Sony Cybershot DSC-RX100 is a New Compact Camera Using the Nikon 1 Series Sensor Format | News | Forum

The Sony Cybershot RX100 has leaked on the Japanese website Digicame-info.  The camera looks very much like a compact point and shoot camera; however, one key difference (based on rumored specifications) is the presence of a much larger image sensor in the RX100.

The CMOS imager is rumored to be 13.2mm x 8.8mm, which is the same size as the Nikon 1 Series cameras (or CX format sensor / 2.7x crop).  Of course, this makes a lot of sense – given that Nikon has sourced larger image sensors from Sony for years now.  It looks like Sony will be making use of its own manufacturing efficiencies for this format.

Check out the chart below for a comparison of how the Sony RX100 sensor stacks up against other mirrorless and DSLR cameras.

As you can see from the above images, the RX100 sports 20.2MP of resolution via that somewhat larger image sensor.  (I wonder if we'll see a 20.2MP Nikon 1 Series camera around the bend…)  To me, this looks like a Sony HX9V on steroids, which could prove to be a very good thing.

The HX9V was a real surprise hit and was quite hard to find for some time due to the overwhelming demand that resulted from the solid image and stunning video quality.  The RX100 should come with a 30-108mm equivalent lens, which we know can be done rather compactly in this format since Nikon produces a 30-110mm VR lens for its 1 Series cameras.

The Sony RX100 is rumored to be coming in the next few weeks, so hopefully we'll see it before vacation season is over this Summer.

Additional, machine translated specs are below.

• 13.2X8.8Mm Exmor CMOS sensor type 1.0 effective number of pixels…