Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 III review: Autofocus

Focus is speedy enough in good light, with just a slight slowdown when shooting with smaller apertures. Even at the telephoto end performance is sound, partly helped by the camera’s tendency to acquire an approximate focus as the lens is zoomed. It’s not quite as instantaneous as the systems we’ve seen on other recent compact and mirrorless cameras, but not slower to the extent that it makes much difference.

It also doesn’t fare too badly when set to track a moving subject, recognising its shape and adhering well as it moves around the scene. I was pleased with my overall hit rate when shooting continuously, although I found it struggled to initially get a lock if the subject isn’t too dissimilar from its surroundings. A fast memory card is required here as it can take some time to flush all these images out from the buffer, although the camera does remain partly operational while this happens, should you need to quickly fire a few extra frames.

Some hunting occurs at the telephoto end of the lens if the camera can’t identify the subject, and on occasion the camera fails to deploy its AF assist light where it would clearly be beneficial, leading to a slowdown. Fortunately, the lens travels between its focus extremes reasonably swiftly, but it can slow things down if it has to travel this whole range repeatedly.