Fixed-lens cameras have recently been enjoying a comeback as photographers look for something better than a phone without committing to a bag full of heavy lenses. That trend has been playing out across Sony’s own RX range, from pocketable compacts up to the full-frame RX1R III, and now the company is bringing back its all-in-one superzoom bridge camera.
The RX10 V is the fifth entry in a series many assumed was finished. Its predecessor, the RX10 IV, launched in 2017 and was later discontinued with no obvious successor, so a new one arriving in 2026 is a pretty big surprise. Like its siblings, the RX10 V has one body, one lens, and a focal range stretching from wide-angle landscapes to distant bird shots.
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What has changed is nearly everything behind the glass. The camera inherits processing and subject recognition from Sony’s mirrorless Alpha line, along with a grip and button layout lifted from those cameras. Early reviewers broadly agree that this is comfortably the best bridge camera money can buy, even if the competition is thin these days.
At the heart of the RX10 V sits a 20.1-MP 1-inch-type stacked Exmor RS CMOS sensor, a BIONZ XR processor, and a dedicated AI unit. The lens is the same large-aperture ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T* 24-600mm (35-mm equivalent) f/2.4-4 zoom carried over from the RX10 IV, complete with optical stabilization and macro focusing down to roughly 3 cm (1.18 in) at the wide end.
That AI chip drives Real-time Recognition AF, which spots people, animals, birds, insects, cars, trains, and airplanes, and uses human pose estimation to hold onto subjects who turn away or hide behind a helmet. Burst shooting hits 30 frames per second with a blackout-free viewfinder and up to 60 AF/AE calculations per second, while a Speed Boost function can lift the frame rate mid-sequence. Conspicuously missing is pre-capture, which several reviewers have flagged as a real loss for wildlife shooters.
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Video is the other big leap forward. The RX10 V records 4K at up to 120p in 10-bit, supports S-Cinetone, S-Log3, and up to 16 user LUTs (Look Up Tables), and adds Active Mode stabilization and AI-driven Auto Framing. Rounding things out: a 3.68-million-dot Quad-VGA OLED viewfinder, 3-inch LCD touch monitor, a joystick and AF-ON button, weather sealing, USB-C, and an NP-FZ100 battery good for around 630 shots, roughly 50% more than before.
The RX10 V arrives in August t US$2,299.99 – which, adjusted for inflation, is almost exactly what the RX10 IV cost at launch, but it lands in a market where an APS-C body like the Alpha 6700 plus a long telephoto zoom costs about the same.
That tension runs through the early reviews. PetaPixel found image quality deteriorating quickly at higher ISOs and concluded that being best in a shrinking category isn’t the same as being great. Others, including wildlife photographer Steve Perry and TechRadar, came away won over by the sharpness of the Zeiss lens, the depth of the buffer, and the sheer amount of reach on offer without lugging a 600-mm prime.
Both things can be true. The RX10 V won’t replace a serious interchangeable-lens setup like Sony’s Alpha 9 III, and it isn’t trying to. What it offers instead is the ability to shoot a landscape, a portrait, and a bird in flight within the same minute, from the same body, with nothing to swap. For travelers, birders, and anyone who has ever regretted leaving a lens at home, that remains a tempting proposal.
Introducing RX10 V | Sony | RX
Product page: Sony RX10 V
