It doesn't seem that long ago when people were carrying their compact cameras around to get the perfect shot – at least, until the smartphone came along. Say what you might about smartphone photography as it steals the limelight, there are many good reasons why compact cameras will always be a cut above smartphones

Sony understands that exact point, which is why it's continuing to invest in the photography market.

Sony has taken many of the technologies developed for the Alpha 9 and incorporated them into its latest mirrorless camera release, the RX100 VII - the latest in its award-winning line of RX cameras.

Mirrorless cameras were the next big thing since DSLRs for a while, and although they've been flying under the radar over the past few years, their capabilities continue to grow.

Sony designed its latest camera to appeal to snap-happy photo enthusiasts, as well as professionals. The RX100 VII is around 302 grams, with dimensions of 102mm x 58mm x 43mm.

The RX100 VII is powered by a newly developed 1.0-type stacked Exmor RS CMOS image sensor and the latest generation BIONZ X image processor. According to Sony, this combination delivers new levels of autofocus performance and achieves speed breakthroughs that have previously only been seen on the Alpha 9.

Flexibility of shooting is ensured by a ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T* 24-200mm 8 F2.8-4.5 high magnification zoom lens.

That lens helps to capture the action, in combination with 357 focal-plane phase-detection AF points and 425 contrast-detection AF points, which means focusing is smarter than ever.

A major leap in AF/AE tracking performance during continuous shooting means the camera performs AF/AE calculations up to 60 times per second2 and captures fast moving action at 20fps with AF/AE tracking, ensuring that each moment is shot with swift and accurate focus.

The RX100 VII also introduces advanced ‘Real-time Tracking' and ‘Real-time Eye AF' capabilities. ‘Real-time Tracking' utilises Sony's latest algorithm including artificial intelligence-based object recognition to ensure that subjects can be captured with excellent accuracy, even via the touch panel on the rear screen.

‘Real-time Eye AF' employs AI-based object recognition to detect and process eye data in real time, resulting in improved accuracy, speed and tracking performance of Eye AF for both humans and animals, and allows the photographer to concentrate exclusively on composition.

And finally, Sony has optimised the RX100 VII for moviemaking – and in particular, vlogging. Amongst other capabilities, there's 4K in-body movie recording, real-time tracking and real-time Eye AF for video, 4K Active SteadyShot to keep video steady, super slow motion recording at up to 1000 fps, interval shooting for time-lapse videos, and a 180-degree flipscreen so users can see the screen whilst filming.

The RX100 VII will be available in New Zealand from August 2019 for SRP $2,199.95.