I owned the RX100iii for almost 2 weeks now,
being the lazy bum i am, i did not really explore the camera features wholeheartedly. I just set my new camera on intelligent mode and begin snapping away.
I bought it at Sony store Bugis in Singapore, and i didn't even had time to come back to get my warranty card! Yes, they were out of warranty card, unbelievable. They asked me to come the next day or before i leave the country but i had too many places to go and in the end i left Singapore without the warranty card. and you know what the suckiest part of this story, i have a DEAD PIXEL on my Sony RX100iii, out of the box!! and the saddest part of it i didnt have time to exchange it, if they ever exchange one to one which i doubt it. maybe i'm wrong. oh to hell with it, now i just have to live with it, no warranty card and a dead pixel. which isn't really that annoying in broad daylight, but indoors....baarghh , sometimes it looked like a speck of dust that needs blowing but when i blow it of course it is still there. its a dead pixel. oh well....
Now with my rant aside, its actually a fun camera! Small and pocketable, although with my kind of skinny jeans, its bulging in pocket. and the horror of dust spots in Ricoh GR, i try to avoid putting it in my pocket which to be honest defeats the purpose of being pocketable. Yea, im too paranoid. But lucky me when i bought it i got a free belt strap bag, an extra battery and an SD card. So i use the belt strap bag most of the times although it gets kinda annoying when you loosen your belt, its kinda heavy to put the belt on, if you know what i mean.
To be honest i was kinda debating whether to purchase the Sony or the new iPhone 6plus. i was leaning towards the iPhone but lucky me, it was out of stock everywhere in Singapore, you know why i was lucky? because the iPhone6 BENDS when you put it in your pocket, which again defeats the purpose. Thats my purpose, to find a pocketable camera! small and take great pictures. i still believe an iPhone is better since it goes everywhere with me, hopefully one day Apple will make a 1inch sensor iPhone.
I have to say i am very happy with my purchase, the Sony RX100iii, even though it has a dead pixel on it... i am cursing myself for not testing the camera in store when i bought it!!! i was in a rush, people are waiting for me, i just could not stand the pressure i put myself to take a lil bit of time to test the camera so i just brought it home back to the hotel thinking everythings gonna be okay which is not. okay sorry for the random rant..
where am i? ok, Sony RX100iii. yes, i am very happy with it. its fun. it has a selfie mode. it got wifi. too bad it did not have touch screen. why oh why? in these days and age, every camera nowadays should be automatically built with touch screen features. and i just realised that 70mm is not really much of a zoom. its a "meh" zoom. i find myself needing a lil bit of reach. i guess 100mm should be fine. Well i guess a zoom is better than no zoom at all, unless you want prime lens but thats a different story. and as others on the net has reviewed, its actually a f2.8 aperture most of the time. the only time its f1.8 is at the very wide end at 24mm. Once you start to zoom a bit the aperture kind of instantly change to f2.8. i think these are my only gripe with this Sony RX100iii. Maybe the mark4 will fix these and if im crazy enough i'll buy it.
oh theres another, the selfie mode, most of the time with the intelligent mode, it tends to shoot at f1.8, yes, bokeh, i like that, but not in selfie mode, i want everything to be in focus, because when i want to take a quick group selfies or some BS new word ussies, i tend to be in front of the group as i'm the one holding the camera and because i want to get everyone in the pic and get the background as well, 24mm, its not as wide as the GoPro (the best selfie camera) and being f1.8 i'm the one in focus, the guys at the back is kinda blurry if you look at a bigger screen, it's fine if you look at tiny screens where everyone seems to be in focus but not really........ its not really a big deal, thats my problem i guess. i just need to quickly change the aperture to f4 or more and get everyone in focus. i guess thats where custom settings is handy, which i have yet to explore with.
So to summarise,
the PROS,
- Small, lightweight, pocketable
- Tilting Screen
- EVF
- Wifi
- Remote Control Wifi
- Selfie Mode
- Fast Lens
the GRIPE,
- No touch screen (which means no touch to focus, touch to shoot, bla bla bla)
- "Meh" zoom (sometimes i feel like needing a bit of reach)
- f1.8 only at 24mm
- Selfie mode on intelligent mode tends to defocus the background (ok for ownself, sucks for group)
-
what else is there? i'll update if i found more
- Oh yea, the stabilizer isnt that great like those on Olympus. or maybe im just too shakey.
During photokina, Canon comes up with a 1inch sensor model of their own, the G7X, which remedies most of my gripes, it has a better perform lens on paper, more reach up to 100mm, it retains its f1.8 a bit longer when zooming and touch screen! but the video features kinda sucks thats why i stick to buying the Sony!
Did i mention that the Sony RX100iii is a pocketable cinema camera? Just search on google or youtube for Sony RX100iii videos, and most of them are impressive coming from this little powerhorse! and since i am into videography now, i chose Sony rather than waiting for Canon G7x.
I did not say a lot about the EVF, i used it sometimes, its okay i guess, its tiny though.
Handling wise i must say is a lil bit slippery, since the body design where the hand holds the camera has no grip. There's a thumb rest which is nice but there are no "fingers rest" on the front, ya know, the grip..... i saw online theres a grip called Franiac i think, which seems to add grip for the Sony.
Wifi is a great feature nowadays, it is easier now to share pictures among friends and families, you can either download the original file or resize to 2Mb which is great for phones and saves a lot of storage. Remote control via wifi is a blast, now i can take selfie with a monopod, although the Sony can be a bit heavy when hand holding it with the monopod. I haven't test it yet but i think i cant touch to focus on my iphone via remote control, so just hope for the face detection and its wide focus points to choose focus. correct me if im wrong.
I've tried recording videos, and my only gripe is the stabilizer isnt as great as those on Olympus. When i used my Olympus before i can see the stabilizer working (some sort of smooth glide kinda motion, not so much on the Sony), its there but not really noticeable. but at least there is a stabilizer. On stills i think its great, i shot in low light at 1/10s and the picture came out sharp.
Built in flash is meh, the best built in flash camera i have ever experience is the Fuji X100S series. The flash on the Sony is just like those compact cameras flash, hard-direct-dump-on-all-of-your-face flash.
Live everyone else on the net said, the EVF is kinda annoying when it automatically shut down the camera when you decide not to use it and push it back in the camera. There should be a fix where i can just pull it up or push it down without it powering off. Powering on is fine but not powering off.
I saw a book on Google, i havent bought it, something called "A photographer's guide to Sony RX100iii" by Alexander White, seems a useful book to have for us Sony RX100iii owners. looks better than the manual. it explains better i guess.
IQ wise it is great enough for a small camera. Better than the iPhone4. like i said, its not Fujifilm territory but its great. Great in low light too. i dont mind shooting at iso6400 but i pretty much limit my auto iso to iso3200. its not the grain that i'm worried, its the smearing of details. maybe i post on another blog post comparing isos and what not.
Oh well, enough words, lets see some pictures.
Lets stack it up with the Fujis. Sizes wise.
With the Fuji X100S. Look how small the Sony is.
Looking at the bulging lens of the X-M1, you know that aint pocketable.
Lets look at some sample images from my Sony RX100iii.
i went to the Singapore Zoo and waterpark, a great place to take a lot of pictures and test the camera.
Most of the time i'm on intelligent mode. Auto ISO.
Just snapping away.
No editing done. Just resizing for web.
Here's the zoom at 70mm
Here's the wide angle at 24mm
Here's another one,
70mm
24mm
The rest of the sample images.
This camera is great for food pornography
This little squirrel doesn't mind me shooting up close and personal, ......too busy munching this peanut, too busy.
Zebras are horses that escaped from prison
Hello donkey, whats with the long face? ... they called you pony is it?
iso800 and 1/10 sec. i guess the stabilizer does good here.
Smell gasoline everywhere, those guys must have bad breath literally
On a moving tram at night safari, i didn't take a lot of pictures because the conductor was pissed someone used flash photography and her speaker got blown off everytime she gave the warning.
One more for the road, food pornography
My favourite look recently.... why not..
Go home
