Sony RX100M3: Desert Botanical Garden

[Dan Carter]

Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden (Sony RX100M3) on Vimeo

An initial project with the Sony DSC-RX100M3. The new video features this upgrade provides are very impressive.

Though it requires newer SDXC memory cards, the XAVC codec is the standout feature. Edits much better than AVCHD in FCPX and provides big image improvement over the RX100M2. Possibly the RX10 as well.

The LCD is much less fiddly and useful than the RX100M2. No more squeak and scrape when opening from bottom.

The EVF is very useable for a compact. Better than hoped for. Easy to forget to pull the eyepiece out, but more use will make a habit.

The ND may eliminate need for a polarizer for exteriors. Most of this project was shot sans ND.

Zebras obviously minimize incorrect exposure issues.

My RX100M2 had constant, slight focus pump issues with wide, distant landscape shots. If manual focus wasn't used for these shots, clips would be unusable. The RX100M3 has no such issue. Big, big thanks Sony.

RX100M2 Active SteadyShot seemed no better than Standard. RX100M3 Active SteadyShot is much improved, and Intelligent Active is a step above Active. However, Active requires image crop, and Intelligent Active even more.

Video Clear Image Zoom, like the RX10, is very usable. It may get too soft around 115mm though. So, where the RX100M2 CIZ was unusable and limited video to 100mm optical zoom, the RX100M3 offers 115-120mm of usable zoom.

Overall the camera seems more responsive.

Sony DSC-RX100M3
Sirui T005KX Tripod
P&C Grip for handhelds
XAVC 60P/50Mbps

[Noa Put]

Very nice as usual Dan, are the colors and contrast straight from the camera or did you change something in post? I do find the image quite contrasty and the colors to strong but that might be because of a used preset? I have seen this in some of your other videos as well where you used a preset that makes the colors pop and I have experimented as well with this in one of my latest personal videos but I found that you loose a lot f detail in the shadows. Can you dial in presets like on the rx10?

[Dan Carter]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Very nice as usual Dan, are the colors and contrast straight from the camera or did you change something in post? I do find the image quite contrasty and the colors to strong but that might be because of a used preset? I have seen this in some of your other videos as well where you used a preset that makes the colors pop and I have experimented as well with this in one of my latest personal videos but I found that you loose a lot f detail in the shadows. Can you dial in presets like on the rx10?

Hello Noa,

I shot this video primarily "Vivid, +2 Sharpness" to compensate for Arizona harsh summer sun and dry muted colors. No post color correction.

With the exception of different controls, the RX10 and RX100M3 menu settings are now nearly identical. Creative Styles menus (presets), with adjustment for Saturation, Contrast, and Sharpness are identical.

Many thanks for watching.

[Tim Polster]

Thanks for sharing Dan. I like your style and content. The image looks nice but I agree with Noa. If you could lift the shadows I think you could improve the overall look. The image being heavy in the dark areas makes the output look more like it came from a consumer camera imho. Since the controls are not given in-camera, maybe a little adjustment in post would be easy and fruitful?

[Dave Blackhurst]

DRO can flatten out the highs and lows, pretty sure that's still in the M3? Have to be careful with it, but it's one way to deal with high dynamic range situations so you don't blow the highs or lose the lows to murk.

[Dan Carter]

On closer inspection, I had to agree with Noa & Tim relative to contrast. Originally thought I'd botched a profile (Creative Style) I use on all my Panasonic & Sony cameras, but was actually severe underexposure from a shooting "trick" that backfired.

Was adjusting exposure via zebras in Photo Mode, capturing a photo for reference data, then video from the same Photo Mode. The resulting video was -0.3 to -0.07 underexposed. Thankfully, this is not an issue when shooting Video Mode.

Also going to experiment with -1 Contrast in my exterior Creative Style profile.

Many thanks for catching this issue Noa & Tim.