Sony RX10 point-and-shoot camera

[Johnnie Behiri]

Hi Noa.

Yes, Changing ISO on the RX10 is as very easy and fast.

Thanks.

Johnnie

[Simon Denny]

Hi Johnnie,

Loved the segment mate, I forgot about the camera I was checking out. I'm so looking forward to having this little camera in my bag. I have a full ENG shoulder camera with all the fruit but this RX10 and me will become great mates. I shoot also on the C300 and 5D and the 5D is collecting dust and the C300 does not get used much either. I'm after a fun camera again and I hope the RX10 is the bad boy.....

Great work again.

[Noa Put]

The only think I"d be interested in is how the camera deals with highlights because what I have seen so far hightlights are very harsh (also seen in Johnnie's video around the 02:22 mark), also seen this especially on faces where hotspots quickly seem to appear.

[Dave Blackhurst]

One other possible "feature" that might cause blown highlights (in cases like the strong backlit scenes) is the face recognition - it may be that as the camera tries to expose close to properly for skin tones it pushes the exposure so that foreground/skintones are not underexposed? I would think EV shift "should" compensate for the camera's "auto", but "backlight compensation" is one of those things where the camera tries to be smarter than the operator, so not 100% sure...

I guess my take is that if the camera can keep the main subject looking pretty good when the lighting or backlighting is less than optimal, I'm good with that. If I have enough manual control to improve on the "auto" when the situation warrants, even better. Sonys tend to overexpose, other brands have different "tendencies", you deal with the "features", that's part of tech toys...

[Philip Lipetz]

Been playng wth an RX10, judging from the LCD it appears that the Deep and Portrait settings have much greater DR. Also, other settings do alter DR. I have set up a hgh DR test bed, and will play deeper into settings tomorrow. I know that these settings do give at least one and a half stops more DR if you also minimize contrast setting.

Doing a rough estimate of DR by observing differences in what it takes to set off zebra set at 100 when shadow area is still visible.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Dave Blackhurst

Sonys tend to overexpose, other brands have different "tendencies", you deal with the "features", that's part of tech toys...

Don't think that any auto exposure was used in the "en&is" video and you shouldn't use that if there is a dedicated iris ring on the lens, controlling the exposure manually is on of the key elements of getting a good image, based on the footage I saw so far it looks that highlights, especially whites or sun on faces, burn out easily which make it look like a cheap handicam under those circumstances.

[John McCully]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

look like a cheap handicam under those circumstances.

Oh no, how horrible! Do you think I should cancel my order and get a GH3 instead :-)

[Philip Lipetz]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Don't think that any auto exposure was used in the "en&is" video and you shouldn't use that if there is a dedicated iris ring on the lens, controlling the exposure manually is on of the key elements of getting a good image, based on the footage I saw so far it looks that highlights, especially whites or sun on faces, burn out easily which make it look like a cheap handicam under those circumstances.

If you use the Deep or Portrait settings with contrast at -3 then there is at least one and a half
more stops DR. I have been testing a RX10.

EOSHD has panned the AVCHD implementation as breaking apart with motion at 50/60p, but not so much at 24/25p. I have yet to use 60p, so I have no idea, All my tests so far are oriented purely to maximizing DR. And I shoot at 24p. Have not shot scene with motion, just large DR setups.

Exclusive review - Sony RX10 » EOSHD.com

It is hardly an exclusive review, he bought an RX10 at a shop, same as everyone else. But I will look at what he says. BTW he is correct that the HDMI out is a micro HDMI that I would not trust. And the manual is horrible, totally unusable with absolutely no mention of what certain features in the camera are, just completely ignored.

[Bill Bruner]

Again, I am struck by the size of this camera (I like it).

As for me, there's a reason I gave up on low bitrate AVCHD. I will rent this camera to test[/URL], but I'll probably stick with the GH3 and BMPCC for motion pictures I care about.

[Mark Williams]

I looked at Johnnie and Andrew's videos. The are both are very skilled videographers. I don't think Sony's implementation of the AVCHD codec is ready for professional applications. With a camera as nicely built as the RX10 I think they should have gone with a codec similar or equivalent to the GH3.

[Johnnie Behiri]

Dear friends.

I can confirm the following regarding Sony’s RX10 SteadyShot as stated by Sony’s technical marketing manager:

-Optical SteadyShot Active Mode: roll correction is achieved by crop-out of the picture.
-Optical SteadyShot Standard Mode: pitch and yaw correction are done only with optical stabiliser function, therefore no cropping.
-OFF: Neither optical nor electrical stabilisation is processed.

The resolution of Active Mode is a bit worse than the other 2.
Standard mode and OFF should be the same image quality.

Thank you!

Johnnie

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by John McCully

Oh no, how horrible! Do you think I should cancel my order and get a GH3 instead :-)

You could also start to learn how to use your pocketcam and save yourself another 1000+ dollar :) You might find that hard to believe but there still exist people that do find good overall image quality important for their productions.

I think it would be a perfect replacement if one of my sony cx730's would die, it should be a better camera in a lot of areas, especially in terms of control, though not so sure how it would compare in low light. I currently use my handicams exclusively for indoor ceremony at a wedding or to record danceperformances and for that they are perfect little camera's but for all the rest I prefer a dslr.

In the eoshd video I also see burned out whites, only wonder how that would look if there is a white wedding dress on a sunny day.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Johnnie Behiri

-Optical SteadyShot Active Mode: roll correction is achieved by crop-out of the picture.
-Optical SteadyShot Standard Mode: pitch and yaw correction are done only with optical stabiliser function, therefore no cropping.
-OFF: Neither optical nor electrical stabilisation is processed.

Looks like the same how the sony cx handicam series deal with stabilization, active mode also crops a part of the image to further improve stabilization.

[John McCully]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

You could also start to learn how to use your pocketcam and save yourself another 1000+ dollar :)

Ha ha, oh come now, Noa, surely you are not saying the BMPCC is able to do what the RX10 can do, that they are comparable? I am still playing around with my BMPCC, learning. I like the ProRes image, raw bores me to tears. It's still a pig to operate but I haven't put it up for sale, for now.

The RX10 - the more I see and read the more I like it. One videographer whom I respect who now has one says it outperforms his GH3 and his GX7. The videos out there, more and more on YouTube everyday are not dissuading me in the slightest either. If you have a moment of remarkable lucidity and decide to sell your GH3 and purchase a RX10 then do let me know. Now that I have a couple of Panny lenses I might be tempted to get a GH3 in order that I might have first hand experience, side by side if you will. Naw, the GH3 just doesn't tick enough boxes though as you have demonstrated it is possible to get nice video out of the thing.

The RX10 - might just be the cat's pajamas :-)

[Noa Put]

I"m still waiting for your "meet me in big sur" HX20v counterpart but I"m sure the rx10 will even do much better in your capable hands :) When you get the camera show how good it is instead of telling it, then I might replace my gh3.