Sony RX100 V 4K sample footage is out and it’s rather impressive
Oct 18, 2016
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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There’s been a fair bit of buzz around the new Sony RX100 V since it was announced. There’s been a lot of talk about the A6500, too. The RX100, though, sits in a couple of pretty large markets. There’s the ever dwindling compact camera market. The threat of mobile phones has never been greater to compacts. Somehow, the RX100 manages to hold on as one of the few strong survivors. It’s also a wildly popular vlogging camera.
The folks over at DPReview have one for testing, and they’ve posted up some sample footage shot with it. There’s 4K and 1080p samples (upsampled to 4K) at various framerates to show off the realtime and slow motion playback. It also lets us see the new autofocus system, which has been sped up from that of the already impressive RX100 IV.
There doesn’t seem to have been a test of the RX100 V’s new 24fps burst shooting mode, which is a shame. The ability to capture full size Raw stills at 24fps for up to 150 frames (6.25 seconds) is a fantastic feature.
The increased ISO performance is another much hailed feature of the RX100 V over the RX100 IV. That also doesn’t feature too highly in this video. There’s a couple of samples at ISO1000-2000, but no comprehensive comparison. It’ll be an important feature for many photographers and vloggers that do a lot of shooting indoors or in low light conditions. So hopefully some examples of that will be coming out soon.
It will be an interesting battle now for vloggers between this and the Canon G7X Mark II. The RX100 V shoots 4K where the G7X Mark II doesn’t. However, the G7X Mark II has a touchscreen LCD which the RX100 V lacks. Which will become the most important? More vloggers are starting to switch over to 4K now, but I think ease of use may win out.
What do you think? Have you been looking for a compact that can also shoot quality 4K video? Are you a RX100 IV owner who’s happy exactly with what they already have? Is the lack of touchscreen a deal breaker for you? Are you a vlogger who prefers the convenience of the G7X’s touchscreen UI? Let us know in the comments.
[via DPReview]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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2 responses to “Sony RX100 V 4K sample footage is out and it’s rather impressive”
what we have to understand is the environment in which these videos will be streamed… there are very and i mean very few spots on earth where you can stream 4k reliably and without buffering … let alone the computers even the new ones that are now still being sold CAN NOT handle a 4k video let alone decode it without hammering the processing capacity of the computer. So it is very safe to say that most 4k is being done for archival and the capacity to crop in while editing not for viewing … a properly composed 2.5k or 1080p 60 frames should more than suffice not only the quality contrast and color of the video but also the viewing experience.
4k=good but it is not the end of all things … a cool camera with 1080p/60 will give you superb quality for your money… and enough headroom for your edits. I still believe the G7X II is a formidable video tool.
Most 4K footage outside of the movie/tv industries is actually being downscaled to 1080, because it generally gives a higher quality result than simply shooting 1080 (even with the same camera). Shoot 4K, edit, and throw it in a 1080 timeline to render out.
I don’t know about “very few spots” though. I’ve been streaming 4K content online for a couple of years in the UK, and my 4 year old PC can handle it just fine. Most video on the web GPU accelerated these days, so processor speed has little to do with it any more. Even on 4G in Germany last month I had no problem streaming 4K.
But, even if true, that doesn’t mean 4K content is useless. What would be useless is 4K capable broadband for everybody and no 4K footage for people to watch. :)
I agree with you, though, that the G7X II is definitely a force to be reckoned with, and for me, the convenience of the toushcreen definitely beats 4K, especially for something like vlogging.