The Friedman Archives Guide to Sony's RX100 VI and RX100 VA

By Gary L. Friedman

Gary Friedman has earned a reputation for clear explanations and a ridiculous attention to detail. And his book on the RX100 VI and RX100 VA doesn't disappoint! Every feature (even all the hidden features!) explained in plain English. Secrets to getting "Wow!" shots and even a bonus field guide you can download to your phone for ready reference!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9780359050017

Book preview

The Friedman Archives Guide to Sony’s RX100 VI and RX100 VA

Professional insights for the experienced photographer

by Gary L. Friedman

Version 1.02

ISBN 978-0-359-05001-7

On The Cover

J:\1 Terabyte Drive\Working Files\Ebook Sony RX-100 VI\Cover\RX100 VI cover 4x.jpg

There’s a reason I carry this camera with me everywhere.  You just never know when the light will be amazing.  Despite a dark theatre and lights moving around at breakneck speed, this camera nailed it using Program mode, AF-C and Lock-On AF Wide (my walk-around settings).  I couldn’t have done better if I had time to set everything to manual (which I didn’t).

For Those of You Who Bought the Printed  or E-Reader Edition

There are a LOT of demonstrative illustrations in this book that kind of lose their effectiveness when converted to black-and-white.  And some are difficult to see on e-book reader screens like the original Kindle.

And so to offset these problems I’m offering a free, full-color, instantly-downloadable .pdf file of this ebook to all customers who bought printed books (be they color or black-and-white), or who purchased this work through the Amazon Kindle, Apple, Barnes and Noble, or any other e-reader store.  (The original .pdf file really does offer a superior user experience.  Think of it as the director’s cut regarding how the author intended the work to be seen.) 

To get your free .pdf file, just email me ([e-mail]) with a copy of your receipt and I’ll send you a download link.  Such a deal!

About the Photos

The photo pages preceding each chapter are images from the www.FriedmanArchives.com stock photo website, and were taken with a wide variety of different cameras over the past 30 years.

About the Author

Gary L. Friedman is a professional photographer who has traveled the world with both film and digital cameras.  He runs the stock image website www.FriedmanArchives.com, is associate editor of CameraCraft magazine (a thoughtful periodical which provides tremendous insights as well as showcasing inspirational images), and gives highly-acclaimed digital photography seminars worldwide for those who wish to improve their creative photography and learn the essentials in an intuitive manner.  Because he teaches seminars worldwide, Mr. Friedman stays in touch with the concerns and frustrations of serious amateurs – the kinds of people who buy cameras like the RX100 series.

Before graduating to photography he was a rocket scientist for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (you know, those guys who landed probes on Mars and sent robots like Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, Pathfinder, Spirit, and Discovery to explore the outer solar system), where he patented the image authentication system used in high-end Canon and Nikon cameras. He has been published in books, newspapers and magazines worldwide, and was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records while in college (go ahead and search the FriedmanArchives.com website if you want to find out what he did to get included). 

Despite his mastery of the technical background, Mr. Friedman has an approachable and easy-going teaching style that makes his books a pleasure to read. You can read more about his background at http://friedmanarchives.com/bio.htm.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1      In a Nutshell

1.1

      

What's New?

1.1.1      That Lens!

1.1.2      An Impressive 20 megapixel sensor

1.1.3      24 Pictures Per Second

1.1.4      High Frame Rate (HFR) videos

1.1.5      TouchScreen Operation (RX100 VI only)

1.1.6      Improved Pop-Up EVF Design (RX100 VI only)

1.1.7      Improved Eye AF

1.1.8      New menus / My Menu

1.1.9      New Gamma Curves for Video

1.1.10      Wi-Fi and NFC

1.1.11      A Hinge for Selfies

1.1.12      Bluetooth-based GPS Alternative (RX100 VI only)

1.1.13      Even Faster Spot Metering

1.1.14      Tools for Videographers

1.1.15      Can shoot 2 Kinds of videos simultaneously

1.1.16      High-res Stills when shooting Video

1.1.17      Much better Out-of-Camera .JPGs

1.1.18      Three Different Low-Light Modes

1.1.19      Handheld High Dynamic Range (HDR)

1.1.20      Peaking Color

1.2

      

Software for your Camera

Chapter 2      Essential Configuration

2.1

      

My Personal Camera Settings

2.2

      

Variations on a Theme

2.2.1      Suggested Configuration for shooting portraits

2.2.2      Suggested Configuration for Landscapes

2.2.3      Suggested Configuration for shooting Sports

2.2.4      Suggested Configuration for Shooting Kids and Pets

2.2.5      Suggested Configuration for Video

2.3

      

The Function Button

2.4

      

Reassignable Buttons and Hidden Features

2.5

      

What’s Incompatible with RAW?

Chapter 3      Quick Guide for the Impatient User

3.1

      

Just Pick 2

3.2

      

Names of Parts

3.3

      

The Two AUTO Modes

3.3.1      Intelligent Auto

3.3.2      Superior Auto

3.4

      

P,A,S,M Modes

3.5

      

Focusing Essentials and Face Detection

3.5.1      Other Focus Area Choices

3.5.2      Face Detection

3.5.3      Focusing Modes

3.5.4      Focus Confirmation

3.6

      

Flash

3.7

      

Bounce Flash

3.8

      

Things You Probably Didn’t Know about Playback Mode

3.9

      

Playing Back a burst

3.10

      

Configuring the DISPlay

3.11

      

Quick Guide for Video

3.12

      

The Panorama Mode

3.13

      

Remote Methods

3.14

      

The Images Remaining Counter

Chapter 4      Wi-Fi AND NFC

4.1

      

What is NFC?

4.2

      

Setting Things Up – Smartphone Functions

4.2.1      Install PlayMemories Mobile

4.2.2      Transferring an Image To your Smartphone

4.2.3      Transferring an Image via One Tap

4.3

      

Now What?

4.3.1      Send (resized) images to your smartphone for social Media

4.3.2      Control With Smartphone

4.4

      

Connecting to an Access Point

4.5

      

Uploading Files Using PlayMemories Home

4.5.1      Configuring PlayMemories Home

4.5.2      Initiate your Download

4.6

      

Another way to do Tethered Shooting

4.7

      

Geotagging your images via your smartphone

Chapter 5      The Camera Settings 1 Menus

5.1

      

File Format

5.2

      

JPEG Quality

5.3

      

JPEG Image Size

5.4

      

Aspect Ratio

5.5

      

Panorama Functions

5.6

      

Long Exposure NR

5.7

      

Hi ISO NR

5.8

      

Color Space

5.9

      

Auto Mode (RX100 VA only)

5.10

      

Scene Selection

5.10.1      Portrait

5.10.2      Sports Action

5.10.3      Macro

5.10.4      Landscape

5.10.5      Sunset

5.10.6      Night Scene

5.10.7      Handheld Twilight

5.10.8      Night Portrait

5.10.9      Anti-Motion Blur

5.10.10      Pet

5.10.11      Gourmet

5.10.12      Fireworks

5.10.13      High Sensitivity

5.11

      

Drive Mode

5.11.1      Single-Shot Advance

5.11.2      Continuous Advance

5.11.3      10s, 5s, and 2s Self-Timers

5.11.4      Self-Timer Continuous

5.11.5      Bracketing

5.11.6      Bracketing for HDR

5.11.7      What exactly changes when you bracket?

5.11.8      White Balance Bracketing

5.11.9      DRO Bracketing

5.12

      

Bracket Settings

5.13

      

Camera1 / Camera2 Recall

5.14

      

Camera1 / Camera2 Memory

5.15

      

Focus Mode

5.16

      

Focus Area

5.16.1      Wide

5.16.2      Zone

5.16.3      Center

5.16.4      Flexible Spot (S, M, or L)

5.16.5      Expand Flexible Spot

5.16.6      Lock-On AF

5.17

      

Swt. V/H AF Area

5.18

      

AF Illuminator

5.19

      

Center Lock-On AF

5.20

      

Set. Face Priority in Autofocus

5.21

      

Pre-AF

5.22

      

AF Area Registration

5.23

      

Delete Registered AF Area

5.24

      

AF Area Auto Clear

5.25

      

Disp. Cont. AF area

5.26

      

Phase Detect. Area

5.27

      

Exposure Compensation

5.28

      

ISO

5.28.1      High ISO Noise Levels

5.28.2      Multi-Frame Noise Reduction (MFNR)

5.28.3      AUTO ISO Settings

5.28.4      Specifying Auto ISO Boundaries

5.28.5      Less-than-125 ISO Values

5.29

      

ISO Auto Min. SS

5.30

      

ND Filter (RX100 VA Only)

5.31

      

Metering Mode

5.31.1      Center-weighted and Multi-Segment Metering

5.31.2      Spot Metering And AEL

5.31.3      Entire Screen Average

5.31.4      Highlight

5.31.5      A Different Method of Handling Difficult Lighting

5.32

      

Face Priority in Multi-Segment Metering

5.33

      

Spot Metering Point

5.34

      

AEL w/ Shutter

5.35

      

Exposure Std. Adjust

5.36

      

Flash Mode

5.36.1      Flash Off

5.36.2      Auto Flash

5.36.3      Fill Flash

5.36.4      Slow Sync

5.36.5      Rear Sync

5.37

      

Flash Compensation

5.38

      

Red Eye Reduction

5.39

      

White Balance

5.39.1      Auto White Balance and Pre-Set White Balance

5.39.2      Tweaking the Pre-Set White Balance

5.39.3      The Color Temperature setting

5.39.4      Custom White Balance

5.40

      

Priority Set in AWB

5.41

      

DRO / Auto HDR

5.42

      

Creative Style

5.42.1      Frequently Asked Questions

5.42.2      Combining Settings

5.42.3      B&W Mode

5.43

      

Picture Effect

5.43.1      Toy Camera

5.43.2      Pop Color and Posterization

5.43.3      Retro Photo

5.43.4      Soft High-Key

5.43.5      Partial Color

5.43.6      High-Contrast Monochrome

5.43.7      Soft Focus

5.43.8      HDR Painting

5.43.9      Rich-Tone Monochrome

5.43.10      How do these effects differ from before?

5.43.11      Miniature Mode

5.43.12      Watercolor and Illustration Mode

5.44

      

Picture Profile

5.44.1      Gamma Options

5.44.2      The Ten Profiles

5.45

      

Soft Skin Effect

5.46

      

Focus Magnifier

5.47

      

Focus Magnification Time

5.48

      

Initial Focus Mag.

5.49

      

MF Assist

5.50

      

Peaking Setting

5.51

      

Face Registration

5.52

      

Regist. Faces Priority

5.53

      

Smile Shutter

5.54

      

Auto Object Framing

5.55

      

Self-Portrait/ -timer

Chapter 6      The Camera Settings 2 Menus

6.1

      

(Movie) Exposure Mode

6.2

      

(HFR) Exposure Mode

6.3

      

(Movie) File Format

6.4

      

(Movie) Record Setting

6.5

      

HFR Settings

6.5.1      Preparing for HFR Video

6.5.2      Shooting HFR Video

6.5.3      Caveats You Should Know About

6.6

      

Quality (Dual REC)

6.7

      

Image Size (Dual Rec)

6.8

      

Auto Dual Rec

6.9

      

Proxy Recording

6.10

      

(Movie) AF Drive Speed

6.11

      

(Movie) AF Track Sens

6.12

      

(Movie) Auto Slow Shutter

6.13

      

Audio Recording

6.14

      

Micref Level

6.15

      

Wind Noise Reduction

6.16

      

(Movie) Steadyshot

6.17

      

(Movie) Marker Display / Marker Settings

6.18

      

Movie w/ Shutter

6.19

      

(Image) Shutter Type

6.20

      

Release w/o Card

6.21

      

(Image) SteadyShot

6.22

      

Zoom Setting

6.22.1      Differences between CIZ and Digital Zoom

6.23

      

Zoom Speed

6.24

      

Zoom Function On Ring

6.25

      

DISP Button

6.25.1      Graphic Display

6.25.2      Level

6.25.3      Histogram

6.25.4      For Viewfinder (Rear LCD only)

6.26

      

FINDER / MONITOR

6.27

      

Zebra Setting

6.28

      

Grid Line

6.29

      

Exposure Setting Guide

6.30

      

Live View Display

6.31

      

Auto Review

6.32

      

Custom Key (Image)

6.32.1      Bright Monitoring

6.32.2      More on Eye AF

6.32.3       AEL Hold and Toggle

6.32.4      Smart Teleconverter

6.33

      

(Movie) Custom Key

6.34

      

(Playback) Custom Key

6.35

      

Function Menu Set.

6.36

      

AV/TV Rotate

6.37

      

(Image) Touch Shooting Settings (RX100 VI only)

6.38

      

MOVIE Button

6.39

      

Wheel Lock

6.40

      

Audio Signals

6.41

      

(Image) Write Date

Chapter 7      Network Menu

7.1

      

Send to Smartphone Function

7.2

      

Send to Computer

7.3

      

View on TV

7.4

      

Ctrl w/ Smartphone

7.5

      

Airplane Mode

7.6

      

Wi-Fi Settings

7.6.1      WPS Push

7.6.2      Access Point Settings

7.6.3      Disp MAC Address

7.6.4      SSID/PW Reset

7.7

      

Bluetooth Settings (RX100 VI only)

7.7.1      Setting up Bluetooth / Geo-Tag feature for the first time

7.7.2      How do I see the geo-tagged Coordinates?

7.8

      

Location Information Link Settings. (RX100 VI only)

7.9

      

Edit Device Name

7.10

      

Reset Network Set.

Chapter 8      The Playback Menu Settings

8.1

      

Protect

8.2

      

Rotate

8.3

      

Delete

8.4

      

Rating

8.4.1      The Menu Method

8.4.2      The Pre-Assigned Key Method

8.4.3      Recalling the Rated Images

8.5

      

Rating Set(Cust Key)

8.6

      

Specify Printing

8.6.1      Printing the Date on the image

8.6.2      Canceling DPOF files

8.7

      

Beauty Effect

8.8

      

Photo Capture

8.9

      

Enlarge Image

8.10

      

Enlarge Initial Magnification

8.11

      

Enlarge Initial Position

8.12

      

Motion Interval ADJ

8.13

      

Slide Show

8.13.1      PhotoTV HD and Bravia Sync

8.14

      

View Mode

8.15

      

Image Index

8.16

      

Display Continuous Shoot Group (RX100 VI only)

8.17

      

Display Rotation

Chapter 9      The Setup (Toolbox Icon) Menu Settings

9.1

      

Monitor Brightness

9.2

      

Viewfinder (EVF) Brightness

9.3

      

Finder Color temp.

9.4

      

Gamma Display Assist

9.5

      

Volume Settings

9.6

      

Tile Menu

9.7

      

Mode Dial Guide

9.8

      

Delete Confirm.

9.9

      

Display Quality

9.10

      

Auto Monitor OFF (RX100 VI only)

9.11

      

Power Save Start Time

9.12

      

Function for VF Close

9.13

      

NTSC/PAL Selector

9.14

      

Touch Operation (RX100 VI only)

9.15

      

Touch Panel / Pad (RX100 VI only)

9.16

      

Touch Pad Settings (RX100 VI only)

9.16.1      Operation in V Orien. (Vertical Orientation)

9.16.2      Touch Position Mode

9.16.3      Operation Area

9.17

      

Demo Mode

9.18

      

TC/UB Settings

9.19

      

HDMI Settings

9.19.1      HDMI Resolution

9.19.2      24p / 60p Output

9.19.3      HDMI Info. Display

9.19.4      TC Output

9.19.5      REC Control

9.19.6      CTRL FOR HDMI

9.19.7      HDMI Audio Out.

9.20

      

(Movie) 4K Output Select

9.21

      

USB Connection

9.21.1      Imaging Edge Remote Software

9.22

      

USB LUN Setting

9.23

      

USB Power Supply

9.24

      

PC Remote Settings

9.25

      

Language

9.26

      

Date/Time Setup

9.27

      

Area Setting

9.28

      

Copyright Info

9.29

      

Format

9.30

      

File Number

9.31

      

Set File Name

9.32

      

Select REC Folder

9.33

      

New Folder

9.34

      

Folder Name

9.34.1      If Standard Form is Selected

9.34.2      If Date Form is Selected

9.35

      

Recover Image DB

9.36

      

Display Media Info.

9.37

      

Version

9.38

      

Setting Reset

Chapter 10      My Menu Setting

Chapter 11      Movie Mode

11.1

      

Video Nomenclature Simplified

11.2

      

So How Do I Know What Video Format to Choose?

11.3

      

Choosing a Frame Rate and a Bit Rate

11.4

      

Taking Stills while shooting Video

11.5

      

Shooting 2 Video Formats At Once

11.6

      

4K Topics

11.6.1      4K via External Recorder

11.6.2      Capturing a 4K Freeze Frame

11.7

      

Manual Control in Movie Mode

11.8

      

Slow-Motion Videos – 2 Ways

11.9

      

S-Log2 and S-Log3 Primer

11.9.1      The Gamma Curves

11.9.2      Gamma Curve Nomenclature

11.9.3      HDTVs have Much Less Dynamic Range

11.9.4      S-Log2 and S-Log3

11.9.5      Grading

11.10

      

HDR Video Gamma Curve

11.11

      

Playing back Videos

11.12

      

Importing your Files to your Computer

Chapter 12      DRO and HDR

12.1

      

Dynamic Range Optimization

12.1.1      How it Works

12.1.2      More DRO examples

12.1.3      Frequently Asked Questions about DRO

12.1.4      So When Does DRO kick in?

12.1.5      When DRO is bad

12.1.6      Combining with Sunset Image Style

12.2

      

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

12.3

      

DRO vs. HDR

Chapter 13      Digital Imaging Topics

13.1

      

Introduction

13.2

      

An Introduction to RAW

13.3

      

The Bayer Filter and Demosaicing

13.4

      

How Your Camera Creates A JPG

13.5

      

RAW, TIF, and JPG Compared

13.6

      

JPG Compression Artifacts

13.7

      

Any Other Upsides to Shooting .JPG?

13.8

      

Reducing Noise via RAW processing

13.8.1      RAW Processing using Sony's Imaging Edge software

13.8.2      RAW Processing using catpure One Express

13.8.3      RAW Processing using Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW

13.8.4      So which process won?

13.9

      

Image Size and Resolution

13.10

      

Hot Pixels

13.11

      

Memory Cards

13.11.1      Memory Card Corruption Issues

Chapter 14      Additional Resources

14.1

      

Some Cool Accessories

14.1.1      Grip

14.1.2      Screen Protector

14.1.3      Leather Case

14.1.4      SteadyCam

14.1.5      External USB Battery

14.1.6      Filters

14.2

      

Upsells

14.2.1      Books on Other Cameras

14.2.2      f2 Cameracraft Magazine

14.2.3      The Friedman Archives Seminars

14.2.4      The Friedman Archives Blog

14.2.5      The Road to China

14.2.6      The Maui Xaphoon

14.3

      

Epilogue

Appendix A      A Condensed Guide to the Basics

A.1

      

Shutter Speeds

A.2

      

F/Stops

A.3

      

ISO

A.4

      

Focal Length

A.5

      

Tradeoffs

A.6

      

Program Shift

A.7

      

The Histogram Display

Brightness range, sensors, and the human eye

Using the Histogram for a finer degree of control

A.8

      

The Secrets of Light and Composition

A.9

      

Writing with Light

A.10

      

Composition – The Rule of Thirds

Out of place shot

Texture

Classical Portrait

Environmental Portrait

Hey, Look at Me!

Appendix B      A Cookbook for Special Shooting Situations

B.1

      

Introduction

B.2

      

Fireworks

B.3

      

Artistic Waterfalls

B.4

      

Stage Performances / Rock Concerts

B.5

      

Nighttime Time Exposures

B.6

      

Shooting in Snow

B.7

      

Outdoor Group Portraits

B.8

      

Street Photography

B.9

      

Sunsets and Silhouettes

B.10

      

Nighttime Sports

B.11

      

Product Shots

B.12

      

Christmas Lights

B.13

      

Candlelight Shots

B.14

      

Star Trails

Appendix C      Tip Cards

Index

Chapter 1      In a Nutshell

I have more cameras at my disposal than most people.  I have high-resolution full-frame cameras with outstanding optics; I have every APS-C in both A-mount and E-mount¹.  And I can tell you without exaggerating that the cameras I've used most often over the years are the RX100 series.

Of course I use the larger cameras for commercial and travel work, but for recording family events or when I want to have a camera with me just in case (whose output quality is so high that the images are perfectly licensable), I've relied upon every iteration of the RX100 ever since the line was introduced.  I've blogged about how much I love them here https://bit.ly/1yvfm3l and here https://bit.ly/2o7r1Ck and sort of here https://bit.ly/2LMnWDQ .  I've licensed hundreds of images taken with them on the www.FriedmanArchives.com stock image website; I've even made giant enlargements from them and their RX10 bretheren (which share the same sensor) and absolutely nobody could tell the picture was taken with a small-sensor camera.

So yeah, they're good.  And Sony keeps working to push the limits of what they can do.  When the RX100 III came out, I marveled at how they were able to fit a pop-up EVF in there.  When the IV was introduced, I was impressed that the tiny camera could handle 4K video (well, 5 minutes' worth of 4K video, anyway).  When the V (and later VA) was introduced, I was surprised that they added on-sensor phase detect Autofocus.  And now with the VI, I was again surprised that they added such a capable zoom, equivalent to a 24-200mm on a full-frame camera.  This essentially made it a tiny RX10 II, but without the large glass elements responsible for its f/2.8 light gathering ability.  (Hey, engineering compromises are beholden to the laws of physics!)

Anyway, they did it.  And shortly after it was introduced they announced the RX100 VA, which is an upgraded version of the camera's predecessor, the RX100 V.  The VA and the VI (getting confused yet?) are nearly identical internally, having the same sensor and computing engine; same button layout and menu layout.  Because they are so similar, both cameras will be covered in this book, and the individual differences called out as needed.

So what are the camera's differences?

And a slightly different behavior while in Auto mode. 

While these differences may amount only to a small percentage of the overall capabilitity, when you're writing a book about both and want everything to be as clear as possible, it becomes quite difficult.  Not all menu items (like MENU --> 1 --> 4 --> Focus Area --> Flexible Spot: S) are on the same menu page numbers, for example. 

So throughout this book you'll be seeing a lot of RX100 xx only disclaimers.  And since the menus share 98% overlap, to keep things approachable all the menu references will be for the RX100 VI.

1.1      What's New?

1.1.1      That Lens!

Every camera in the RX series has been paired with an exquisite lens, one where you can count all of the eyelashes if your shooting conditions are right.  If you’re an experienced photographer, you already know that the Zeiss name is the Rolls Royce of optic brands.  During World War II they were producing some of the sharpest lenses in the world (and this was before computer design or multi-coatings).  For decades they were the only supplier of lenses for the medium-format Hasselblad cameras, and also for the high-end Contax RTS 35mm film cameras. 

RX100 VA

For the RX-100 VA, Sony and Zeiss designed a relatively fast lens (f/1.8 at the wide end), which is a nice thing to have on a point-and-shoot since it helps when shooting in low light and it can also help to get artistically blurrier backgrounds in certain conditions.  And there's not much light loss while zooming in as there tends to be with most point-and-shoot zooms; at the telephoto end the f/stop shrinks to f/2.8 (i.e., hardly any light loss).

This lens also offers the ability to focus on things very close (1.9 inches) to the camera (usually referred to as macro mode) when the lens is set to wide-angle. While it doesn’t perform quite like a traditional macro lens, it can certainly come in very handy (which is the whole point of this camera, right?)

RX100 VI

Physics demands that if you're going to keep the sensor and overall package size the same, if you're going to increase the reach of the lens (say, up to 200mm), you have to do it at the expense of the lens' ability to gather light.  And so the RX100 VI offers a 24-200mm lens² with a maximum f/stop ranging from f/2.8 (quite respectable!) to f/4.5 (which isn't bad – I was expecting f/8 or something.)  And they kept the camera pretty much the same size!  Sony's engineers continue to push the envelope in terms of feature density and power consumption.  What else can they possibly squeeze in there?

You're probably wondering, Yeah, they shoved a 200mm lens in there, but is the lens any good?.  I wondered the same thing, and so I did a quick test, pitting the RX100 VI against a 24MP full-frame Sony A7 with the superb 70-200 f/4 E-mount lens.  (The trick was figuring out how to trigger the studio lights using the pop-up flash.)  The results are shown in Figure 1-1, however you may wish to download these to examine them: https://bit.ly/2O6kzbx .  Remember, if you have to pixel peep to see a difference, then the difference is not meaningful!

So this lens makes the RX100 VI one of the best travel point-and-shoots ever made, and it's even better for concert venues that prohibit people from bringing big cameras inside.  (Figure 1-2)

1.1.2      An Impressive 20 megapixel sensor

A little history:  A previous incarnation of this sensor (the one used in the RX100 III) was so good that other camera manufacturers used it in their similarly-spec’d cameras – including the Panasonic FZ1000, the DxO 1 (a connected camera for iPhones), and TWO bridge cameras from Canon - the Powershot G3X and G7X (shocking for a company that insists on making all of its own sensors!). 

Then a newer version for the RX100 IV was designed that had something called a stacked design.  In addition to ever-so-slightly better high ISO performance, this new sensor was designed from the ground up to get the data off the chip as quickly as possible, enabling some pretty important features: 2 kinds of slow motion video, 16 pictures-per-second (this was on the RX-100 IV, remember), a top shutter speed of 1/32,000th of a second (for your next trip to the Sun), and an electronic shutter which approaches - but doesn’t quite reach - the holy grail of a global shutter – where all the pixels can be turned on and off at exactly the same time, rather than capturing and reading out one row at a time.  This reduced the rolling shutter effect greatly. (Read more about rolling shutter in Section 6.19.)

For the RX-100 V, VA, and VI, an even newer sensor was developed, this time they incorporated a very sophisticated autofocus technology called Phase-Detect AF.  It’s what the big DSLRs use to accurately track Olympic athletes.  It’s responsible for the skateboarder being in focus in every single frame in Figure 1-3.  It's responsible for better video focusing with less hunting in most circumstances. And I believe it's also responsible for fast focusing at 200mm.

Phase Detection AF works in all modes EXCEPT when the video mode is set to XAVC S HD at 100p or 120p.  It also won't work when your f/stop is f/8 or smaller (meaning a higher f/number).  In these instances the camera will fall back on contrast-detect AF which worked extremely well for its predecessors.

1.1.3      24 Pictures Per Second

As mentioned a few pages ago, both cameras can shoot a whopping 24 pictures per second at full resolution.  And it will autofocus and auto expose between frames!  It can keep this up for over 250 X-fine .jpgs or over 100 RAW+JPGs thanks to its massive buffer.

To put that engineering achievement into perspective, Nikon's top-of-the-line D5 DLSR also sports 20 megapixels but can shoot at only 12 pictures per second with follow-focus.  That camera costs $6K and doesn't fit in your pocket.

And check this out: 24 pictures per second is the same frame rate as 4K shooting.  But whereas each 4K video frame is a mere 3840 x 2160 pixels, each RX-100 VA or VI frame is 5472 x 3648 pixels – the equivalent of 5.5K video (if there was such a standard).  Few people actually have a real need for this capability, but isn’t it nice to know it’s there? :-)

(Disclaimer: You can only shoot 24 pictures-per-second if your shutter speed is 1/100th of a second or faster.  And you can keep that up for about 10 seconds or so (depending upon your settings) until the otherwise massive buffer fills.  Then the write speed of your memory card becomes the limiting factor for shooting speed.)

Other welcome speed improvements include the ability to play back your last few images without having to wait for everything to be written to the memory card. 

1.1.4      High Frame Rate (HFR) videos

Being able to move data off the sensor so quickly enables some really nice slow-motion video effects (or possibly a music video for Sia http://bit.ly/1VuNiaZ ).  Your camera has two different methods for capturing slow-motion videos:

1)      You can shoot at 120 frames per second (for NTSC) or 100 frames per second (PAL) in XAVC S HD video format.  When played back at 30 frames per second this gives about a 4x slowdown.

2)      You can get even faster frame rates (resulting in 5, 10, 20, or even 40x slower playback) if you switch to High Frame Rate (HFR) mode.  This mode sacrifices resolution for speed, but then it up-samples the video to 1080p again so you'll probably never know.  Details about this feature appear in Section 6.5.

1.1.5      TouchScreen Operation (RX100 VI only)

Your smartphone’s camera has a pretty intuitive touch screen interface – just touch your subject, and your phone focuses, exposes for that subject, and then takes the picture.  Why can’t modern cameras work with that now-intuitive style?

The answer is they can, and many other camera brands have done so.  And Sony now has a conservative implementation of this feature. 

This feature has two modes: One for when you’re looking through the electronic viewfinder, and one when you’re using the rear LCD display.  And this is probably as good a place as any to talk about how they work.

Let’s get started making it work.  First, make sure the following menu items are set:

MENU --> 2 --> 9 --> Touch Shoot. Set. --> Touch Focus

MENU --> --> 3 --> Touch Operation --> Touch Panel + Pad

MENU --> --> 3 --> Touch Pad Settings --> Operation in V Orien --> On

MENU --> --> 3 --> Touch pad Settings --> Operation Area --> Whole Screen

Fn --> Focus Area --> Wide (that’s my preferred default most of the time)

Specifying only the Focusing Point

You can specify the focusing point either by touching the rear LCD or touching the rear LCD while looking through the electronic viewfinder.  (There's a reason I drew that distinction.)  The following instructions work whether you’re looking through the electronic viewfinder or composing using the rear LCD:

1.      To select something specific to focus on, touch the rear LCD display with your left thumb and start to move it around.  Soon there will be an orange rectangle moving along with your thumb.  Place the rectangle over the object to be focused on and then let go.

2.      This new spot focus will be remembered until you either press the center button on the rear of the camera or turn the camera off.  (Or touch the icon when using the rear LCD.)

3.      When shooting movies, you can only touch focus using the rear LCD.  The camera pays attention to where you touch, but the square does not show up. Once you touch a subject the camera goes into manual focus mode, and you can tweak the focusing via the camera's Control Ring (the one around the lens).

4.      If you want to touch and then have the camera track the subject using the rear LCD in video mode, you’ll have to use the Center Lock-On AF function (Section 3.5)

Specifying the Focusing Point and Taking a Picture

In order to take the picture via touch, set MENU --> 2 --> 9 --> Touch Shoot. Set. to Touch Shutter.  Then follow these simple steps:

1.      First, as soon as the camera is turned on, you'll see a small icon in the upper-right-hand corner, which looks like a finger touching a circle (Figure 1-5a).

2.      Touch that icon once; you'll see the left side of that icon turn orange, indicating that the feature is On (Figure 1-5b).

3.      Then just touch the rear LCD and take the picture just like you would a smartphone. 

(Note that this technique will NOT work when looking through the EVF.)

Some Notes on usage:

1)      You may be wondering, Why can’t I use the touch screen function when choosing menu items, or when entering WiFi passwords or Copyright info?.  The best answer I can offer is Because. :-)

2)      If you’re in Manual Focus mode, double-tapping anywhere on the LCD screen will invoke the Focus Magnifier (Section 5.46)

3)      When using touch focus with the EVF, it doesn’t matter where you actually touch the screen to start things going.  Just touching and holding it will make the orange square come alive and then you’ll be moving the focus rectangle relative to where it was.

4)      Don’t expect to be able to use the touch focus function when the Clear Image Zoom or Digital Zoom features (Section 6.22) have been invoked.

If you’re worried about having your nose touching the focusing screen and choosing an AF point as you look through the EVF, you can specify that the active area to initiate the touch focus be restricted to the right half or right quarter of the screen via MENU --> --> 3 --> Touch Pad Settings --> Operation Area --> [Choose something other than the whole screen].

1.1.6      Improved Pop-Up EVF Design (RX100 VI only)

The EVF is useful on bright sunny days when the rear LCD is too washed out to see anything useful.  My wife loves this new one-touch design so much she wants to have this be her camera after the book is done.  On all prior RX100 cameras (including the RX100 VA), using the pop-up EVF was a two step process:

1.      Pop-up the EVF using that tiny little slide switch on the left side of the camera.

2.      Pull the optic all the way out to have everything look sharp.

So many people either didn't know about step 2, or couldn't always be bothered because it required two hands.  And pushing the EVF back required the same process backwards, again somewhat cumbersome.

Sony finally addressed this on the RX100 VI by making the ocular automatically pop-out and retract as the EVF is used.  Just a little mechanical engineering ingenuity.

The EVF (on both cameras) also has a diopter adjustment, so those of you with basic eyesight ailments can dial in a correction and use the EVF without needing glasses.  To adjust it, call up a menu screen, and move the lever atop the extended EVF until the image looks sharp.

I will say the EVF has a weakness if you’re an eyeglass wearer: if the sun is at such an angle that the light shines between your eyeball and your eyeglasses, then the EVF image itself is likely to washout, and you’ll have to block the sunlight from hitting your eye in order to see what’s going on.  The solution: Take off your eyeglasses, look into the EVF directly, and trust that the autofocus will do its thing well.

1.1.7      Improved Eye AF

Sony cameras have had a feature called Face Detection for years, and it is so reliable that it has literally changed the way I shoot kids (and other people).  Rather than using the spot focus-lock – recompose – shoot methods, I let the camera’s automatedness (that’s a word!) do its thing and I just concentrate on getting the right expression.

Face Detection works great but many portrait artists complained it wasn’t accurate enough when shooting at wide apertures.  And so Sony introduced a feature called Eye AF on its larger cameras which tells the camera to seek out and focus on just an eye.

The world went gaga over this feature when it was introduced, except for me who wondered aloud why you had to even assign it to a button – why not have it work automatically and invisibly like Face Detection did?  Sony seemed to have heard my complaint, for they’ve now improved it to work in just that way. 

Eye AF now kicks in automatically when you’re shooting in AF-S mode with Face Detection enabled.  There’s a very small hint that it’s working this way – while the camera is showing you the large square around the detected face, it will also (momentarily) highlight a tiny square over the eye. 

More about Face Detection (and how to enable its new modes) can be found in Section 5.20.

1.1.8      New menus / My Menu

Sony has been revamping their menus in recent cameras to address complaints from Canon and Nikon shooters that they were simply too different (of course those folks tended to use their own words).  Another, more valid complaint was that many related features were not grouped together – a complaint I agreed with.  Anyway, the new menu is designed to address both complaints.

Two features about the new menus are worth calling out because it’s unlikely you’ll notice them the first few times you use the camera.  Have a look at Figure 1-7 – It’s showing a typical menu screen, but there are two navigational aids that show you where you are in the maze: First, there is the fraction in the upper-right-hand corner showing Page X of Y.  Second, and perhaps more subtly, there is the series of squares along the bottom which conveys the same thing but visually.  (Both highlighted in yellow.)  It’s a help.

The top of the menu page also shows you the category that these menu features have been grouped into (highlighted in green), making it much faster to find what you’re looking for vs. reading every menu item on every page until you find the one you’re looking for.

So here is the menu nomenclature that will be used throughout the rest of this book.  Using the highlighted Exposure Compensation feature in Figure 1-7 as an example:

MENU --> 1 --> 6 --> Exposure Comp.

Esstentially this means Camera 1 tab at the top, page 6, Exposure Comp(ensation). 

My Menu

After using the camera for awhile you’ll find that there are only a handful of menu items  you access on a regular basis.  When that happens, you can make use of the My Menu (the rightmost menu) and create your own customized menu for fast access.  Chapter 10 goes into how to configure and use it.

1.1.9      New Gamma Curves for Video

You know those High Dynamic Range TVs you’ve been reading about?  Well, the RX100 VI (only) can now shoot in the Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) format that such TVs look for and know about.  Which means you can shoot HDR video footage and have it play back properly on an HDR TV without need to grade or transcode the video on your computer first!  The 10th slot of the Picture Profiles function is pre-configured with optimum settings for this kind of shooting. 

Also included are Sony’s famous S-Log2 and S-Log3 (RX100 VI only) gamma profiles for video.  You can read more about this (and about the Picture Profile feature in general) in Section 5.44.

1.1.10      Wi-Fi and NFC

There have been SO many times in the past when I took a picture with my original RX100 and wanted to post it to Facebook that instant.  Couldn’t do it – I had to transfer the images to my laptop first and upload it once I got back to my hotel.)  What I would usually do instead is whip out my smartphone, take the same lower-quality shot with its built-in camera, and upload it to Facebook, all the while letting people know that I have a much better picture