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Simon Yates Photography
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Amazing little being,
I have NEX-7 and E-M5, so this list is mostly compare to the NEX-7, because the NEX-7 have a wonderful hardware and bad implemented software really pi-ss me off.
On contrary, this RX100 is an almost excellent camera both in hardware and software.
Pros:
1. Size of s100 with 1′ sony sensor, the auto-focus is super fast and very accurate, much much better than NEX-7, better than E-M5.
2. It charge with USB, I can attach it to my car charger or remote battery for my mobile phone.
3. It unlike Olympus xz-1,Fujifilm x10, Panasonic lx5/lx7, Canon g1x, it has build-in lens cap, which makes it smaller and LOT more convenient than those in real life.
4. ISO can be as low as 80, compensate some margin for the 1/2000s shutter speed(E-M5’s 200 base iso is a horrible decision from Olympus)
5. The operation system is build from Sony Alphe DSLR, unlike the NEX’s bad UI implement from PS digital camera. It have 3 custom profiles, with their own iso range setting. different picture quality setting etc.
6. The face detection can be set on for ALL light metering and focus mode. this is a big evolution from NEX(which can only used with matrix metering and multi-focus).
7. 20m pixels is very good with pixel peeping or cropping, thanks to it’s large sensor and quality lens, lots of details with base iso.
8. It still keep the Sony camera’s features:
Sony’s color profile. I really like this kind of realistic color rendering. Way better than Panasonic’s wash-out plain dirty image and Olympus bluish white, more graduation than too much contrast Nikon, and less pink from Canon.
Portrait mode have lots of dynamic range boost.(good trick from NEX)
AF-illuminate light is useless.(turn it off immediately when you received your camera, good trick from NEX)
Alpha DSLR’s multi frame noise reduction is great for iso 3200 and up
Manual focus with focus peaking and zoom-in
Lot’s filter effects can be applied to video and photo, HDR, Pano, Hand held twilight mode, they are still there.
Exposure compensation and white balance you see on screen is identical to the actual shots.
9. leaf shutter is almost silent. lower latency compare to NEX-7, super fast, that can sync flash with 1/2000s
10. 10fps shutter stream with live view, this is a huge plus from NEX, and the buffer flush is very quick compare to NEX-7 with sandisk ush-i 45mb SD
11. almost no screen lag between shots-to-shots(after you turn off the quick review, another trick from NEX/Alpha)
12. dual dials control is very good, comparable to NEX-7 and E-M5(NEX-7’s tri-dial is a totally hoax, most of the time, 2 of the dials are redundant with same function. )
13. lens is exceptional, f1.8 can be used but there maybe some halos in daylight, starts from f2.8 is razor sharp. Macro shoot is amazing(see my photos uploaded to the product gallery)
14. photo replay can be zoomed-in and then roll-over each photos to compare the zoomed parts. (NEX-7’s tri-dial is useless here, all of them have the same function of roll-over to next photos)
15. lots of customization with buttons.better than NEX-5n and comparable to NEX-7
17. Video function is better than NEX-7, it have more control, and concave dedicate movie button, which in comparison, NEX-7 have a protrude button, can be easily pressed by accident and record unnecessary movie.(Shame on you! Sony, 8 months w/o firmware fix for this!)
18. Video active stabilization is effective, panning and zooming is butter smooth.
19. dedicate modal dial, with memory recall and movie mode. memory recall can set up to 3 memories for the most distinguish settings, such as 1 for portrait(low iso base range, med shutter speed, portrait color rending, face detection ), 2 for landscape (80 iso, vivid color rending, small aperture), 3 for in-door flash portrait. You can alway record video in any mode with press the movie button, but in dedicate movie mode, you can set to automatic or manual, or Av, Sv and filters for your fine tune of movie style.
20. flash can be set to bounce with your fingers, produce nice in-door photos. (good trick from NEX-7)
21. white magic rgbw screen is very good, more vivid and bright than NEX-7 outdoor.
22. battery is generally good in this category , I shoot 700 photos for half a day, So prepare 2 spare battery for a night and day shoot session.
Cons:
1.front dial is smooth, the smooth dial is excellent for manual focus, but I prefer tick dial for adjust values.
2.modal dial is a little tighten to turn.
4.no dedicate on/off button for flash. it can only be triggered with menu option to use flash.
5.Lens zoom out/in speed is not very fast, if you drop the camera, it may not survive…
6. aperture decay fast compare to the focal length, hopefully it can provide 28-35mm with f2.8
7. no grip, even its small but you’d better have the wrist strap.
8…
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|State of the art pocket camera,
I ordered this from B&H the morning it was announced. Having it for a day and about 500 photos, I’m glad I bought it. After some very late night prints, I’m thrilled. Bottom line: the photo quality is great.
Pros.
Small
Quick to focus and quick between shots
Excellent lens with decent zoom range
Good JPEGS and very good RAW files
Nice controls and the front adjustment ring helps
Well built
Excellent manual controls
The first pocket camera with good manual focus
Cons
Sony’s menu’s are a bit confusing
Somewhat limited battery life, though par for the category
No manual
Slow aperture at full zoom
No external batter charger
Make no mistake, this is as good as current technology allows for a pocketable camera. It’s about the same sizes as my Canon S95. It has a similar design, but IMO looks classier. Sony has made good use of the 20 megapixels. Low ISO files are excellent and as good as recent generation DSLRs. The larger sensor does make a difference.
Is this worth the extra $200 over a S100 or LX7? That depends. If you print your photos larger than 11×14, the answer is an unqualified yes. Photos show more detail and better sharpness. If you mostly post your photos online, then the advantage lessens, especially if you shoot JPEG. What’s the advantage of having 20 MP if your photo is displayed at 2 MP? Yes, the Canon and Panasonic cameras will output RAW files, but in practice, there is little advantage from doing so. You gain little if any dynamic range and all three cameras do a good job with white balance in most cases.
If you shoot RAW, the RX-100 is the first pocketable camera that gives you a real advantage with RAW. There is a noticeable difference in dynamic range. Use RAW and there’s more highlight headroom and you can pull more details out of the shadows. The bad news here is that Sony’s RAW converter program is a bear to use. When Adobe comes out with support for this camera in the next month or so.
Sony has copied Canon’s front control ring, which is a great thing. It doesn’t have the click stops that Canon’s does. It has electronic clicks, which do nothing for me. Those can be turned off. Using the ring for exposure compensation, the lack of felt clicks is a negative. Using the ring for manual focus, it’s a plus. Call it a draw. It’s the manual focus feature that has me excited. Simply put, manual focus on other pocket point and shoots is marginal at best. With the focus peaking that Sony has included along with the front control ring, manual focus is precise and accurate.
Some of Sony’s extra shooting modes are very useful. This carries over the handheld twilight, in-camera HDR and sweep panorama features that I learned to like in my NEX-5n. There are plenty of other options, that somebody will like. Those are the ones I like. Photos at 100-200 ISO are terrific, and good up to 800. Above that, image quality drops off quickly. Compared to my Canon S95, there’s not that much difference in quality with JPEGS. Shooting RAW then working the files a bit in PHotoshop, I’d say the there’s a good stop to stop and a half advantage to the RX-100 Did I mention that the lens is very good?
Is the camera worth $650? That’s a tougher question. Sony sells more capable NEX cameras for $50 more and less. As light and compact as the NEX cameras are, they don’t fit in a pocket. This camera will even fit in a shirt pocket, if you don’t mind your shirt sagging. It’s great for pants pockets or a jacket. While the camera has good manual controls it won’t give the same versatility as a NEX or Micro 4/3 camera, let alone a DSLR, which you can get in the same price range. If you want to get serious about photography, I’d recommend getting one of those instead of the RX-100. Panasonic has announced the LX7 which has an insanely fast lens, that should make low light photos easier. Again, if I mostly posted photos online, I’d consider the less expensive but still very good alternatives to the Sony.
If you want the best current small camera, especially as a second camera then the RX-100 is as good as it gets.
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|The BEST compact camera I’ve had to date,
As soon as I saw information released about this camera, I knew instantly I wanted to get my hands on it; it looked awesome and the specifications mentioned seemed incredibly impressive for a camera it’s size, so when I finally got it(which of course made a big hole in my credit card), I was super excited to play around with the features and see what it could actually do and if it would live up to the expectations Sony had created about this camera.
First impressions were definitely positive, it looks remarkably suave and holding the camera itself I found it to be really comfortable even though it only has one grip which is located precisely for your thumb. I personally think they got a good balance between grip and style, because if they had added any more grip it would have ruined that nice sleek design it has, for example if you take a look at the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX20V, you will see it has a huge grip which whilst gives maximum grip it does overwhelm the side of the camera.
Included in the box are the following:
Camera | AC adapter | Battery pack | Micro USB cable | Wrist strap | Two shoulder strap adapters | Manual.
Things you NEED:
SDHC Card (You can choose a different brand/memory capacity, though do remember as this is a 20MP camera, files sizes average around 5MB if your using Jpeg in fine detail, or is around 20MB if using the RAW format (RAW image has a ‘.ARW’ file extension)).
Optional:
Camera Case (LCJ-RXA) | USB SDHC Card Reader | Spare Battery NP-BX1 | HDMI – Mini HDMI cable | Anti-reflective Screen Protector
– – –
The main thing I love about this camera is it has modes which are great for people who don’t have a lot of knowledge about cameras and just want to point and shoot whilst getting great results, and there are modes for those who know more about cameras and want to go more in-depth with the settings.
The modes which I personally think are great for those with limited camera knowledge, I would suggest using the mode dial located on top of the camera to choose one of the following:
1) Superior Auto; “This device beautifully shoots automatically while reducing blurring and noise”.
My opinion: I’ve always had great results with this mode, on most occasions it takes the picture I want it to, though sometimes you may want select a mode in the scene setting to get a little bit extra.
– – –
2) Intelligent Auto; “Automatically identifies the scene’s characteristics and shoots a photo”.
My opinion: Pretty much the same scenario with the superior auto, it takes fantastic shots most of the time, though I haven’t really noticed the difference between both of them, this may be because I haven’t had the chance to test them in many varied locations.
– – –
3) Scene Selection; Here you can select different pre-setting modes to get the most out of certain scenarios:
– Portrait; “Emphasizes subject by blurring away background. Reproduces soft skin tone”.
– Anti Motion Blur; “Reduces blur indoors with poor lighting or for telephoto shooting to obtain clear images”.
– Sports Action; “Shoots fast motion at higher shutter speeds”.
– Pet; “Shoots pets and other subjects in movement to reduce blur”.
– Gourmet; “Shoots food to look delicious”.
– Macro; “This mode is best suited for shooting close-ups of small subjects such as flowers and food in clear and sharp focus”.
– Landscape; “Shoots the entire range of scenery in a sharp focus with vivid colours”.
– Sunset; “Vividly expresses and dramatically captures the redness of dusk and dawn”.
– Night Scene; “Shoots night scenes clearly. Recommend using tripod”.
– Hand-held Twilight; “Suitable for shooting a night scene without using a tripod”.
– Night Portrait; “Automatically fires the…
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