The highlights do blow out pretty quick, what I do is set my exposure comp to -0.3. I find this helps.

I do that too Simon, almost invariably. I also do that with my other Sony consumer cams.

Thanks Simon and John.

I'm having so much fun with this camera, love it. My main camera is a PMW500, it produces beautiful images but… the RX10 for its size and what it does is great.
The thing I dig is, fixed lens, one inch sensor (I don't need full frame) variable frame rates and it take a great still image, for me using this camera in the style as a video journalist it's just about perfect. If Sony upgraded this camera? and put 4:2:2: plus the better dynamic range it's a winner. Sony really made a great camera here and one that I feel could be used in many productions.

I'm having so much fun with this camera, love it. My main camera is a PMW500, it produces beautiful images but… the RX10 for its size and what it does is great.

Same here Simon, I have the pmw320 and am more than happy with the pictures I get from it, with the help from a PP but this RX10. Is something else. Unbelievable, for a fraction of the cost.
Looking forward to getting to know it better.

Happy with the images I'm getting at the mo, considering I never used a dslr before but would like to know please, what's the max ISO setting you should use for indoors or outside? Is there a rule of thumb ?

Thanks.

ISO 3200 is about the limit and even this there is noise. I guess it's about the shoot, if I need the shot then I'll crank the iso. I would say ISO 1600 is about the max for a clean image, I could be wrong.

Thank you Simon, I will keep that in mind.

The weather is beautiful today, so, a good excuse to give it another outing.

What benefit will I get from a SanDisk Extreme PRO card in my RX10 compared to SanDisk Extreme version?

SanDisk Extreme PRO 64GB SDXC UHS-I/U3 Memory Card up to 95MB/s Read FFP (SDSDXPA-064G-FFP): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007PYBSUU/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE)

SanDisk SDSDXN-064G-FFP Extreme SDXC UHS-I Class 10 U3 Memory Card up to 60 MB/s read - 64 GB: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00N5TOXQK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE)

As long as they are both U3, they should work fine. That's the key for XAVCS high bitrate (for the moment at least, next year if we see 4K/60p and higher bitrates, they may or may not be "fast enough").

The difference will come in read/write/transfer speeds - which may come into play if you're doing burst stills with RAW or RAW+JPEG. The faster card can write quicker, and clear the cameras buffer faster when doing this sort of data intensive shooting. If you want to get 10 shot bursts and reasonable recycle times (camera is ready to shoot another burst/shot), it takes FAST cards.

I did some tests when dealing with a bozo buyer of an RX100 - complained the camera was "broken" when it wouldn't write RAW+JPEG bursts to the rated 10 shots and would "freeze" for up to a minute while writing from the buffer... on a CLASS 4 CARD!!!! What I found was a fast card (at that time) would shoot the full 10 burst, and recycle in around 10 seconds, a "slow" card would max at a burst of 8, and take up to a minute to recycle... I now am a little more conscious of the "details" on a card - they vary WIDELY, even within the same "class" (most are now class 10).


For video, you probably won't see ANY difference as long as it's U3 rated (been buying a few, and the 60MB/s is the lowest I've seen on a U3 card, most seem to be 95 and above (although some seen to be rated differently for read vs. write). Presuming it's a genuine card and not a HK/China knockoff, you should be "OK" for VIDEO.

The other place you MAY see a difference is when downloading your clips/stills - a faster card SHOULD in theory result in faster dumping of your data to your computer. This could be affected by your USB port (USB 3 being faster), and your HDD/SSD. An older computer may have other bottlenecks...

Generally speaking, "faster is better", but given that faster costs more $, sometimes there is "fast enough" in practical terms. I've been trying to pick up the largest/fastest SDXC U3 cards I can find, replacing the "fast enough" SDXC U1 that were just fine before the higher bitrate XAVCS firmware updates... fortunately I have someone who is buying most of the U1 cards and appreciating the great deals... on the ones I JUST bought not so long ago...

Thank you Dave, for all that information. They will be used for video, using the XAVCS format.

Thanks.

I use the SanDisk Extreme Pro, 95MB/s U3 64B. Yeah they are expensive but I think this is a minimum one needs for the RX10 and XAVCs

I have no problems with this card.

Thanks Simon, I have two of those cards too but just wondered about the non pro version.
They also are Class 10 U3 Memory.

Thank you again.

Memory has become QUITE confusing, no doubt to the ever increasing speed demands. In some cases I have U1 cards that are no doubt "fast enough" (95MB/s), but since they aren't U3, the camera says, "NO"...

Most of the time you can operate a given camera at a lower quality with lesser cards in a pinch, but of course we want to get the most performance at the highest quality our of our gear... and not have to buy new memory every couple months...


Here's a sort of "quick and dirty" breakdown, at least for Sony cameras....

SDXC required for XAVCS, NOT SDHC (I've seen SDXC I and SDXC II on some branding, apparently for U1 vs. U3, but not sure it's anything other than marketing)

SDXC seems to be ONLY 64G cards and above, although I've seen some 32G cards on ebay... may or may not be legit cards, since memory is a highly knocked off item... I'm sure there is "demand" for smaller capacity cards, but I'd rather stick to the 64G or larger...

"Class" means almost nothing, as you NEED Class 10 for pretty much anything, and a card that meets Class 10 minimums can still be very slow (around 10MB/s from what I saw when testing...) and well below a usable spec for higher bitrates...

U3 is required vs. U1 for the latest higher bitrate recording modes.

It seems like 95MB/sec is about the "cutoff" transfer rate for U3, that 60MB/s card you linked to is the lowest I've seen while looking for "U3" rated cards.

SO when memory shopping...

SDXC, U3, 64GB or greater capacity, and as much speed as you want to afford...

I use the SanDisk Extreme Pro, 95MB/s U3 64B. Yeah they are expensive but I think this is a minimum one needs for the RX10 and XAVCs

I have no problems with this card.

Are these not a bit overkill for the rx10 XAVC? I use this card to record Lossless CinemaDNG RAW from my pocket cam.

I get the fastest I can afford just to speed up transfer after a long day of shooting.

SO when memory shopping...

SDXC, U3, 64GB or greater capacity, and as much speed as you want to afford...

Thank you Dave for that detailed answer, your right, it can be confusing, at least it is for me.

You summed it up well :)

Thanks.

Yeah Noa, it's overkill but that's all I could purchase at the time to run the RX10.
Cheers