Sony RX10 user experience thread

[Noa Put]

Weird stuff going on with my rx10 last weekend, I had dialled in a standard preset with contrast -3 and all the rest at 0 when somewhere halfway teh shoot I notice on the screen the saturation is also at -3 while I had not touched it. Also had I set the OIS to standard and somewhere throughout the day I see it's set to off! I checked my footage and it looks I shot most with stabilisation on active so I noticed in time.

Another weird thing is that when I was shooting something totally zoomed in at 200 mm and when I then would shut down the camera the lens will automatically move back to 24mm, when I then would switch on the camera the lens won't move until I start zooming, only since yesterday the lens will go back to it's previous position (200mm in my example) without me touching the zoom.

I was not even aware this was possible, strangest thing is have not changed anything in the menu so something has triggered this behaviour.

How is it with other rx10 users, does your lens go back to it last position after you power up the camera and if so, is this something you can change in the cameramenu?

[Dave Blackhurst]

I'll have to double check, but is it possible that you changed modes? One of the more "awkward" things I've run into is that you can customize things in different modes (plus there are "memory" settings to speed recall custom setups), so you think you've set something, change modes, and it's different. At least I think that's what's happening...

On one hand it's nice to have the ability to set "everything", but when there are so many mode options, it's tough to remember what you've set which way...

I think sometime I must sit down and spend more time "customizing" and see how "personalized" I can get the camera!

I do seem to recall there was a setting about returning the lens, but again I'd have to take a look at it and see - likely a feature, not a bug!

[Jeff Harper]

Noa, my lens retracts at shutdown and does not return to it's previous position. I have not seen/noticed a place in the menu for this.

Regarding the settings changing, I have not experienced that particular issue (yet).

I have noticed some peculiar behavior with my autofocus when using it in C mode. On several occasions when in C (auto focus) the camera behaves as if it's in manual and will not adjust focus. It really alarmed me the first few times it happened. I couldn't figure out what was wrong or what I was doing wrong.

I finally figured out I needed to change the focus settings dial to any other setting and then change it back to C and it returned to normal.

I bought my RX10 used and I have often wondered if ithis is the reason the camera was returned.

I do use manual focus a lot on the camera, but I do also use auto focus at times. I used autofocus a lot when I first received the camera so I could concentrate on exposure, etc., and get used to the camera, but am now relying much more on manual, but still don't like this to have happnened.

[Noa Put]

I didn"t know the camera was able to do that up until now, Dave; does the lens in your camera lens return to it's last position after you start it up? I find that feature useful at times but need to know where to turn it on or off.

[Dave Blackhurst]

I can't find anything in the menus, coulda sworn I had this happen as well, but can't replicate it now! Wondering if maybe it IS a bug!?

[Noa Put]

Who knows I"l be getting what I wished for which is a fast zoom action during record, ha, that would make my rx10 worth twice as much when I sell it!

I"ll post a video of this mysterious zoom action tomorrow, see if anyone that owns a rx10 can replicate it.

[Noa Put]

So here it is, my new hidden zoom feature or bug, actually I don't mind the camera doing this but in some occasions I rather not have it do this. Have another wedding this saturday, will see how the camera behaves because last weekend some important settings where changed without me touching anything I"m aware off. (like I mention before the ois was switched off and saturation on standard preset was set to -3 and I didn't do it)

If I get a few other changes like that the camera will be send in and I"ll use below video as evidence something is not right (if that is the case).

Vimeo

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Jeff Harper

I have noticed some peculiar behavior with my autofocus when using it in C mode. On several occasions when in C (auto focus) the camera behaves as if it's in manual and will not adjust focus. It really alarmed me the first few times it happened. I couldn't figure out what was wrong or what I was doing wrong.

I"m not sure anymore what changes I exactly made but when I"m in moviemode when I start up the camera the focus is always is auto, then if I want to switch to manual I just press the big button on the back in the centre of that dial where you can change the iso. Pressing this button toggles between auto and manual focus.

I just noticed something else, if I switch to manual focus and turn the focusring the screen automatically magnifies for 2 seconds like I have set it in the menu, this doesn't work anymore, I can still use the magnification by pressing the ael button on the back which is ok for me now but this is yet another weird thing.

This reminds me of my nex-ea50, it had 2 different dials to operate the menu, one of those 2 stopped working only a few weeks after I had it, because there was a second way to go into the menu I just left it like that but planned to send the camera in when wedding season was finished. Eventually I decided to sell the camera at the end of the wedding season and when the new buyer came to check out the camera the menu button worked like it should :)

[Todd Mizomi]

Used the RX10 as my sole video and stills camera to shoot behind the scenes footage of a 3day photo workshop here in Maui, Hawaii. Dunked it in the sand a few times, took it hiking up 2mile trail through a forest to shoot at the base of a waterfall, and hung it outside of the car on the long winding road to Hana. It survived all of that - simply amazed at what this little camera can do. 99% handheld with no additional gear except one or two shots with the Varizoom Stealthygo unit.

2014 Rolando Gomez Maui Photography Workshop Behind the Scenes - YouTube

[Noa Put]

Some nice looking shots in there :) Just to know, does the zoom on your rx10 return to it's previous position after you power it up again?

[Todd Mizomi]

So far whenever I power on the camera, it defaults to the widest zoom setting. Have not run into the issue you described yet.

[Darren Levine]

One possible connection to what you're experiencing: If you have power saver turned on and it shuts off automatically, once you hit the shutter to wake it up, it returns to the last lens position, exactly what you're experiencing but with a full power off. No idea how the two could get their wires crossed, but it's the correct behavior for that sort of separate function

[Todd Mizomi]

Continually amazed at what this camera can do.
One issue I ran into was trying to view the LCD in bright sunlight (like when I had it on the jib arm for the opening shot). Thinking I could really use a good magnifying loupe for the screen. I have a zacuto finder for my canon 7d but it doesn't really fit the smaller rx10 body. Any suggestions ?

https://vimeo.com/m/98602240

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

So here it is, my new hidden zoom feature or bug

At yesterdays wedding the zoom bug has disappeared again, all back to normal. I think my rx10 had a bad day.

[Noa Put]

At the last weddings I have been using my rx10 more and also during the ceremony, in the beginning that was only during the photoshoot, later on during a ceremony in a church and a ceremony out in the open on a sunny day and also to cover speeches. In the beginning I really wanted to sell the camera again because of the very slow zoom but now that I have edited the rx10 footage shot under various conditions I am very impressed about what this camera outputs.

Allthough I love using my cx730's they do have that video kind of look, the rx10's footage has a more pleasing dslr kind of look, the colors are nicer and punchier and the image looks very sharp and with stronger contrasts, eventhough it's "only" a 1 inch sensor it's easy to push the background out of focus when you zoom in and the bokeh looks very "creamy". Skintones also are very natural looking.

I have included some frame exported directly from the timeline without any colorcorrection, it was shot with the standard preset with the contrast set to -2 , can't post any faces from that wedding but below frames do show a pretty detailed image with a dynamic range that is not bad at all. I plan to use the camera much more during next weddings, it's only too bad about that 30 minute limit, makes shooting ceremonies cumbersome.