This review is for pro photo/videographers who are buying this as a pocket cam. You will be pleased I think. Using firmware 1.0 for this review.
My preferred settings lean toward cinematography where all-manual operation is used most often, and it's cool a pocket camera supports that way of working now. For photographers, there are cool features such as DMF focus (much like autofocus with full time manual override), AEL lock can be set to the center button, etc. They did not dumb down the computer inside this from the Alpha or NEX levels it seems.
You can get the Freniec grip when it comes out but I suggest instead a bottom handle for video such as
BARSKA Accu Grip Handheld Tripod System
(which is too small for larger hands, but is fine for such a light payload) if not one of the cowboy studio plastic shoulder rigs. This will work well on the flycam nano I think. It has optical image stabilization "steadyshot" in concert with digital IS and both crop the image a bit. There are separate SteadyShot settings for stills and video, "Active" is stronger crop factor than "Standard" which would be for more stable situations. It works well enough for me to handhold 1/20th OK for stills and doesn't look bad on video.
Tragically, there is no 24p, but there is 60p (or 50p in those countries, can't have both in one body, I figure they are trying to prevent gray market sales with that restriction). The 60p should be shot at 1/60th shutter speed or faster, you will have motion artifacting below that. The problem of course is 1/60th at 60fps looks too clear and smooth to be cinematic, it's video. But "nearest neighbor" rate conforming works OK, and retiming rate conform, to make 40% slo-mo, works fine too, although not a really impressive slo-mo like an FS700 can do. There is no timelapse support and no remote to workaround that with.
For creative style, I suggest Standard -3, -3, -3. You could do -2 saturation but you are trading off detail in the reds with rich redness. Dynamic range optimizer you might get away with, it doesn't seem to change much while shooting when not on Auto, and boosts the shadows for a flatter response curve. It does not affect the highlights like Canon's HTP. I like to shoot somewhat flat and push in post so maybe DRO 1 is a good thing. There is a handy meter offset next to the aperture readout that tells you what it thinks you should adjust in EVs, based on the metering mode you have selected.
There is a lot of coarse blue noise at ISO 3200. DRO boosts this noise a lot, so I would only use DRO at low ISO if ever. The worst thing for video regarding noise is you can't prevent digital zoom from being available...it is locked on in movie mode, and if you zoom past optical (there is a visual detente but not a practical one really) your noise profile will change (to coarser) and that may defeat your NR profiles you are applying, causing headaches. They should allow the disabling of digital zoom in movie mode, even though in daylight it's good.
Macro is available, to the 2 inch point, only at the widest end, which is fine. The minimum focus distance is 18 inches or so full tele. Video AF is usable, manual of course is better, but it's nice for run and gun and the manual control ring turns to Aperture control which is very cool for rapidly controlling exposure. Aperture changes this way are far smoother than on Canons. The plastic, but tough looking lens barrel retracts midway a bit but it always out when on.
I suggest a screen protector for the LCD as you want this in your pocket guilt-free, otherwise there is no point. The LCD is good, VGA but bright. You could glue on a cheap magnetic loupe to make it an EVF (and cheesycam is coming out with magnetic CP and ND filters for the lens) I suppose. There is a micro HDMI port on the bottom, immediately next to the tripod mount, which makes it hard to use without a clever 1/4-20 rig, which I found I could do. Worse is the battery and memory compartment cannot be accessed period without unmounting from tripod. Odd restriction.
Another odd restriction is all the JPEG-only things can't be done in RAW + JPEG. Why can't I have both an HDR photo and its RAW ingredients? My 5D3 allows this. So if stuff doesn't work it may be a mode restriction. HDR of 6EV range looks more like 3EV range, but it is nicely graded and not like one of those paintings (though that may be one of the picture styles built in).
I often prefer Kelvin white balances which this allows (Canon restricts that to pro bodies), though the color shift thing is a bit coarse for fine adjustment on the RX100. It's very easy to set up custom white balance compared to Canons, but for some reason they make you switch to a stills mode to do it. Expose the still properly and aim at a neutral spot. It will apply to movie mode when you switch, automatically.
The bokeh is bit wooly especially toward the corners but there is in-camera correction of CA and distortion and the centers are terrific, which is fine. This isn't the quality of an APS-C sensor camera like the Rebel, but it is better than any pocketable camera I know of. There is good and shallow DOF available at all focal lengths.
The manual control ring can indeed get stuck on a tripod plate (it protrudes past the bottom edge a touch) so you will have to use smaller plates or deftly avoid the conflict. Peaking cannot be assigned to a function button but I just leave it on when in manual focus. Bracketing is a drive mode and offers 0.3 or 0.7 stop options, but they seem broader range than described and work fine. There is WB bracketing if you are odd like that.
Controls are somewhat customizable, I have white balance to the left of the dial (instead of drive mode), ISO to the right (instead of flash), and AF/MF control toggle on the center. I put a bunch of what moved into the Fn button array. The movies are kept apart from the stills, even in the internal player, and are down in PRIVATE/AVCHD/Stream. MF assist is really nice I think, it temporarily zooms in automatically in stills mode, but tragically, not movie mode. Pressing the center button gives takes the zoom from 8.6x to 17x for micro-fine peepling. You can't get the histogram in movie mode, but can in stills. You can get the electronic level before and during recording in movie mode if you need it.
You can use ISO1600, 1/60th and f/1.8 and a bit of NR in post to get decent dark indoor film shots. Variable aperture means zooms wide open will change in brightness, but it's smart and if you set the aperture at all above max it holds it during zoom. In-camera NR settings didn't seem to affect video but I didn't test much. Movie mode is available in most mode dial settings but most likely you'll just want to use the movie mode. There are three memory positions, not terribly fast to access like the 5D3, and they don't save things like Peaking on/off. They do save Steadyshot on/off, and other things.
In image review you can toggle the zoom rocker to zoom in on the shot you just took without pressing play, and it brings you right in for a pixel peep to check sharpness which is nice. The big manual control ring has a long throw but no hard stops, and it can take some wrenching to go from macro to infinity. No setting available to tweak that. In playback you can use the zoom rocker too, and while zoomed, turning the value wheel skips you forward or back an image.
Self-portrait mode is clever for timer shots, it just waits until you are in the image, and seeing your face, it shoots every 3 sec until you leave the picture. Speed priority continuous shooting is very fast but the card I had (transcend class 10) only let it take a half dozen-odd shots before buffer stall. I tried a 95MB/sec UHS-1 Sandisk Extreme Pro card to see if that does run faster here, and no, it does not run faster than the Transcend class 10 in the RX100. No spare batteries, no DAM RAW support yet, no external battery charger, it's the bleeding edge here in July 2012, by fall those should all be sorted. I ordered a USB portable li-ion charger thing (Anker 10KmAh) which works (with Sony's USB cable, not Anker's) but only when powered off. Battery life is meh, but it's small OK. Note that the play button will turn the camera on just like the power button (is that a bug?), so you might lose battery (and uh-oh, even have the lens extend with two presses) if you don't protect the play button in your pocket.
Sound recording is fine enough internally, no control or i/o. Zoom happens slower and quieter when filming. Shutter noise is low in general, not much OIS noise. ? button doubles as trash icon...not sure why those labels weren't reversed, delete is much more common than the superficial help that screen provides.
You can record 29:50 continuously at 60p. The camera is warm to the touch after that time in a 70F room but not hot. You can fit five of those shots on a 32GB card (roughly 2.5hours of 60p). I am annoyed the USA version camera doesn't shoot 50p (which would conform better to 24p @1/50th) yet has the European 29 minute video restriction...you would think it would be one way or the other.
Anyway those are my random thoughts after 24 hours shooting with this cute thing. Everyone loves it, and the images are quite nice indeed. Share your preferred settings in the comments please.
This product is available as Renewed.
Sony RX100 20.2 MP Premium Compact Digital Camera w/ 1-inch sensor, 28-100mm ZEISS zoom lens, 3” LCD (Renewed) $498.96
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Works and looks like new and backed by the Amazon Renewed Guarantee
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Works and looks like new and backed by the Amazon Renewed Guarantee
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Rating | (908) | (607) | (171) | (1358) | (311) | (882) |
| Price | $359.95 | $748.00 | $473.00 | $397.99 | $921.95 | $429.95 |
| Sold By | Ztron | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | PORTABLE GUY | Ztron |
| Screen Size | 3 inches | 3 inches | 3 inches | 3 inches | 3 inches | 3 inches |
| Has Image Stabilization | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Includes External Memory | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Item Dimensions | 4 x 1.41 x 2.29 inches | 4.02 x 1.61 x 2.28 inches | 1.4 x 4.1 x 2.3 inches | 1.62 x 4.4 x 2.64 inches | 4 x 2.38 x 1.63 inches | 4 x 1.51 x 2.29 inches |
| Item Weight | 0.53 lbs | 0.64 lbs | 2.50 ounces | 0.71 lbs | 0.60 lbs | 0.62 lbs |
| Optical Sensor Resolution | 0 megapixels | 20.1 megapixels | 18.2 megapixels | 20.3 megapixels | 20.1 megapixels | 20.1 megapixels |
| Optical Zoom | 3.6x | 2.9000000953674316 | 30x | 30x | 3.6x | 3.6x |
| Video Capture Resolution | 1080p | 1080p | 2160p | 2160p | 1080i | 1080p |
| Viewfinder Type | fixed LCD | Electronic | OLED Tru-Finder™, Electronic | Electronic | Electronic | Electronic |
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I really like it and hoping to like it more once I've learned it's functions better, right now I'm all auto for this review.
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2015
UPDATE: A month or so later, unfortunately I haven't gotten to use this camera as much as I would have liked, it's winter in MN and I don't know about taking it from a hot car to a cold outdoor environment, they warn in the instructions against certain weather conditions causing condensation inside the camera. I have used it though and played with it on and off and have been learning it. USE SCN SETTING BY SPINNING ROUND DIAL ON LENS IT'S AMAZING FOR STUFF MUCH BETTER THAN AUTO ESPECAILLY MACRO SETTING. So now that I've learned a bit more about it and how to kind of fine tune it a litte, still don't know ISO and the fancy settings but I am blown away at the detail this camera can get and the beauty it captures so I bumped it up to five stars. I am questionable though that I can have a pic that is clear as hell till I blow it up as a screen saver and then it's all crappy looking. Kind of thought this camera could pull it off. Other than that and how many fifteen inch pictures does one make. Like I said it's a very impressive camera once you get the jist of it.OLD REVIEW: I really want to love this camera and I guess I do to some degrees. I have a lot of, if this and that were there or betters. I will start with I've only had it for a few days and I own two and have owned many other point and shoots as well as one that cost more than this by sony and was nicer about fifteen years ago. Back then they called their low light sensor zero lux capable and that cameras capabilities to catch moving images without blur was better, not sure what they've done for almost fifteen years. But I'm not here to rip this one down, ok maybe a little. Lets move to it's a great little camera if I ever finish the instruction and if it did what I push the button to do all the time instead of sometimes working with my push and sometimes not giving me the option, talking about the tracking, supposed to push center ring and it goe's from motion tracking to not, but it picks when it will allow you to do this, even though I've changed no setting and am still in auto mode, which so far is the only mode I've figured out, like I said and that's after reading half the instruction book. Oh and the zoom really blows bad, I thought I would be able to really zoom in on a distance not a chance, once the pictures taken if it's a good one, you can really zoom in on it but still haven't figured out how to crop it once I've gotten the zoomed pic I want it just sends me back to full pic. This is a very small camera and it's hard to hold it the way the rubber grip wants you to (buy a tripod like amazon basic for 21.00 it will make a world of difference and has quick release plate which gives it something to hold onto while taking non tripod pics), I was surprised when I went to take a pic for the first time in my kitchen to test it and the left top side popped up with the flash and almost made me drop it, once flash is open there is like no place for your left hand to hold it and if you hold it the way I found your blocking off the lower bottom of the flash's capabilities. I immediately put on the wrist strap, which a thumb tac to pull it through will be necesary. It comes with a left and right loop to feed through so as to put on a neck strap, but comes with no neck strap, WTFuzz. The auto focus can be a fight, like it locks onto something you don't want and wont let it go, no matter how much you move the camera to reset it and that's really annoying because what you want clear isn't and what you don't care about is. The clear zoom is amazing and will take a fifty to a hundred foot shot and zoom in and take a truly clear zoom shot, just wish it worked over a longer distance. Night shot in almost complete dark is pretty cool, it will cast a red light on your pic and then with just one strand of christmas lights on one wall for room lighting, it gives an image pic taken of good quality, I'll call it a night vision pic, very impressive and even somehow sometimes comes out like a normal pic in normal light, none of my other cameras can do even close to this, I'm excited to see if this means it will take low light videos for my you tube channel, where my other cheap cameras just give me black screen. Like I said though my old fifteen year old sony did this as well, so this is not a new feature just one they have on what I call higher end camers, call it CMOS or Zero Lux Capable or whatever the tech term is but it's a nice feature. Moving on doesn't have 1080 p video shooting, if you want this spend a hundred more and get the rx100 ii model, I don't do my you tube videos in hd anyway they take way to long to load even a twelve minute clip and I don't know who else has this problem but you tube videos I watch just freeze up and stutter if their in HD on my comp that cost less than this camera. I just want to add the iso circle around the lens is very tight to move and granted I am still only half way through my instructions and in auto it seems to do nothing anyway, but a little looser would be nicer. Without flash on, you can take picture after picture quite quickly, but if you use the flash expect to do the waiting game and I mean wait for next picture to be able to be taken, but this is standard for all cameras I've ever used. Except an old SLR film camera with an expensive flash unit set up. I also recommend the square trade warranty with this camera it's like fifty bucks or so for four years and it's a good warranty, I've heard sony has a lousy warranty and fights you tooth and nail to get stuff done, and that's from reviews I've read on amazon not my own experience as I've not dealt with sony warranty and they may be great so please don't sue me sony, just relaying reviews of the past that I've read. In last notes it's a sleek bad ass camera, I love it, just dont know if I'm in love with it and am hoping to get many great years of use with it. It's not a dissapointing camera by any means, just zoom and holdability keep me from a five star rating, in the you tube vids it seemed to have a super zoom and this is because when you have zoom at zero so to say the picture is tiny but to the human eye we see it at like fifty percent of camera zoom, so once the camera zooms in fifty percent now were both even and then the camera can go another fifty percent clearly and that's a decent zoom for not far away items but if you want the airplane close up with this I don't think it's happening unless you take it out of clear zoom mode, no moon shots or space photo's with this one anyway. I'll enclose a few pics just to give an example of what out of the box playing with it looks like and the photo of the city is a cool one, the city is 25 miles away but appears close right down my block for some reason. This is a good camera and I don't feel ripped off buying it, I tell everyone SLR quality pics in a point and shoot camera. The pic of the night time flag is with no lights on in my place and just the lights you see outside. The full flag has screen door so not great pic. The hanging flag is with screen door open and just glass door closed. I'll enclose a peanut tripod pic just to include on tripod pic.
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2015
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I really like it and hoping to like it more once I've learned it's functions better, right now I'm all auto for this review.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 20, 2015Style: BaseColor: BlackVerified Purchase
I really like it and hoping to like it more once I've learned it's functions better, right now I'm all auto for this review.
By Call me KID on December 20, 2015
UPDATE: A month or so later, unfortunately I haven't gotten to use this camera as much as I would have liked, it's winter in MN and I don't know about taking it from a hot car to a cold outdoor environment, they warn in the instructions against certain weather conditions causing condensation inside the camera. I have used it though and played with it on and off and have been learning it. USE SCN SETTING BY SPINNING ROUND DIAL ON LENS IT'S AMAZING FOR STUFF MUCH BETTER THAN AUTO ESPECAILLY MACRO SETTING. So now that I've learned a bit more about it and how to kind of fine tune it a litte, still don't know ISO and the fancy settings but I am blown away at the detail this camera can get and the beauty it captures so I bumped it up to five stars. I am questionable though that I can have a pic that is clear as hell till I blow it up as a screen saver and then it's all crappy looking. Kind of thought this camera could pull it off. Other than that and how many fifteen inch pictures does one make. Like I said it's a very impressive camera once you get the jist of it.By Call me KID on December 20, 2015
OLD REVIEW: I really want to love this camera and I guess I do to some degrees. I have a lot of, if this and that were there or betters. I will start with I've only had it for a few days and I own two and have owned many other point and shoots as well as one that cost more than this by sony and was nicer about fifteen years ago. Back then they called their low light sensor zero lux capable and that cameras capabilities to catch moving images without blur was better, not sure what they've done for almost fifteen years. But I'm not here to rip this one down, ok maybe a little. Lets move to it's a great little camera if I ever finish the instruction and if it did what I push the button to do all the time instead of sometimes working with my push and sometimes not giving me the option, talking about the tracking, supposed to push center ring and it goe's from motion tracking to not, but it picks when it will allow you to do this, even though I've changed no setting and am still in auto mode, which so far is the only mode I've figured out, like I said and that's after reading half the instruction book. Oh and the zoom really blows bad, I thought I would be able to really zoom in on a distance not a chance, once the pictures taken if it's a good one, you can really zoom in on it but still haven't figured out how to crop it once I've gotten the zoomed pic I want it just sends me back to full pic. This is a very small camera and it's hard to hold it the way the rubber grip wants you to (buy a tripod like amazon basic for 21.00 it will make a world of difference and has quick release plate which gives it something to hold onto while taking non tripod pics), I was surprised when I went to take a pic for the first time in my kitchen to test it and the left top side popped up with the flash and almost made me drop it, once flash is open there is like no place for your left hand to hold it and if you hold it the way I found your blocking off the lower bottom of the flash's capabilities. I immediately put on the wrist strap, which a thumb tac to pull it through will be necesary. It comes with a left and right loop to feed through so as to put on a neck strap, but comes with no neck strap, WTFuzz. The auto focus can be a fight, like it locks onto something you don't want and wont let it go, no matter how much you move the camera to reset it and that's really annoying because what you want clear isn't and what you don't care about is. The clear zoom is amazing and will take a fifty to a hundred foot shot and zoom in and take a truly clear zoom shot, just wish it worked over a longer distance. Night shot in almost complete dark is pretty cool, it will cast a red light on your pic and then with just one strand of christmas lights on one wall for room lighting, it gives an image pic taken of good quality, I'll call it a night vision pic, very impressive and even somehow sometimes comes out like a normal pic in normal light, none of my other cameras can do even close to this, I'm excited to see if this means it will take low light videos for my you tube channel, where my other cheap cameras just give me black screen. Like I said though my old fifteen year old sony did this as well, so this is not a new feature just one they have on what I call higher end camers, call it CMOS or Zero Lux Capable or whatever the tech term is but it's a nice feature. Moving on doesn't have 1080 p video shooting, if you want this spend a hundred more and get the rx100 ii model, I don't do my you tube videos in hd anyway they take way to long to load even a twelve minute clip and I don't know who else has this problem but you tube videos I watch just freeze up and stutter if their in HD on my comp that cost less than this camera. I just want to add the iso circle around the lens is very tight to move and granted I am still only half way through my instructions and in auto it seems to do nothing anyway, but a little looser would be nicer. Without flash on, you can take picture after picture quite quickly, but if you use the flash expect to do the waiting game and I mean wait for next picture to be able to be taken, but this is standard for all cameras I've ever used. Except an old SLR film camera with an expensive flash unit set up. I also recommend the square trade warranty with this camera it's like fifty bucks or so for four years and it's a good warranty, I've heard sony has a lousy warranty and fights you tooth and nail to get stuff done, and that's from reviews I've read on amazon not my own experience as I've not dealt with sony warranty and they may be great so please don't sue me sony, just relaying reviews of the past that I've read. In last notes it's a sleek bad ass camera, I love it, just dont know if I'm in love with it and am hoping to get many great years of use with it. It's not a dissapointing camera by any means, just zoom and holdability keep me from a five star rating, in the you tube vids it seemed to have a super zoom and this is because when you have zoom at zero so to say the picture is tiny but to the human eye we see it at like fifty percent of camera zoom, so once the camera zooms in fifty percent now were both even and then the camera can go another fifty percent clearly and that's a decent zoom for not far away items but if you want the airplane close up with this I don't think it's happening unless you take it out of clear zoom mode, no moon shots or space photo's with this one anyway. I'll enclose a few pics just to give an example of what out of the box playing with it looks like and the photo of the city is a cool one, the city is 25 miles away but appears close right down my block for some reason. This is a good camera and I don't feel ripped off buying it, I tell everyone SLR quality pics in a point and shoot camera. The pic of the night time flag is with no lights on in my place and just the lights you see outside. The full flag has screen door so not great pic. The hanging flag is with screen door open and just glass door closed. I'll enclose a peanut tripod pic just to include on tripod pic.
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