The Sony RX100 looked much like any other compact camera of the day, but relating that 10.4-37.1 range to the promised 28-100mm equivalent focal length range revealed a 2.7x crop factor and revealed its superpower. Photo: Richard Butler

As part of our twenty-fifth anniversary, we're looking back at some of the most significant cameras launched during that period. Today marks twelve years since we reviewed Sony's Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100.

Despite its appearance, the RX100 was one of the most disruptive enthusiast compacts we've ever seen. The Cyber-Shot branding and seemingly featureless black bar-of-soap design rather disguised how radical it was. And, from a keen photographer's perspective, arguably held it back. But, despite our misgivings, it redefined what a compact camera was capable of.

The RX100's small size meant it accompanied me when I'd have left an ILC at home... Photo: Richard Butler

The RX100 arrived in the midst of something of an enthusiast compact revival. Perhaps helped by the development of processors fast enough to do real-time lens corrections, manufacturers had re-embraced the idea of bright zoom lenses and larger-than-typical Type 1/1.7 (7.6 x 5.7mm) sensors.

The RX100 took a different approach. It didn't have an extensive array of direct controls, and those it did gave little in the way of tactile feedback, meaning it was much happier if you let it make most of the decisions and restricted your input to the pointing and the shooting.

...which means I have photos and memories from situations where I otherwise might not. Photo: Richard Butler

What it brought was a significantly bigger sensor. We'd first seen a Type 1 (13.2 x 8.8mm) sensor in Nikon's shortlived 1 Series mirrorless cameras, introduced the year before, but the RX100 was the first to squeeze it into a genuinely small body and a fixed-lens format.

Rather than the ambitious but somewhat noisy Aptina example of the early Nikon 1s, the RX100 used a sensor from sister company Sony Semiconductor. This 20MP chip was around 2.7x larger than the Type 1/1.7 sensors that most of its rivals were using, giving the camera a significant image quality benefit over its peers, particularly in good light conditions.

The RX100 could shoot and stitch panoramas pretty effectively, though I seem to remember that this required disengaging Raw shooting. Which, predictably, means I haven't got Raws of many things that happened after I'd captured one. Photo: Richard Butler

It was far from flawless: even if you didn't try to wrestle too much control from the camera or engage too frequently with the convoluted menu system, the original RX100's JPEG color wasn't always as attractive as its rivals' and the F4.9 maximum aperture at the long end of its 28-100mm equiv zoom undermined its sensor size advantage in low light.

A more useful 24-70mm equiv F1.8-2.8 lens arrived with a later model, along with phase detection autofocus, pop-up viewfinders, BSI, then Stacked CMOS sensors over seven or so iterations, but it's the orignal model that made the biggest splash. Never before had you been able to get so much image quality out of a camera so small.

Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100 sample gallery (now with Raws)