Sony Disappointed with my new Rx100

Rui Santos

New Member
I own a couple of point-and-shoot cameras an a top end dSLR I use regularly. I was displeasure with the huge gap there was between the image quality I got from the point-and-shoot cameras and the dSLR I use professionally. Of course I was expecting that gap but wanted to reduce it and get more quality from the shots of the kids around the house, where grabbing a huge dSLR just isn't practical. I google it and the Rx100 looked the best I could get to face my needs.

I got it and now I find myself grabbing the other point-and-shoots I have and not the new camera. It just isn't practical to use! I use them (Panasonic and Casio cameras mostly) in P with flash set to auto and focus point set to center so that I can focus and recompose. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that this was impossible with the Rx100. It’s either no flash or fill flash. In Intelligent Auto I can set the flash to auto but then the AF sets to multi and I have to trust the AF to know where I want the focus to be. Why can’t this be done with the Rx100 if it’s possible with the other low end cameras I have? And I don’t think Intelligent Auto is that intelligent after all. Around the house with low light, instead of firing the flash it chooses to open up to f/1.8, set shutter to 1/30 and then bump the ISO to get the exposure right. Of course with this settings it gets lots of motion blur and a shallow depth of field which is not the right choice for low light and moving subjects (kids). Obviously I could fiddle with the camera and put in A or S and turn on or off the flash myself but for that I would use the dSLR. I wanted a point-and-shoot camera I could set to P and done. I don’t understand how this was not mentioned on none of the dozens reviews I red about this camera. Am I missing something here or is this something you came across too?
 
Welcome Rui.

It sounds like it is simply not the camera for you. It allows a high degree of user control and that isn't what you want from it by the sound of what you are saying. I think you would be happier getting a refund.
 
I just had a quick play with my RX100 in P mode.

The flash is set to Auto and can't be changed, but I can set the focus point to centre and also set an upper limit for auto-ISO.

How does that suit you?

-R
 
I just had a quick play with my RX100 in P mode.
The flash is set to Auto and can't be changed, but I can set the focus point to centre and also set an upper limit for auto-ISO.
-R

Really? I have the mark II. Which one do you have? I can't do that with mine. In P mode I can't selected auto flash although I can choose center focus. I could live with it if I could set it the way you did Richard.
 
It sounds like it is simply not the camera for you. It allows a high degree of user control and that isn't what you want from it by the sound of what you are saying. I think you would be happier getting a refund.

That's the idea that's crossing my mind right now Bill although I got a great deal for it on Cyber Monday but I really like the 1" sensor that can give me low noise on not so well lit environments. Actually it's not the high degree of user control that's bothering me. It's the lack of it. I could do what I want on my other PnS cameras. It's disappointing not the be able to do it with the Rx100.
 
I went back and checked the available flash settings in P mode and I think you're right. It looks like you can select every other flash setting except 'Auto' - it appears on the scrolling list but in grey and you can't actually select it.

This is on a Mark 1 RX100 but I don't believe the menus changed much between variants. Apologies for the incorrect information earlier.

I always have the flash turned firmly Off (!)

-R
 
I'm not one that has ever "programmed" a camera and used those "my settings" kind of features. But I wonder if it is possible with the RX100 to set up the parameters that you want (Auto-Flash, f4, auto-ISO, 1/250, center focus point, etc) and save them to one of your custom settings slots. It would really just be a one time thing to set-it up and then you just set the camera to 1 instead of P (I'm assuming the RX100 has that option.....I'm just looking at my RX10 which has a similar lay-out).
 
I went back and checked the available flash settings in P mode and I think you're right. It looks like you can select every other flash setting except 'Auto' - it appears on the scrolling list but in grey and you can't actually select it.

No worries Richard. M2 is exactly like that too. I can't figure out why. That's just standard on my other PnS cameras.
 
I'm not one that has ever "programmed" a camera and used those "my settings" kind of features. But I wonder if it is possible with the RX100 to set up the parameters that you want (Auto-Flash, f4, auto-ISO, 1/250, center focus point, etc) and save them to one of your custom settings slots. It would really just be a one time thing to set-it up and then you just set the camera to 1 instead of P (I'm assuming the RX100 has that option.....I'm just looking at my RX10 which has a similar lay-out).

That's a good tip Luke. Thanks. I'll try that out. Hope it works!
 
I've a feeling that won't work. The MR (memory recall) settings are basically a shortcut to combinations of settings and modes of the RX100 which you make yourself and then save.

The problem remains that there is apparently no combination of settings and modes available which gives you auto Flash plus centre weighted focus.

I'll keep looking though - been wrong once today already !

-R
 
Let me start off by saying that my lack of camera knowledge could fill an entire book (maybe that would make a handy manual....LOL), but what is your issue with Fill flash. I'd love to know what the difference is in how they operate.
 
My RX100 is in iAuto mode most of the time, but sometimes in aperture or shutter priority modes when the situation calls for it. I find that the RX100 tends to burn highlights in sunny weather so I often switch to A mode to allow me to back the exposure off by 0.3 or 0.7 EV.

I limit auto-ISO to a maximum of 1600 as for me it gets ugly after that.

I dislike flash so that's always turned off.

-R
 
Let me start off by saying that my lack of camera knowledge could fill an entire book (maybe that would make a handy manual....LOL), but what is your issue with Fill flash. I'd love to know what the difference is in how they operate.

Fill flash always fires illuminate shadow areas or to prevent a back lit subject from being underexpose. But that's not my issue. The thing is apparently the Rx100 doesn't allow auto flash on the P mode and that's the mode that allows some degree of customization (like single point AF).
 
My RX100 is in iAuto mode most of the time, but sometimes in aperture or shutter priority modes when the situation calls for it. I find that the RX100 tends to burn highlights in sunny weather so I often switch to A mode to allow me to back the exposure off by 0.3 or 0.7 EV.

Thanks for the info Richard. I'll try to use A mode and see if I can set the flash to auto on that mode. I use my dSLR mostly on A mode (or M) so I'm comfortable with it.
 
Might a viable option be to run in manual mode with auto ISO? Set something like f/4 and 1/125th shutter, then let the AUTO ISO do it's thing? In that mode one would think that the whole set of flash options would be available?

The camera should be smart enough with the built in flash to expose correctly that way.
 
After a full weekend using the camera, I'm returning it. It's useless to me. Besides the fact that it doesn't allow auto flash in P, A, S or M, it defaults to 1/30 s even with flash on, when there isn't enough light.

It's a pity a camera in this price range behaves in such a lame way. You should be able to set a low Shutter speed limit and let the camera do the rest of the work with auto iso. Yes, you can set it to S and put in on 1/100 or whatever for indoor but then you go outsifor you have to fiddle with it again to make it expose correctly. I was looking for a point and shoot camera that had better picture quality then the average point and shoot and the Rx100 can deliver that quality. But at a very high cost. It's well built and has a great sharp lens but has software issues that prevents it from being great. I could use it on full manual mode but I don't see the point of buying a sofisticated piece of hardware and software, that's what a modern camera is, and then use it on full manual. The only time I use a camera on full manual is when I'm using studio strobes but there's a obvious reason for that. I guess I could live with this camera if I only shot landscapes but that's not the case nor do I find reasonable to fork out this amount of money for a camera and then have to work around ways to make it work.

Thanks a lot for your input. It was very helpful. I'm just sorry I didn't knew this before buying the camera.
 
I own a couple of point-and-shoot cameras an a top end dSLR I use regularly. I was displeasure with the huge gap there was between the image quality I got from the point-and-shoot cameras and the dSLR I use professionally. Of course I was expecting that gap but wanted to reduce it and get more quality from the shots of the kids around the house, where grabbing a huge dSLR just isn't practical. I google it and the Rx100 looked the best I could get to face my needs.Steve Cohan

I got it and now I find myself grabbing the other point-and-shoots I have and not the new camera. It just isn't practical to use! I use them (Panasonic and Casio cameras mostly) in P with flash set to auto and focus point set to center so that I can focus and recompose. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that this was impossible with the Rx100. It’s either no flash or fill flash. In Intelligent Auto I can set the flash to auto but then the AF sets to multi and I have to trust the AF to know where I want the focus to be. Why can’t this be done with the Rx100 if it’s possible with the other low end cameras I have? And I don’t think Intelligent Auto is that intelligent after all. Around the house with low light, instead of firing the flash it chooses to open up to f/1.8, set shutter to 1/30 and then bump the ISO to get the exposure right. Of course with this settings it gets lots of motion blur and a shallow depth of field which is not the right choice for low light and moving subjects (kids). Obviously I could fiddle with the camera and put in A or S and turn on or off the flash myself but for that I would use the dSLR. I wanted a point-and-shoot camera I could set to P and done. I don’t understand how this was not mentioned on none of the dozens reviews I red about this camera. Am I missing something here or is this something you came across too?
 
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