The Sony RX10 II is a dream camera for many. It combines great general image quality with incredible video skills, super-rapid shooting speed and a lens that offers both a wide zoom range and constant max aperture of f/2.8 throughout. This is an amazing combo.

Versatile; high-quality lens; Good image quality; Good manual control; Excellent speed and slo-mo video skills

Expensive; especially against RX10; Limited display tilt usefulness

The Sony Cyber-shot RX10 II is, just like its predecessor, a camera that's going to divide opinion. On paper its 24-200mm f/2.8 equivalent lens and 1-inch sensor combination sounds like the bees knees. Until, that is, you see the physical size of this camera: it's big, like DSLR-scale big.

Constant f/2.8 aperture and great lens quality; physical aperture ring control; weather-sealed pro-spec construction; fast autofocus and decent close-up ability; great tilt-angle LCD and built-in electronic viewfinder; ace slow-mo and 4K video capture

Limited upgrades compared to original model; no touchscreen controls; lens slow to travel through zoom; focus selector positioning not ideal; maximum focal length limitations; no pinpoint or more complex autofocus options; it's really expensive

The Sony Cyber-shot RX10 Mark II features the World's first stacked 1.0 inch BSI CMOS sensor with a DRAM memory chip. The camera features 40x Super Slow Motion Capture, 4K Video Shooting, High-speed Anti-Distortion Shutter, and 14fps continuous shooting.

Constant f/2.8 aperture lens; Excellent image quality; Excellent noise performance; 4K video recording; High speed video; Weather-sealed body; High resolution electronic viewfinder; High speed continuous shooting; Fast focus and shutter response; Built in Wi-Fi and NFC

Price seems very high (but may come down; Raw not available at the same time as creative effects; JPEG Super Fine not an option when shooting JPEG+RAW

Sony first introduced its convention-defying RX10 bridge camera range back in 2013. Most bridge cameras offer monster-sized zoom ranges you might never use fully, which forces the makers to use tiny 1/2.3-inch sensors that compromise the image quality.

The lens is a Zeiss 24-200mm equivalent f/2.8, which again provides the aperture and focal lengths that most enthusiast photographers will need. Since the release of the RX10, Panasonic has released the Lumix DMC-FZ1000 – a bridge camera with a very similar specification to the RX10.

The best bridge camera ever? Quite possibly

Superb all-round image quality and handling; Excellent lens; HFR shooting opens up new possibilities; 4K video

Expensive; Shooting in HFR can be tricky

Almost everything about the RX10 II is seriously impressive, but I have two niggling doubts that stop me giving it top marks. One is the lack of a touchscreen, which I feel is a significant drawback for video capture - something this camera is otherwise superbly equipped for.

Announced in June 2015, Sony's Cyber-shot RX10 II introduces many of the same new technologies as the RX100 IV (which we reviewed in November 2015 but in a larger, SLR-like body with a long zoom lens.

You might look at the price above and think, 'Wow, that's expensive for a bridge camera.' You'd be right too, except Sony's RX10 II is special.

The RX10 mark II is an excellent example of a product that has almost everything you need for stills and video in one package. The versatility of the lens plays an important role, as do the quality of the sensor and the video capabilities.