Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
It might seem odd to bring out a Sony RX100 V refresh right now having just announced the RX100 VI. One would simply assume that the RX100 VI would be the RX100 V replacement, but apparently not.
It looks like the newly announced Sony RX100 VA is its real replacement. Essentially the same as the RX100 V, it does see some updates. It includes the processor and firmware from the RX100 VI but does miss some of the hardware improvements.
On the outside, Sony has stuck to a proven formula. The new Sony RX100 VI looks identical to the RX100 V. The only difference is the number printed on it. Where things change though, is when you turn it on. The most noticeable difference is that the lens can come out a lot more. Upgrading the 24-70mm equivalent field of view of the RX100 V, the new RX100 VI boasts a massive 70-200mm equivalent range.
If you want the best sound in your video, you really do need an external microphone. Many cameras today offer the ability to plug a microphone into them, which you then usually mount from the hotshoe. Not all cameras, however, do. Two cameras, particularly renowned for their vlogging abilities don’t have microphone sockets, which is quite surprising. Those are the Canon G7X II and Sony RX100 V.
Ted Forbes at the Art of Photography has the Sony RX100 V and as one might expect, uses it for vlogging. The problem is that the RX100 V, like pretty much every other camera out there, has awful built in microphones. Ted solves his audio problems with the help of a bracket, a Zoom H1 and a Rode VideoMicro. In this video, Ted explains other setups he tried, and how he arrived at this one.
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.
When I was shooting and testing the new Sony RX100 V for a few hours last week I usually kept it in single shot mode, how I have shot forever. Single shot mode goes against everything that this new superspeed jet fuel camera is all about. This new refresh of the RX100V is all about speed, continuous shooting and that crazy 24FPS shooting mode. I mean, the RX100 V is much more than that, but this is what the hype was and is about. For those who want to never miss a moment.
Sony said this new 24FPS mode is a way to capture the “Decisive Moment”. Well, this can be good, or this can be bad, depending on who you are, your philosophy on photography, the way you capture images and so forth. Now some out there, for example, someone who shoots with a Leica M, well they will never shoot at 24FPS. Others who shoot action, sports or want to spray and pray for the best shot, this camera may be a miracle worker.
Sony’s much anticipated A6300 was finally released in March this year. An eagerly awaited update to 2014’s A6000. Now, a mere 8 months later, Sony have announced the new Alpha A6500 at a Sony event in NYC. It contains a 24MP APS-C Exmor CMOS sensor and like its predecessor shoots 4K video. Let’s hope it doesn’t overheat like the A6300, too.
The big news with the A6500 is the new built in 5-axis in-camera stabilisation. If you wanted stabilisation with the A6300, you had to be using a lens that supported it. Now, with the A6500, it’s built into the camera, and can be used with any lens, offering up to 5 stops of stabilisation. The buffer has also been significantly increased, jumping from the A6300’s 44 RAW frames to 107 shots in the A6500.
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