Sony Somebody please talk me down!!!

Susan Sande

Veteran
Location
Upper left USA
I told myself back in the early Sony Cybershot days that I would never own a Sony digital camera. After all, what would they know about cameras? They aren't a camera company. Damn. I keep reading up on the RX100M3. Except for the fact that it is a Sony, it is modern looking, it doesn't have a full swivel tilt screen, it keeps checking almost all my boxes. The weight alone sells me on it. 290g. I could sell my beautiful X-100s to fund it but I just don't think I could stand to look at the RX.... (My Canon G12 is still a keeper)
 
I'd recommend going to a store (if you can - and haven't done so yet) and play around with one for a while.
That might solve your "problem" one way or the other :-D
(For me the interest in one (the first generation) waned pretty quickly.)

(and as for Sony being a camera company... well, they pretty much make the sensors for almost all currently available cameras (<- exaggeration ;) ) - and they're slowly figuring out how to make cameras too :) )
 
Still remember the Sony Walkman? So it is hard to think of them a a serious camera designer. But they got it right with the RX series. Had an RX100, carried everywhere and really liked the results.
 
Companies with a background in electronics are probably better placed to become the major camera manufacturers in the future, but currently they lack the legacy and long history of system continuity that helps sustain loyalties with more established brands.
 
It's the UX that puts me off. And I write as someone who happily uses a Sony portable telephone and electric tablet every day. Haptic designs that are appropriate to devices held in my hands are inappropriate in devices held in front of my face. My aforementned devices are "cool"; smooth, thin, black, achingly stylish, with touch screens and contactless charging. They are very good at what I use them for. My cameras do not have touch screens (shudder). They have bumps and protrusions that make them easy to grip. Above all their primary and most used controls are physical knobs and buttons, mostly dedicated to a single function. I can use them by touch, without having to fiddle with my spectacles to see what I am doing.

THAT is why I do not expect to own a Sony camera any time soon.
 
I quite like Sony for their innovation.
I took the jump from Minolta to Sony and with the exception of their SLT cameras have been happy with their products. (currently RX100 , A55V and A7)

Having the RX100v1 and X100s I love them both , but to the OP , please don't sell the Fuji to fund the RX100v3 unless you're sure ; they're like chalk and cheese in most ways.
What they have is common is the best IQ possible for the size.

This was brought home to me last year I went round Mt Stewart Gardens in N. Ireland with my Fuji and Sony.
Back home using my 24 inch monitor it was hard to tell which camera had taken which shot ; the original RX100 lens/ sensor at base ISO has the wow factor.

Is the RX100v3 as good?
I don't know. I picked one up in a store some time ago and was a little shocked by the delicacy of the two stage viewfinder assembly although it all worked nicely.
Unlike the Fuji these little Sony's are not very nice cameras to handle but boy are they handy and worth having !
 
I can't see selling an X100S for a 1" sensor. To each his/her own, but that Fuji is a fantastic camera to use... the glass is top-tier, the jpgs fall out of bed in the morning looking like supermodels, and KNOBS. Metal, labeled, permanent, obvious KNOBS. Like I said, whatever makes you happy, you should do.
 
The thing about the RX100 is that it's a "set and forget" kind of device. Most of the time intelligent auto will do what you want. The only time I have to use the buttons is to engage JPEG-only if I want to zoom beyond 100mm (a quirk of Sony's firmwares since Nexes were youngsters). Set up P mode with the metering and focus options that you like and you have the control ring to change the aperture/shutter combo. That's all you need.
 
Of course, Sony has made video cameras for quite a while. They have as much street cred as Panasonic, maybe more so since Sony actually bought Konica-Minolta. I certainly like my Panasonic GX7.
 
Yup, Sony's Konica-Minolta takeover brought a lot of knowhow into the company. They make more innovative products bringing camera technology forward than the rest of the manufacturers combined. It's still a bit akin to the old "throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks" approach sometimes, although I feel they've been getting a bit more focused on continuous high end product lines recently. In terms of haptics and controls, they might not always be perfect, and many of their products to me don't feel quite as bomb-proof as I'd like, but they do take wonderful photos.

As for selling the X100S... let me put it this way. I have pretty much figured out what I want my future camera lineup to look like; two out of three products in that lineup are likely to be Sony's, and my X100 won't have a real place in it. But sell it? No way. Even if other products top it in terms of versatility and perhaps even image quality, the X100 is just too nice to use, and indeed the jpegs are to die for. If I could have only 1 camera, that would still be it. So I'll probably just use it less, perhaps limit myself to social outings, but I couldn't bring myself to sell it unless I was starving.
 
I wouldn't bash Sony's photography division AT ALL... In addition to pushing the amazing innovation we've seen in sensors over the past few years, I think they've made a good faith effort to make cameras that work for photographers, given that you don't have to do everything the traditional way to make it work. They've had some hits and some misses, but they don't suck! The RX1 is a really nice handling camera with the best lens/sensor combination I've used. I was really impressed with the RX10 I shot with for a while, and everything I can see in the A7 family looks like they get it mostly right there. The Nex interface was pretty funky, but I never had any trouble navigating the Nex 5 I had. I personally find the RX100 to be an ergonomic disaster - it just doesn't make it easy to do ANY of the things I like to do with a camera - but that's just me, lots of people love 'em...

On balance I'll take the enormous amount of good that Sony has brought to the photographic world in exchange for the occasional dud of a product they release. Even if I can pretty passionately dislike some of those occasional duds.

So, to the OP, DON'T DO IT!!!! There, are you down now? Good. But don't condemn Sony - we'd all be a lot less well off without them...

-Ray
 
Here's the thing that many consumers don't realize: Sony is THE standard in professional, broadcast-quality video. Just look at almost any network or local TV crew you may stumble across. You'll see almost all of them with Sony cameras. So while they may have come to still imaging through their purchase of Minolta (along with all of those highly experienced Minolta engineers), Sony has been doing moving pictures for over 40 years. So I'm not so surprised they're bigger on innovation than many other camera companies. Meanwhile, to Susan, our OP: Don't sell the Fuji X100s in order to buy a camera with a one-inch sensor. But if you can find a way to add something like the Sony RX100 III or the Canon G7X in order to have something smaller and "set and forget" for more casual use, then by all means do so.
 
Thanks everyone. I am keeping the X100s. After reading all the posts and putting some thought to it, the only real RX100M3 draw was the weight. (During my recent 3 weeks in Spain I had 3 different people at first glance ask if I was shooting an M3. That alone should have me keeping the X100s!)
 
:) If the main draw for a smaller camera is size&weight, another "solution" could be to keep your current camera and search for a better carrying solution (e.g a belt-pack, to stop the camera from dangling around & keep the weight off the shoulders/pockets...)

Now there's a lot of money to be spent in the search for a "perfect" carrying solution, but it might be worth looking into it :)
 
If the primary draw was size/weight, you might want to look at the Ricoh GR or Nikon Coolpix A. Both have at least as good a sensor as the X100, at least as good a lens, and both are just barely larger than the RX100. I think the GR is actually lighter than the RX100 and the Coolpix is about the same weight. They're 28mm focal lengths rather than the X100's 35mm, so a bit wider, but they're both every bit as much camera as the X100 except for the viefinder, where the X100 excels and the other two can only use a hotshoe mounted OVF.

-Ray
 
The new Panasonic LX100/Leica D-Lux are only slightly larger than the RX100 and appear to solve most of the ergonomic faults of the Sony. Oh, and they should have better optical quality.

The Leica in particular looks like a real winner, without much of a price penalty.
 
SONY makes sensors for all major manufacturers including NIKON's D800e which now in modified form exists on the A7R SONY as well as 50MP Mamiya medium format cameras. Their Xperia Z3 phones feature best in camera phone and the RX100 and RX10 are the closest to high end lens equipped DSLR but at a far more compact size and great overall value.
 
Back
Top