Sony RX100M3

[Betty LaRue]

I recently took three cameras to St. Croix. My Fujinon XT1, my Sony RX100 and the RX100M3.

I really planned to do most of my shooting with the Fuji. I did use it a bit, but since this trip was a family vacation, somehow it was more convenient due to the small size of the Sonys, to shoot with them. I brought the original RX because it zooms to 100mm and thought I would find it handiest.

Yet somehow the M3 was in my hands 90% of the time. I didn't find the 70mm reach any problem. With wide open beaches, I just moved in a bit closer.

 

Like the last time I went to St. Croix, I wore a tiny purse with the long strap cross body. The Sony fits perfectly and the weight caused my ailing neck no pain. This is very important, because it doesn't take much to send me down a painful road.

 

Most of the images I've been adding to my port is shot with thr RX100M3. I had very little CA to deal with. The occasional bit you'll get with any camera, where leaves are against a bright sky, in a corner, but less problems than my Nikons of the past with top of the line lenses.

I even tried the night scene setting one night. Hand held!! This works a treat for low noise images. Wish that scene shot RAW, but I tweaked the jpegs just fine in LR.

Tomorrow one image shot with "night scene" should be live. I just finished prepping it.

 

If I were on a shoot by myself, with no family involved, I'd go Fuji. Love the sharpness from it. But anytime I'm in a group and doing group activities, the Sony is the way to go.

Betty

[John Walker]

Agree 100% Betty.  I use my Sony RX100M3 all the time and every image in my folio is taken with an RX100 - some with the MK1 but all recent ones with the Mk3. Nearly all taken

on Full Auto.  I just have to worry about getting the right shot.  Also it doesn't interfere when I'm out with other people.

 

As you mention - rarely any CA - only in extreme situations.  For general stock it's perfect and the best bit - it's with me 95% of the time.

 

John

[Ed Rooney]

I too have become a big fan of the RX100 M3. Having a non-threatening camera, with its twisting, turning screen is great, and when I open the EVF, I have entirely separate camera experience. 

[Betty LaRue]

Agree 100% Betty.  I use my Sony RX100M3 all the time and every image in my folio is taken with an RX100 - some with the MK1 but all recent ones with the Mk3. Nearly all taken

on Full Auto.  I just have to worry about getting the right shot.  Also it doesn't interfere when I'm out with other people.

 

As you mention - rarely any CA - only in extreme situations.  For general stock it's perfect and the best bit - it's with me 95% of the time.

 

John

YES, YES! In spite of my XT1 small size, which is A much lighter kit than my Nikon D800, I don't have it with me all of the time. Only when I go on a deliberate shoot. But I do have the M3 with me, always.

[Betty LaRue]

Betty, I have the Sony RX100 MK1. When I shoot in night scene, my images are shot in RAW. Yours with the MK3 should be also.

Cheers,

Philippe

Really?. I didn't change it to JPEG. I had it on RAW, as always. Just dialed in night scene, and they all were jpegs when I downloaded the card. Hmm...

Need to google that.

[Betty LaRue]

I too have become a big fan of the RX100 M3. Having a non-threatening camera, with its twisting, turning screen is great, and when I open the EVF, I have entirely separate camera experience.

 

Ahhh, yes. I used the EVF most of the time. Great for bright beaches.

[Betty LaRue]

Ok. I didn't have it set on raw+JPEG. Just raw. It must defer to JPEG if it's not set to raw+JPEG. Ya think?

[Betty LaRue]

Ahh, I must've had it on hand-held twilight. It is the only one with JPEG only. Almost positive I did, because I wanted to hand hold the camera. But I distinctly remember the camera firing 3 times or more with each shot.

The shots taken of the palm with the lights wrapped around was with this scene. All 6 including it that are dark.

[Ed Rooney]

(Jumping back and forth from the other post) I guess it's a good sign that I can't really tell which Sony I took which photo with. The super-wide is a tell, but everything else I have to hunt for. 

[spacecadet]

. But I distinctly remember the camera firing 3 times or more with each shot.

 

It takes a set of images and combines them on the spot, so it can't happen in RAW. I've found it chancy for QC.

RAW+jpeg doesn't take separate images, it processes the jpeg from the raw.

[Niels Quist]

Or simply use the Intelligent Automatic mode - it handles this in an excellent way for the camera type.

[Betty LaRue]

I had tried the Intelligent mode for night scenes before, and got blurry throw always. But I'm up for trying Night Scene.

 

If you look on my first page, you'll see a palapa and a fence wound with white lights. This was done in Hand held Twilight. Also, further down, the group of 6 darkish ones of the beach area at sunset, the lit up yellow building that includes the palm wrapped in red lights. It's really a nice mode, and I didn't reduce them that much.

[Niels Quist]

I had tried the Intelligent mode for night scenes before, and got blurry throw always. But I'm up for trying Night Scene.

 

If you look on my first page, you'll see a palapa and a fence wound with white lights. This was done in Hand held Twilight. Also, further down, the group of 6 darkish ones of the beach area at sunset, the lit up yellow building that includes the palm wrapped in red lights. It's really a nice mode, and I didn't reduce them that much.

It works for me to get focused handheld night shots on this secondary camera in this way. But I am careful where the focus points/areas are and move around to set them where I want them to be, before settling for the final composition. I also take a few more shots of the same subject than I would do with my dSLR to be sure.

[Ed Rooney]

It seems I'm stalled in the A and Auto-ISO setting, with corrections in PP. This work fine for most of what I do . . . but not everything.

 

Looking at the RX100-3 SCENE section just now I see so many possibilities to explore. And here we are in winter, a good time to explore. I did try some of these scenes with the Sony RX10 but was unhappy with the look Hand-held Twilight gave me. 

 

A question: what Scene should I use for truer colors, especially reds, on neon signs? No PP suggestions, please.

 

Niels alludes to a situation I notice daily. As I've mentioned about 1,000 times, I live on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, a major tourist area. "I also take a few more shots of the same subject. . . ." Niels says. Very sensible. Most camera carriers I see on my street have no savvy whatsoever with regard to proper handling. Because these amazing new tools are so sophisticated, these people hand over all the responsibility to them. When I'm shooting in low light, even though I may have IS and a higher ISO going for me, I use "sniper breathing."  

 

Sniper breathing (also think Tai Chi breathing): I hold the camera firmly but not tightly, letting gravity do most of the work, so there is less tension. (I use a wrist strap with the RX100.) I center the camera above my torso, meaning I don't lean forward. I breath in and breath out and get a rhythm going to this breathing. I squeeze the shutter release at the top of the breath. I shoot 7 to 10 frames this way. One or two of these, even at a shutter speed of 1/10th to 1/15th, will be very sharp. Try it. 

[John Mitchell]

With my NEX cameras, I use the two second self-timer a lot for low-light photograohy. This technique minimizes the possibility of camera shake with these smallish cameras, and I find that with an IS lens I can successfully shoot at very slow shutter speeds. I also use the 2-sec timer with telephoto shots when possible. It can make a big difference at long focal lengths.I've had good results with both hand-held twilight and night modes. However, nothing beats a tripod and manual focus for night photography.

[Betty LaRue]

Very good, Ed, especially since you've mentioned a tremor in the past.

Not sure what my technique is. It seems to be automatic for me after some years, and for the most part, works. I was surprised to see a lot of my recent keepers were shot at 1/30 second, which the camera chose in the Intelligent mode.

The only misses at that speed were moving children. I saw the scene and had seconds to get it, no time to check settings.

 

I haven't explored but the one scene mode so can't advise on neon reds.

Shooting Nikon for so many years, the one thing I absolutely hated was how my Nikons handled reds. Especially red flowers, that always seemed to have large areas of pink-purple. Ugh!

[Ed Rooney]

I'm gonna have to try hand-holding with that 2-second delay, John. Hmm.

 

I took the RX100 iii out on this dark day and tried a bunch of the SCENE settings. Since I was testing and not really trying to get any keepers, I guess my outing was a success: that is nothing worked worth a damn.  I guess most of these settings are for people who don't have or don't want to spend the time using a serious editing program, like LR or PS. Again, hmm.

 

Oddly, Betty, my essential or familiar tremor has gotten better and almost disappeared as I've gotten older.  No, it doesn't make any sense to me either.  But it was never a real problem when shooting.  My migraines have gone away, too, as well as a couple of other minor aliments. I did make some major changes in my diet three years ago and lost weight. 

[Betty LaRue]

I'm gonna have to try hand-holding with that 2-second delay, John. Hmm.

 

I took the RX100 iii out on this dark day and tried a bunch of the SCENE settings. Since I was testing and not really trying to get any keepers, I guess my outing was a success: that is nothing worked worth a damn.  I guess most of these settings are for people who don't have or don't want to spend the time using a serious editing program, like LR or PS. Again, hmm.

 

Oddly, Betty, my essential or familiar tremor has gotten better and almost disappeared as I've gotten older.  No, it doesn't make any sense to me either.  But it was never a real problem when shooting.  My migraines have gone away, too, as well as a couple of other minor aliments. I did make some major changes in my diet three years ago and lost weight.

 

Perchance did you sip from the fountain of youth?

[Ed Rooney]

I thought that was vodka. 

[John Mitchell]

I used the self-timer a lot when hand-holding my old manual focus cameras in low light situations. Even with today's mirrorless cameras, it's still difficult not to shake the camera a bit when pressing the shutter. When using the timer, make sure that you're in single shot (rather than rapid fire) mode, though, and keep the shutter button pressed down until the picture has been taken. It's odd how as you age some things get better and other things get worse. In the end, of course, everything gets worse, but best not to think about these things.

[wiskerke]

For tremors or shake or just metering general vibration of a tripod I use an app on my smartphone. Mine is vibration meter or vibrometer by smart apps, I believe. There are more, probably more sophisticated ones by now. This one is very basic.

I balance my phone on top of the camera or use a rubber band. Quite sobering ;-)

 

wim

 

edit: typo

[Ed Rooney]

I used the self-timer a lot when hand-holding my old manual focus cameras in low light situations. Even with today's mirrorless cameras, it's still difficult not to shake the camera a bit when pressing the shutter. When using the timer, make sure that you're in single shot (rather than rapid fire) mode, though, and keep the shutter button pressed down until the picture has been taken. It's odd how as you age some things get better and other things get worse. In the end, of course, everything gets worse, but best not to think about these things.

 

I tried that out today, John, this being winter, a time when I turn to . . . trying stuff. I can't think why this would help steady the camera and produce a more accurate, non-shaky exposure. It seems to me you are just moving the exposure time (say 1/15th of a second) by two seconds into the future. How does that help? The camera must still be steady for the time of the exposure, no? 

 

Now Wim's solution sounds interesting, but Wim is a gear head (I mean absolutely nothing offensive in saying that). He always wants to add another devise to the situation . . . and that is throwing money at the problem. Since I've bought two new expensive pieces of equipment this year, I can not think of myself as an innocent, but in my utopian world I would be using less equipment, not more. 

[wiskerke]

 

I used the self-timer a lot when hand-holding my old manual focus cameras in low light situations. Even with today's mirrorless cameras, it's still difficult not to shake the camera a bit when pressing the shutter. When using the timer, make sure that you're in single shot (rather than rapid fire) mode, though, and keep the shutter button pressed down until the picture has been taken. It's odd how as you age some things get better and other things get worse. In the end, of course, everything gets worse, but best not to think about these things.

 

I tried that out today, John, this being winter, a time when I turn to . . . trying stuff. I can't think why this would help steady the camera and produce a more accurate, non-shaky exposure. It seems to me you are just moving the exposure time (say 1/15th of a second) by two seconds into the future. How does that help? The camera must still be steady for the time of the exposure, no? 

 

Now Wim's solution sounds interesting, but Wim is a gear head (I mean absolutely nothing offensive in saying that). He always wants to add another devise to the situation . . . and that is throwing money at the problem. Since I've bought two new expensive pieces of equipment this year, I can not think of myself as an innocent, but in my utopian world I would be using less equipment, not more. 

 

 

LOL

Before I had a smartphone I would use a tiny piece of gum; a spring from a ballpoint pen and a tiny piece of gum again. Gum goes an either end. One end gets attached to a corner of the camera. And there you have a very crude vibrometer.

It took my wife years to get me to use a smart phone, I believe she was on her fourth by then. So it's clear who the real gear head is in this house. ;-)

I'm more of a tinkerer.

 

 

With camera shake there's a good example in how video deals with it, with the glide-cam principle. Because it really works. If you are not allowed or don't want to use a tripod, try to slow the oscillation, by attaching a long lever. Because your finger is a lever too. If you have a monopod, take the head off and attach the camera directly to it. Attach some weight to the bottom. Use it in the shortest form initially, for testing and extend one section just to feel how much difference it makes.

The cheapest monopod will do as long as it doesn't flex. Carbon is best. It's about the weight that's on the bottom. A small weight or a small stone with a piece of gaffer tape is enough, as long as there's no movement between the stick and the weight and the stick and the camera. A top end of a small light stand will work as well. There are excellent Nordic walking sticks with a 1/2 screw, but only the ones that do not vibrate or flex will work. Every rigid piece of pipe or broomstick (with a 1/2 screw) will work. Any weight will work. The stiffness is key. Longer is better, but at some point the gain is getting smaller.

Make sure you hold the top of the pole, just under the camera as your main grip. The rest can be more loose. If you press the button, pinch in stead of pushing. Or use a remote or the 2 sec delay.

If there's nothing like all that in your shed, use your tripod as proof of concept.

If it works, get the badge.

 

wim

 

edit: somehow this link keeps disappearing

[Ed Rooney]

As soon as I get a collection of sticks and stones together, I'll try that. Let's see, that should be . . . never! What is the point of having a camera that can fit in a pocket if you plan to have all this other stuff with it? 

[wiskerke]

Right, then the paperclip alone will have to do.

 

Or this one:

(My guess is that I have posted this a couple of times here already. Sorry for that.)

 

American viewers may recognize the black screw: it is a retaining screw for US license plates. Really good ones are nylon. Cheap ones are just cheap plastic. Sometimes you get them for free. I drilled a tiny hole in the head and sanded the sides off, to get a better grip. Now I can turn it with two fingers. It is hardly possible to screw it in too tight because of the really small size of the grip. The cord is kevlar and the aluminum bean is from my tent. It is easy to see why this is better than a washer. The whole thing weighs about 3 gram which is 0.1 oz. The length of the bean is 1.5 inch or 37mm.

It has become so popular on the internet, that some have started to manufacture variations of this commercially. Mine was first on the interwebs though, in an old skool newsgroup before we had web based forums.

 

Here is the complete rather old description.

That page may be the last one I have updated on my whole site and its date is Feb 2008. ;-)

 

This will not solve a huge amount of vibration or tremor though. By pulling you may just control that a bit too, but for some it will add tremor, when pulling too hard.

 

wim