From Sony to Xiaomi, smartphone brands are increasingly dabbling in one-inch camera sensor hardware. But as someone that doesn’t buy flagship smartphones, I had resigned to accept that it would be years before the technology would trickle down to my pocket. That is until I realized I could skip the wait and buy a more capable point-and-shoot camera instead. The Sony ZV-1, for instance, uses the same one-inch sensor as the cutting-edge $1,799 Xperia Pro-I and costs less than half as much.
If you look at Sony’s marketing for the ZV-1, it’s clearly aimed at aspiring content creators and videographers. But it’s equally capable in non-video modes too. Sony packs the same one-inch sensor in the photography-focused RX100. In other words, even though it lacks some auxiliary features like an electronic viewfinder, pop-up flash, and mode dial, the ZV-1 still has the same capable imaging hardware.
