Sony Rx100 - great camera, rubbish clock

Leifurh

New Member
Name
Leifur Hákonarson
So, recently I replaced my RX100m2 with an RX100m4. Although I was primarily interested in the viewfinder, there were two other issues I hoped had been addressed, the very long shutdown delay (I use my camera outdoors - waiting 15 seconds for the lens to retract so you can stow it becomes irritating after a while) and the lousy timekeeping accuracy - I kept having to set the clock.

Why is this important? Well, I like to know the exact location where my pictures were taken. For this I use my GPSMap 62st from Garmin and a program named GeoSetter. The only prerequisite is that the time stamp in the image be accurate because that's what the program uses to synchronise the location and the image. A one minute timing error would translate into a significant location error (the magnitude depending on the mode of travel obviously) - in fact anything over a five seconds would exceed the inaccuracy of the GPS position itself and thus dilute the accuracy when hiking.

The good news is that the shutdown takes a lot less time with my Mk IV than it did with the Mk II. The timekeeping, regrettably, seems just as bad. I recently measured the error by photographing the screen of my GPS showing the time, then comparing with the embedded time stamp. Over 4 days the camera had gained 8 seconds. Simple extrapolation shows this to be a minute per month - which is ridiculous, cheap watches do better than that.

Do I have a bad copy or have others experienced this as well?
 
Over 4 days the camera had gained 8 seconds. Simple extrapolation shows this to be a minute per month - which is ridiculous, cheap watches do better than that.

Do I have a bad copy or have others experienced this as well?

I don't think that you have a bad copy - in my experience, almost every digital camera that I have owned (of various brands) has had this problem, to some degree. Some have been even worse, in this regard, than you're describing.

I, too, have wondered why camera manufacturers seem unable to match the accuracy of even a cheap wristwatch - especially given the general level of technology available in cameras.
 
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