Shooting with the Sony RX100 by Kaushal Parikh

July 1, 2013 Guest Post, News, Sony, Street Photography, User Reports 32

Shooting with the Sony RX100 by Kaushal Parikh

His Blog is HERE and his website is HERE

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is “what camera do you use?” I just realized that I have been through quite a large number of cameras in the last 5 years.  I am not one who believes that a better camera makes for better images, but I definitely believe that having a camera that you love will inspire you to go out and shoot, and the more you shoot the more good images you make – it’s that simple.

In recalling all the cameras I have used over the years and why I gave them up I also realized that I am pretty fickle when it comes to equipment.  In fact I am the kind of guy that gets bored of things very quickly and always find an excuse to move on to something new.  That is clearly the pattern that has played out with my street photography gear.

I started my street photography with a compact Lumix LX3 digital camera.  It is a brilliant camera to use and I shot some of my best images in b&w with this little beauty.  I would pre focus and just shoot away using the LCD to compose.  The tiny sensor ensured that there was sufficient depth of field and hence critical sharpness.  But the high ISO performance was not great.  I then moved on to a 5D but although image quality was amazing I immediately found it too large and heavy to shoot with in the streets.  Followed it up with a Fuji x100 and loved using it but then slowly fell in love with the tones of film.  So then I got myself a Nikon FM2. A great camera and one that made me decide that film was it for me.  I decided to splurge on my dream camera – the Leica M6 with a 35mm cron.  As expected I grew to love this camera and i made some incredible images with it.  But slowly I started to feel that I needed more speed and bought a Ricoh GR1s. A real gem but i quickly found the fixed 28mm lens too limiting and moved to an Olympus 35RC that had shutter priority and is also an amazing range finder with a fast 42mm lens.  Alas I found manual focus was slowing me down a tad and I got myself the amazing Nikon L35 (Nikon’s first autofocus compact camera).  By this time I was often mixing up my camera use with the Olympus and Nikon compact getting a majority of my time.

It was then that my wife gave me the most wonderful gift ever – a beautiful baby boy.

Since then my developing room has been converted into a nursery and developing my film in the spare bathroom was a ‘shitty’ experience.  That’s when I read about the Sony RX100 and thought it would be great to have a digital compact to go with my film cameras.  So I bought myself one and have been shooting with it a bit and think I quite like it.  It has surprisingly snappy auto focus and decent high ISO performance. Using the LCD to compose feels a bit strange but it is so much quicker and more discreet as I can shoot from any angle.  And best of all I look like the quintessential tourist with an amateur point & shoot digicam.  I am reminded of why I fell in love with the freedom and convenience of using a digital compact camera in the first place.  Back full circle!

Here are a few street images I shot with my RX100.

 

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32 Comments

  1. Terrific pics, thanks for the review and photos. Out of curiosity, where was the fifth picture down taken? I could swear I was there years ago, perhaps it is at a beach resort south of Chennai?

  2. Brush on beach with man standing is wonderful just wonderful, … i seen a lot of photos from many sites, this photo is one of the most wonderful.

    The chicken grabbed by the wings about to be slaughtered the scared face of the chicken has just made me want to become vegetarian.

  5. Great photos Kaushal, and it’s good to read about someone else using the RX100. I’ve had one for about a year, and it’s become my “go-to” camera unless I need a wider or longer lens. For landscapes, I’ve gotten really fond of the “rich tone monochrome” mode, which stacks 3 b/w images and gives some amazing (but to my eye, natural-looking) results.

    FWIW, I can recommend the LensMate Quick-Change Adapter, which lets you bayonet on a polarizer or other filter (and a hood if desired). This works very well and adds almost nothing to the thickness of the camera when the filter holder is removed.

    Thanks for your post!

  8. Hello Kaushai Parikh I am in love with the picture of the beach 🙂 where can i download that picture original to use it as my wallpaper at home plz

  10. The third photo is excellent, but the 8th photo with the dramatic cloud photos really takes the cake. The saying is true: it’s the photographer not the camera!

  13. Great images. What is cool about the RX100 is that you could of said any of these fine images were from a m4/3 camera, or a NEX or other mirrorless, or even a DSLR (obviously within the focal length of 28-100mm and limited DoF) and I don’t think anyone would of doubted you.

    They came instead from a true pocket camera (I carried my RX100 with suit pants even)

    I’ve owned compacts for years and they were well and good, but always left me wanting in terms of resolution, DoF control and noise levels.

    RX100 isn’t the best at any given thing, but it provides pretty good resolution at 20meg and with a decent lens, and its lens is no “cream machine” but it can provide at least some subject isolation which is welcome in a world of hyperfocal smartphone pics, plus while again not a RX1 high ISO champ, your not stuck at iso400 like p&’s from years ago.

    Basically it gives you the strengths of a mirrorless system paired with a slower kit zoom, but in a real pocket friendly size, which sometimes is just what the doctor ordered so to speak.

    It means being able to have enough of a camera with you that you don’t regret not bringing your camera bag, and yet saves you from the burden of having to walk around with a camera bag.

    Well done Sony

    • I disagree, it’s best at fitting inside of your pocket and giving you fantastic abilities to capture stills and video at multiple focal lengths.

        • Sorta, you did say it’s “strengths of” …but you said it was best at nothing “RX100 isn’t the best at any given thing” and what I’m saying is.. it is best at something…

  14. I get so tired of so-called “sublime” landscape photos. There are so many expert photographers than can nail these kind of shots that I start to see “cliche” rather than sublime. Your photo of the yellow landscape with the purple sky, however, is different. It makes me see the sublime in a new light, much the way Ansel Adams did in his time. Gorgeous. With that said, I was hoping you would have talked about your process more shooting street with the RX100. Do you shoot RAW with filters or do you use the auto settings in the camera for swift camera work? What settings do you mostly use? Thanks.

    • Thnx David! I use the RX100 in aperture priority. I set the exposure lock to the right press of the back wheel. And I use auto focus and auto ISO from 100 – 800 (and sometimes up to 1600). The focus is set to DMF and flexi point so I can just move the focus brackets to where I want (if i am shooting off centre subjects). Of course if I need to take a shot really quick then I just focus and shoot and camera is usually pretty accurate.

  15. good work, creative, and goes to show, that one does not need a big sensor camera to produce inspirational work. One of the best on here for quite some time.

  16. I love the 35rc! Do you have a website or anything that you I could see some of your other camera’s pics? Your first pic took me a while to notice what was happening! haha, nice moment you got there.

  23. Wow! These are really neat photos! “Inspiration” is quickly becoming my favorite part of Steve’s blog.

    • I agree… there have been some wonderful ones lately. Not that we don’t like your review too Steve 😉

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