Daily Inspiration #336 by Jose E. Tan – Street with the RX100

July 26, 2012 Daily Inspiration 66

Hi Steve,

José here from Hong Kong. Fan here of your site…bought the RX100 a
few days ago but it has been raining cats and dogs for the past few
days after a horrid typhoon left leaving Hong Kong battered.
Obviously, conditions were not really optimal for photography but i
just got sick and tired of waiting and grabbed an umbrella one night
and went out shooting. It was quite liberating not having to carry my
usual bag of gear with just the RX100 in my pocket and I could easily
shoot one-handed, umbrella in the other hand, with this little marvel
of a compact.

I absolutely love this cam for street shooting as it is so small and
stealthy (I even blacked the camera out with tape) and the IQ is
awesome. Anyway, hope these pictures make it to Daily Inspiration,
have a good day and thanks! 🙂

Best
José
https://www.facebook.com/joseetan.streetphotographer?sk=wall

P.S. also have set up an RX100 photography group in FB in case
anyone’s interested in sharing their work:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/448694495152805/

RX100 Review on THIS site

Related Articles

66 Comments

  1. Ciao Jose, your pics are really nice. I ordered yesterday my rx100, it was not an easy choice as till the end I was not sure if rx100 or 5n, but so far as the best camera is the one you have with you, I am sure I will have with me daily the rx100, not the same with the 5n as it was too big for the bag I always carry with me and where I have my cellphone, keys, marlboro and etc. Thanks even more for the link of the groups in FB that I am gonna to join immediately. All the best 😉 ( and big thanks to Steve too, cause with his review of rx100 made me literally fall in love for this holy pocket rocket 😉 )

  2. Hi,

    nice picture mister!

    i do have a question.
    I can find some nice pictures showing the dof at 1.8, and it looks very nice

    But what about the DOF when you close a bit ? let’s say around 4 ?

    do you have some sample at this aperture showing nice DOF?

    Thank you

    • Thanks Julien,

      Since this is still a relatively small sensor camera, pleasant bokeh is basically possible only in the wide end at f1.8 and you have to really close to the subject.

  3. Have you tried the “Rich Tone Mono” picture effect? I like it, especially since I don’t yet do post processing

  6. Very nice work. Good to see some classic b&w shots from the RX100. It’s amazing these were taken at it’s widest focal length, wide open at f1.8, and at ISO 3200. That would be a recipe for disaster with most cameras, yet these are detailed, contrasty, and full of character. I’m very impressed with the RX100 at higher ISOs, as the noise is very fine and even, with hardly any chroma noise. For your shots the slight graininess suits them very well. They look timeless. I suspect good pp work helped give them that timeless look.

  7. Wonderful shots!
    You wrote that you “blacked” out the camera! Did you blacked out the screen as well?
    Per from Sweden Öland 🙂

  8. I think I agree with Mark (19).

    I’m glad no one went over the top, though; ” most inspiring I have seen, awesome, stunning shots, fantastic, beautiful, great images, great shots, the best, great pics, outstanding, absolutely fantastic, amazing, perfect,….”.

    No wonder HCB was tearing up some of his old portfolio..

  9. Hey dude,
    Love your b/w conversations, they remind me of Sin City, some kind of. The deep blacks and so on. Great work, keep on and have fun with that little sony 😀
    Timo

  10. Well done Jose! I have been considering this camera for street, and this post may push me over the edge.

    One question for you (or anyone shooting street with the RX100): How is the focus for street? Are you zone focusing? Any shutter lag issues?

    Thanks to anyone w/ any comments.

  12. NIce work Jose… like the local contract you gave, and what nice facial expressions you captured !

  13. I particularly like the first one, excellent photograph. The two others don’t really do it for me though, sort of run of the mill type ‘street’, contrary to everyone else’s opinion, but then again, this is just me. Thanks for sharing.

  15. Hi José

    Outstanding ! It’s just the way I see good BW photos. Thanks for the inspiration.

    Lasse, Denmark

  16. Jose, some of the most inspiring street shots I have seen; real mood here.
    Did you you have it on a ‘mode’ setting?
    Whatever, really suited to the subject.
    Cheers,
    Don

  19. These are absolutely fantastic street captures. The tones, exposure, detail and composition are amazing and the timing is perfect. Your skill combined with this little powerhouse of a camera are a recipe for many successes!

  21. Beautiful photos. You have me rethinking this camera. Thanks for sharing

  22. You don’t need Leica to take awesome pictures, although, we all dream of owning one, Did you initially shoot the pics B&W?

    • hi bon Velo…definitely do not need a Leica for good pictures 🙂
      I shot in color and converted them in Lightroom 4.1 and Silver Efex Pro 2

      • I really like the 3rd shot Jose! I was hoping you could explain to me what it means that you converted them in Lightroom 4.1 and Silver Efex Pro 2? How come you need both programs? (All I know about programs is that Silver Efex Pro 2 is the best program for creating monochrome images).

        • Thanks Rex!

          SEP2 is a plugin that works in conjunction with either Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. You can’t use it as a standalone program…hope this helps.

          • Actually you can use it as a standalone – its just a lot easier to use it with LR or Aperture or PS in terms of cataloging and the initial TIF conversion and whatnot. But you can just double click the program icon and it’ll open.

            Nice shots, BTW. I just got an RX100 and find it a minor hassle to use with zone focus (my strong preference for street shooting), but it works well enough, and the high ISO IQ is pretty amazing for a camera this size.

            -Ray

  24. Jose,
    Great pics. Are these JPEGs straight from the camera (high contrast mono)?
    John

  26. Lovely work. Looks like a great street camera. Do you just leave the lens at 28mm?

  27. Very nice set! You really caught some interesting facial expressions! Good B/W conversion as well. What ISO are they?

  28. Love those street portraits! You are stealing souls. Can’t wait to shoot my RX100 in the city.

  30. Jose,

    What great images indeed. It’s always great to see what equipment can do and these images really give a great indication of how capable a camera it is. What impresses me more is the work which people continue to share with us and our growing community. It just reaffirms for me that despite the various cameras and techniques the equipment used great images are always out there waiting to e captures and they don’t care which camera does so.

    Fantastiic street work, thanks for sharing

Comments are closed.