Sony RX1 set up tips?

[rbelyell]

as i anxiously await arrival of my rx1, i am wondering if forum users have any set up tips, settings 'musts' or 'must nots' etc that they could pass along?

thanks in advance!

 

[Ray Sachs]

You might want to think a little in advance about what you want to do with your various programmable buttons and whether you want any custom setups to put on the custom 1-3 settings on the mode dial. I have a custom street option on the mode dial (M mode, auto ISO, etc). I have programmable buttons for ISO, face detection, AF/MF toggle, and AEL toggle. Everything else I might ever use is easily reachable on the Fn button. Whether those would be your choices I have no idea, but the point is it's very easy to set it up the way you want. If you're shooting jpegs there's a whole other set of options. That's why I don't shoot jpegs - it's too complicated!

-Ray

 

[rbelyell]

thanks for the tips ray. and yes, i am one of 'those' unwashed who shoot jpegs mostly, except in difficult light/high iso situations, so i,ll have other parameters to set as well. i'm really looking forward to it. should be here in next day or two.

 

[ccrevasse]

I usually shoot raw plus B&W jpeg, so you may want to give that a try. I've found the B&W jpegs to be very versatile. In terms of recommended setings, many of us shoot our RX1 with focus separated from the shutter release. For example, I usually have the front control dial set to MF. My "c" button is assigned to AF/MF Control Hold; my AEL button to spot AEL toggle; my left button to AF/MF Control Toggle; my right button to Quality; and my down button to Autofocus Area. I generally keep my autofocus area set to center. With the front dial set to MF, I achieve focus by pressing the "c" button, and focus remains locked until I press the "c" button again. If I want to switch to AF on the shutter release, I hit the left button; to switch back to focus with the "c" button, just hit the left button again.

Another tip is to shoot in manual exposure mode with auto ISO. This allows you to choose your aperture and shutter speed, and the camera will adjust exposure with the ISO. Exposure compensation works in manual mode, too. The problem with aperture priority mode is that the RX1 will lower the shutter speed to 1/80 before it begins raising ISO, and 1/80 is, IMO, too slow for this camera. I try to set my shutter speed at or above 1/160.

I hope you enjoy your RX1. It is a great little camera.

 

[rbelyell]

thx cc! i have the x100 and have always done as you and separated focus from exposure. i love shooting that way. and also i too keep my focus point centered, never vary.

bummer that with a $3000 camera you cant set your min SS on auto iso, thats just wrong! but thx for the tip about 1/80 being too slow.

 

[aal04]

I dont get why people complain about min speed?

Just set it to manual, auto-iso, and set the ss and the aperture manuall - they both have dedicated dials. Its the same thing.

I use the evf more for stability than framing. With evf, i can shoot 1/60, without i have to go about 1/100

 

[Ray Sachs]

I dont get why people complain about min speed?

Just set it to manual, auto-iso, and set the ss and the aperture manuall - they both have dedicated dials. Its the same thing.

It's not the same thing. It's not even remotely CLOSE to being the same thing. It could barely be more different.

Using auto ISO with manual sets the shutter speed to exactly and precisely ONE shutter speed. You can change it if the ISO gets too high or low, but you have to constantly monitor it relative to your aperture and what the light is forcing the ISO to do.

With a minimum shutter speed setting in A mode, the shutter speed gets to move in concert with the ISO but YOU (the end user) are setting the parameters for the logic behind it's behavior. I'll commonly set a minimum shutter speed of 1/500 for street shooting with an aperture appropriate for the DOF I want and a maximum ISO based on how far I'm willing to let the IQ go. Then if there's too much light for that minimum shutter speed, its not nailed in place (as with manual mode), its a MINIMUM - hence the name - and the shutter speed is free to go higher without me having to think about it. And if there's so little light that the ISO is maxed out (based again on MY setting), and the minimum shutter speed still won't result in adequate lights, THEN it actually isn't a minimum but a minimum GOAL and the shutter speed will come down exactly as far as necessary to properly expose the shot. In low light I try to be aware of when that's happening so I can account for the slower shutter speed that may result.

But basically the shutter speed can move both up and down with a minimum shutter speed in A mode, all based on the parameters you or I get to establish. In M mode, none of those things can happen - the user just has to constantly watch the exposure and adjust the shutter speed him or her self as conditions change. It's arguably the next best thing, but it's not even remotely the SAME thing!

-Ray

 

[aal04]

Its the same thing because you want to control A (because youre in A mode), and you also want to control/influence the ss. So you are basically wanting M mode.

The auto-iso mode on this cam is amazing. I let it handle exposure in all modes and even if its off by a bit, i can use the crazy dr to fix it. 50-6400 iso is perfectly usable. The rx1 is VERY forgiving in terms of exposure and ISO - its even got live exposure feedback. Of course you need a bit of common sense in not shooting 1/4000 in the dark, but everything else is really simple. This is the easiest and best camera in the world you can find to nail exposure automatically. There is no need to do light stop maths, you just set A and SS, frame and click.

In regards to min shutter speed, by switching to A mode, you are telling it to control ss, so why complain when it does? You have the ability to override it in M mode and it STILL does all the fuzzy calculations for you to get exposure right on. The Rx1 has some quirks, but i dont think this is one of them.

I can understand why Sony labelled this a compact point and shoot. Its just so easy to use.

 

[ccrevasse]

"In regards to min shutter speed, by switching to A mode, you are telling it to control ss, so why complain when it does? You have the ability to override it in M mode and it STILL does all the fuzzy calculations for you to get exposure right on. The Rx1 has some quirks, but i dont think this is one of them."

No one is complaining about the RX1 choosing the shutter speed in A mode. We all understand that is part of the process. The issue is the lack of a user-selectable minimum shutter speed. 1/80 second is dangerously slow with the RX1. To slow, in my experience. The user should be able to set a faster minimum shutter speed. M mode only partially solves the problem. You can select a faster shutter speed in M mode, but then when correct exposure requires a still faster shutter speed, you have to change it manually. The camera will not automatically increase it for you, as it would in A mode. The RX1 has so many well-designed features that this oversight is difficult to understand. It ought to be corrected in a firmware update.

 

[aal04]

Ok I see, so the issue is with overexposure.

I did a lot of strobist work and im very careful with the ss. I dont like blindly upping it to moderate exposure. I use a fader ND instead. Sometimes i want blur and ambient in broad daylight and sometimes i want to overpower the sun with a flash.

 

[Ray Sachs]

Ok I see, so the issue is with overexposure.

I did a lot of strobist work and im very careful with the ss. I dont like blindly upping it to moderate exposure. I use a fader ND instead. Sometimes i want blur and ambient in broad daylight and sometimes i want to overpower the sun with a flash.

There you go - that would explain the difference between your experience with controlled lighting and mine with street shooting, where the light can change radically from shot to shot, almost moment to moment. The A mode with a minimum shutter speed lets me set the parameters to get the camera to do exactly what I WOULD do if I was controlling it manually, but it makes the calculations and adjustments instantly - I have to think about it and do it, which I'm pretty quick with, but not near AS quick. And I find it liberating to remove this from the things I have to think about while out shooting. I can focus on the scene, the composition, the moment, and what adjustment I need to make to exposure comp for things like shooting into the sun, out of shadows, etc.

I'm fine with the auto-ISO setup for almost all of the shooting I do with the RX1 - I actually find 1/80 to be adequately fast for most of the more contemplative shooting I do with the camera. But for street, I just don't use the camera much partially because of this missing feature and partly because street is one application where I want MORE DOF, not less, and my APS based Nikon A strikes a better balance between low light capability and deeper DOF than the RX1. So, I'm OK with it, but I frankly don't see any reason for just about any modern camera NOT to have this feature. So I'm mildly offended by Sony's decision not to put it in any of its cameras. But on the occasion I do shoot some street work with the RX1, I use M with auto-ISO and it's the next best thing, but it's a pretty distant second place for that type of use...

-Ray

 

[rbelyell]

anyone know if the rx has anything like fuji's 'film bracketing' feature, that lets you shoot normal, vivid and b&w at the same time? or is it only raw+jpeg to get more than one ooc look?