DSC-RX100 (15.1mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec, ISO400)
DSC-RX100 (15.64mm, f/3.2, 1/200 sec, ISO400)
Sometimes you are creative and sometimes you are not. This time I wasn’t. The image above is a copy of my own picture I took about a year ago with my Fuji X100. Back than it was a test whether an APS-C sensor camera can substitute my Canon 5D + 35L. I was surprised how close it came. So this time I tried if I can substitute my full frame DSLR with a compact camera. Of course that’s a little bit more tricky but I was pleased with the result.
But let’s start with a little rant. I visited the NHM Museum in Vienna to give my new camera, the Sony RX100, a second try. I was in the KHM Museum ( it’s twin brother dealing with the history of art ) a couple of days before where I have learned that every new camera needs some time to get adjusted to.
Or more like to find some workarounds to compensate for the poor Auto ISO implementation. The RX100 could be the ultimate low light king but it’s not simply because somebody in the software department made a poor job.
Sounds kind of angry? Well I guess that’s because I am. What is the problem? Sony simply forgot to include one option in the Auto ISO menu: the option to set a minimum shutter speed! They implemented are rather useless minimum ISO value ( I have no idea what that is for ) but forgot about the shutter speed. Result: The camera chooses 1/30s in low light what would not be a problem but together with the most inefficient image stabilizer of every camera sold today it becomes a problem. The result is blurry shots caused by camera shake.
My current workaround is to shoot in A-Mode and set ISO values manually. I start at 400ASA and if shutter speed goes below 1/50s@f2.2 I move up to 800ASA. This is to make sure that the corners are sharp and the image is not blurry because of camera shake. But that means that I have to adjust ISO manually as soon as the light changes. That doesn’t feel like 2012.
I really hope that Sony addresses this issue with a firmware update to make this otherwise really great camera and outstanding one. Just add this menu point. And Auto-ISO in manual mode as well please. There is no reason not to have it. It’s very useful for street shooting.
Enough rant over this great camera. Here is the positive part: ( I took these pictures just about 3 hours ago ). This is a real fresh entry in my blog. The museum shots will follow as soon as I finished my little review.
The picture of Harald above is just a kind of copy of the picture I did when my Fuji X100 was new. It was the first portrait and the result was great. This time the whole “session” lasted only for maybe 2 minutes. The big difference to the Fuji was that the Sony had no problems to lock AF thanks to it’s face detection. With the X100 I had to change to macro mode and there was massive hunting too. The Sony is very fast to shoot and the exposure meter is very good too. Colors are beautiful but I transferred the image into black and white in Lightroom to add some drama. Slightly cropped vertically because I like wide screen portraits. Of course it is not as simple as shooting a full frame DSLR with a 35mm prime but the resulting image can be very close.