Comments on upgrading from a RX100 to RX100 MK3
Discussion
Just wondering if anyone on here has purchased a Sony RX100 and then upgraded to the latest RX100 MK3, and just wonder what major improvements you have noticed, and was it worth the expense of upgrading?
I find that the RX100 MK1 model I'm currently using is a little slow sometimes to focus and take the pic, and occasionally it seems to take forever to write to the SD card before shutting down, the SD card I'm using is a PNY high performance 32GB class 10 SD card so ought to be plenty fast enough.
Any comments much appreciated.
I find that the RX100 MK1 model I'm currently using is a little slow sometimes to focus and take the pic, and occasionally it seems to take forever to write to the SD card before shutting down, the SD card I'm using is a PNY high performance 32GB class 10 SD card so ought to be plenty fast enough.
Any comments much appreciated.
Hi,
I bought a Mk1 when they came out, had it for a couple of years and bought a Mk3 about 6 months ago.
I've used both extensively for travel, holidays etc.
Some bullet points of my thoughts on the upgrade:
I don't miss the extra length on the zoom that the mk1 had in the slightest, and I prefer the fact that the mk3 is wider at the wide end of the range as I mostly shoot street scenes, scenery, panoramas etc.
The 1.8-2.8 of the new lens is really nice and makes a difference. Zoom in as far as you can to 70mm, whirl the aperture open to 2.8 and you can actually get pretty decent Bokeh, especially on portrait type photos which gives a great look in the pictures. The 2.8 also helps at night quite a bit.
The new ND filter is automatic and is quite useful for when you want to do the above in brighter conditions and the shutter speed is maxed out. I've also used the ND manually in a few situations for photographing fountains, waterfalls, rivers etc and it looks great with the blurred water.
I only occasionally use the pop up viewfinder although it is very good indeed. I just find it more convenient to use the screen these days.
The mk3 is noticeably fatter than the mk1 by a few mm.
The mk3 performance at night is definitely slightly better, but it isn't streets ahead better. I guess the improved sensor and lens together do make a bit of a difference.
I really like the pull out screen. I thought it was a gimmick but I use it loads. Tilt it down for holding the camera up to shoot over crowds and tilt up when doing low down shots etc. really good.
The performance overall is a little snappier, but still get the 'unable to proceed - writing data' message or whatever it says if you are trying to shoot and alter settings really quickly.
The only thing I'm not happy about, and I can't remember if I had this issue with the mk1, is that when shooting at night I seem to get a bit too much of a halo of light around light sources such as lamps. It's quite irritating but I'm not sure if I can do anything?
Battery life is still pretty good.
The built in wireless is BRILLIANT. It connects to my iPhone 6 in seconds and allows me to easily tick all the phones I want from the iPhone screen and quickly transfers them over to the phone for a little editing and uploading to Facebook or whatever.
Overall I'm really pleased with it and glad I made the upgrade.
I bought a Mk1 when they came out, had it for a couple of years and bought a Mk3 about 6 months ago.
I've used both extensively for travel, holidays etc.
Some bullet points of my thoughts on the upgrade:
I don't miss the extra length on the zoom that the mk1 had in the slightest, and I prefer the fact that the mk3 is wider at the wide end of the range as I mostly shoot street scenes, scenery, panoramas etc.
The 1.8-2.8 of the new lens is really nice and makes a difference. Zoom in as far as you can to 70mm, whirl the aperture open to 2.8 and you can actually get pretty decent Bokeh, especially on portrait type photos which gives a great look in the pictures. The 2.8 also helps at night quite a bit.
The new ND filter is automatic and is quite useful for when you want to do the above in brighter conditions and the shutter speed is maxed out. I've also used the ND manually in a few situations for photographing fountains, waterfalls, rivers etc and it looks great with the blurred water.
I only occasionally use the pop up viewfinder although it is very good indeed. I just find it more convenient to use the screen these days.
The mk3 is noticeably fatter than the mk1 by a few mm.
The mk3 performance at night is definitely slightly better, but it isn't streets ahead better. I guess the improved sensor and lens together do make a bit of a difference.
I really like the pull out screen. I thought it was a gimmick but I use it loads. Tilt it down for holding the camera up to shoot over crowds and tilt up when doing low down shots etc. really good.
The performance overall is a little snappier, but still get the 'unable to proceed - writing data' message or whatever it says if you are trying to shoot and alter settings really quickly.
The only thing I'm not happy about, and I can't remember if I had this issue with the mk1, is that when shooting at night I seem to get a bit too much of a halo of light around light sources such as lamps. It's quite irritating but I'm not sure if I can do anything?
Battery life is still pretty good.
The built in wireless is BRILLIANT. It connects to my iPhone 6 in seconds and allows me to easily tick all the phones I want from the iPhone screen and quickly transfers them over to the phone for a little editing and uploading to Facebook or whatever.
Overall I'm really pleased with it and glad I made the upgrade.
NinjaPower said:
Hi,
I bought a Mk1 when they came out, had it for a couple of years and bought a Mk3 about 6 months ago.
I've used both extensively for travel, holidays etc.
Some bullet points of my thoughts on the upgrade:
I don't miss the extra length on the zoom that the mk1 had in the slightest, and I prefer the fact that the mk3 is wider at the wide end of the range as I mostly shoot street scenes, scenery, panoramas etc.
The 1.8-2.8 of the new lens is really nice and makes a difference. Zoom in as far as you can to 70mm, whirl the aperture open to 2.8 and you can actually get pretty decent Bokeh, especially on portrait type photos which gives a great look in the pictures. The 2.8 also helps at night quite a bit.
The new ND filter is automatic and is quite useful for when you want to do the above in brighter conditions and the shutter speed is maxed out. I've also used the ND manually in a few situations for photographing fountains, waterfalls, rivers etc and it looks great with the blurred water.
I only occasionally use the pop up viewfinder although it is very good indeed. I just find it more convenient to use the screen these days.
The mk3 is noticeably fatter than the mk1 by a few mm.
The mk3 performance at night is definitely slightly better, but it isn't streets ahead better. I guess the improved sensor and lens together do make a bit of a difference.
I really like the pull out screen. I thought it was a gimmick but I use it loads. Tilt it down for holding the camera up to shoot over crowds and tilt up when doing low down shots etc. really good.
The performance overall is a little snappier, but still get the 'unable to proceed - writing data' message or whatever it says if you are trying to shoot and alter settings really quickly.
The only thing I'm not happy about, and I can't remember if I had this issue with the mk1, is that when shooting at night I seem to get a bit too much of a halo of light around light sources such as lamps. It's quite irritating but I'm not sure if I can do anything?
Battery life is still pretty good.
The built in wireless is BRILLIANT. It connects to my iPhone 6 in seconds and allows me to easily tick all the phones I want from the iPhone screen and quickly transfers them over to the phone for a little editing and uploading to Facebook or whatever.
Overall I'm really pleased with it and glad I made the upgrade.
Cheers NinjaPower for your valuable info on the differences between the Sony RX100 MK1 and MK3 cameras. I moved across from a Canon S100 which took reasonably good photographs for its class, but the battery life on it was dire compared to the RX100 which seems to go forever.I bought a Mk1 when they came out, had it for a couple of years and bought a Mk3 about 6 months ago.
I've used both extensively for travel, holidays etc.
Some bullet points of my thoughts on the upgrade:
I don't miss the extra length on the zoom that the mk1 had in the slightest, and I prefer the fact that the mk3 is wider at the wide end of the range as I mostly shoot street scenes, scenery, panoramas etc.
The 1.8-2.8 of the new lens is really nice and makes a difference. Zoom in as far as you can to 70mm, whirl the aperture open to 2.8 and you can actually get pretty decent Bokeh, especially on portrait type photos which gives a great look in the pictures. The 2.8 also helps at night quite a bit.
The new ND filter is automatic and is quite useful for when you want to do the above in brighter conditions and the shutter speed is maxed out. I've also used the ND manually in a few situations for photographing fountains, waterfalls, rivers etc and it looks great with the blurred water.
I only occasionally use the pop up viewfinder although it is very good indeed. I just find it more convenient to use the screen these days.
The mk3 is noticeably fatter than the mk1 by a few mm.
The mk3 performance at night is definitely slightly better, but it isn't streets ahead better. I guess the improved sensor and lens together do make a bit of a difference.
I really like the pull out screen. I thought it was a gimmick but I use it loads. Tilt it down for holding the camera up to shoot over crowds and tilt up when doing low down shots etc. really good.
The performance overall is a little snappier, but still get the 'unable to proceed - writing data' message or whatever it says if you are trying to shoot and alter settings really quickly.
The only thing I'm not happy about, and I can't remember if I had this issue with the mk1, is that when shooting at night I seem to get a bit too much of a halo of light around light sources such as lamps. It's quite irritating but I'm not sure if I can do anything?
Battery life is still pretty good.
The built in wireless is BRILLIANT. It connects to my iPhone 6 in seconds and allows me to easily tick all the phones I want from the iPhone screen and quickly transfers them over to the phone for a little editing and uploading to Facebook or whatever.
Overall I'm really pleased with it and glad I made the upgrade.
The comments you made about the differences in the lens and aperture settings are very useful, I tend not to use the zoom to it's absolute limit but it is useful for small adjustments in composition if I'm too lazy or just can't get in position.
It's interesting that you say you occasionally receive the 'unable to proceed - writing data' message even though the processor should be substantially faster the the MK1 model. I find that sometimes the lens takes an age to retract, when it first happened I thought the camera had crashed but now accept that it's just 'one of those Sony things' that probably could be fixed with a firmware update, but they just can't be bothered, and would rather have users purchase a new and improved camera.
The pull out LCD screen seems to be more than just a gimmick and as you have said, it comes into its own when using the camera at low levels or overhead. I'm not that bothered about the pop-up electronic viewfinder because I find the rear LCD screen easy to use even in bright sunlight. At least it's there if it's needed.
I'm not too sure that I would use the wifi function because I tend to just eject the SD card and copy the photographs to my Mac, but once again, this facility exists if you want to use it.
I've compared the sizes of the MK1 and the MK3 and as you quite rightly say, there isn't a lot in it, the MK3 is a little bit thicker but not by an awful lot.
Will probably hang back for the purchase until the RX100 MK4 is unveiled and the MK3 price drops to something more affordable... well unless the MK4 offers more for less... arghhhh
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