I've spent the last month using the Sony RX100 V and yesterday I made the very hard decision to return it back to the store. With the exception of one really big flaw, I think this is a near-perfect compact digital camera. And even with the huge price tag of $1000, I still felt like I was getting every dollar's worth out of the camera. Despite my own reasons for returning this camera, I still would recommend this camera to everyone from amateur photographers to pros looking for a pocketable solution.

Things I really liked

The focus. Wow! The focusing on this camera is the best I've ever seen on any camera. It easily beats the best DSLRs on the market and I've yet to handle a similarly sized pocket camera that can adjust focus as quickly as this little guy (both in video and in stills mode). Even when shooting while biking, I always had super sharp and in focus photos. Which leads me to my next favorite feature...24fps stills.

I didn't even know this was a feature of the camera before buying it. But the Sony RX100 V is capable of shooting 24fps bursts in RAW. It is just incredible and really the only downside of this was that I had to edit that many more photos at the end of the day. Can any other stills camera even come close to this number in RAW? It's hard for me to think of another camera that can do this.

Another thing I really enjoyed was the articulating screen. I haven't owned a camera with this feature since spending a huge chunk of my savings on the Canon PowerShot Pro1 back in my college days (God, I loved that camera). I didn't think I'd use it much but once the RX100 V was in my hands, I found it nearly indispensable. I shot a lot of low-angle stuff just because I could, so uh, that was fun I guess.

Finally, the quality on this little guy is fantastic across the entire usable ISO spectrum. I expected nothing less after watching Sony surpass just about every major camera manufacturer in recent years with exceptional results from their sensors.

The one thing I didn't like

The start-up time of this camera. I just could not get used to the time it would take from the moment I pushed the On button to when the lens would fully extend and allow me to begin shooting. There were a few times where I knew I would miss a shot if I relied solely on that camera so I'm glad my backup, my iPhone, was always nearby. That annoyed me. I spent $1000 on a fantastic camera with great features and I would have found myself using this for a long time were it not for that damned slow start-up time.

At the end of the day, I guess no camera is worth it if I can't take a photo with it when I want. Let's hope the Mark VI improves on that one flaw. I'd buy it.