggers who may not know their f-stops, Sony has included a Background Defocus function. Tapping C1 switches the lens between a blurry background (f/1.8) or clear background (f/5.6) with a single tap. It works well, and the button can be remapped to another function if you’d prefer. There’s also a Soft Skin effect, useful if you want to wipe your blemishes and wrinkles away.

More interesting is Product Showcase Mode, a new autofocus setting built for YouTubers who review various products. When turned on it overrides face and eye detection when you put an object toward the center of the frame, so you can be sure the camera is focusing on what’s in your hands when presenting to an audience.

Craving a Wider View

The Sony ZV-1 is the company’s first camera built just for vloggers. It gets some things very right—the in-camera mic is better than any other small camera I’ve used, the 4K video is the best you’ll find in a camera this small, and the autofocus is absolutely top-tier.

The Product Showcase mode is thoughtful and works well, and while the Face Priority metering system struggled a bit with a protective mask, I’d imagine it’s something that can be improved via a firmware update.

Battery life is another matter—for all-day use, carry a spare or a power bank. Likewise, for a camera that’s going to be facing its operator quite a bit, the touch screen functions are not nearly robust as they could be.

The real drawback is the lens. The 24-70mm zoom is a fine choice for photography and many types of video, but it’s tight for vlogs where you want to point the camera in your direction and show your surroundings. If I have a wish list for a ZV-2, it starts with an 18 or 20mm wide-angle lens.

The idea of a camera engineered to meet the needs of YouTubers is nascent, but even so, Sony isn’t on its own. Panasonic recently released the Lumix G100, an interchangeable lens model targeted at the same market. I’ve not yet had a chance to test it, but it has its own high-quality internal microphone. Swappable lenses mean you can go as wide as you want, though keep in mind that the lenses that get there can cost as much as the camera itself.

The Sony ZV-1 is still an appealing option for vloggers who don’t to deal with extra lenses, and are happy with the angle of view the lens nabs. Just be sure to pack your selfie stick.

Sony ZV-1 Specs

Best Camera Picks

Camera Product Comparisons

Further Reading