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※ Download: Sony rx100 vi manual
There's a lack of competition. Focusing Sony RX100 VI features both Contrast Detection and Phase Detection autofocus AF systems which ensures speed and accuracy of focusing in most situations. This means that Sony RX100 VI provides 4K Ultra-HD video, highest resolution that is available in the market today.
High-end pocket cameras like the Sony RX100 VI are the perfect mix between mirrorless and point-and-shoot. I can barely make out the holes in the yellow vest with ZS-200, but they are clearly rectangular holes in the RX100 vi test. You can see examples in my first-looks video review at the top of the page.
Article - This is way more impressive than your run-of-the-mill Nikon SLR iteration which is only marginally better than the one before it. I find the photos of my Olympus more pleasing to my eye, but the size and reach of the Sony would be great.
Summary The Sony RX100 VI is a high-end compact camera aimed at pros, enthusiasts and vloggers. Successor to the RX100 V, it shares the same 20 Megapixel 1in sensor with confident phase-detect autofocus for stills and movies, 4k video, 24fps shooting with autofocus, and a wealth of slow motion video options at 240, 480 and 960fps. The small but sharp OLED viewfinder now pops-up and pushes back down in a single convenient motion, while the 3in screen can now angle both up by 180 degrees to face the subject or down by up to 90 degrees and finally gains touch sensitivity. There's also Bluetooth to complement the Wifi and a raft of pro video features, but the biggest upgrade is the lens range, up from the 24-70mm of the Marks III, IV and V to a new 24-200mm zoom in a body that's only 1. There's an inevitable drop in aperture from the f1. Alternatively get yourself a copy of my or Thanks! Announced in June 2018 it comes 21 months after its predecessor, and like that model packs a larger than average 1in sensor and high-end features into a relatively pocketable body. The RX100 VI looks essentially the same as the Mark V before it and shares the same 20 Megapixel stacked 1in sensor with 315 embedded phase-detect AF points for confident focusing in stills and movies, 4k video, 24fps burst shooting with autofocus and a wealth of slow motion video options at 240, 480 and 960fps. It also inherits the popup XGA OLED viewfinder of the Mark V, although this now features the single-action mechanism of the RX1r II allowing you to pop it up or push it back down again in a single motion. The major upgrade though is the lens with the RX100 VI now managing to squeeze-in a 24-200mm equivalent range with a reasonably bright f2. As a newer generation, the RX100 VI is also equipped with Bluetooth, S-Log 2 and 3 for grading footage, HDR HLG video and proxy recording. As such vloggers will prefer the older Mark V see my , but anyone wanting a capable pocket camera for travel will appreciate the longer zoom range not to mention its ability to track and capture action. You may also enjoy my blog about taking the RX100 VI across Europe in my article! Alternatively get yourself a copy of my or Thanks! Note none of these pocket cameras are weather-proof, although underwater housings are available. Note the two cutouts on the top surface reveal the locations of the popup viewfinder and flash, the latter now a little thinner than before to make room for the bigger lens inside the body. Above: Like its recent predecessors, the RX100 VI features a popup viewfinder in the corner which houses an 2. This may deliver a smaller image than larger mirrorless cameras, but remains incredibly useful for framing in bright conditions while also providing greater stability. Above: As before the 3in screen can angle up by 180 degrees to face the subject for selifes or vlogging; again a lower strip of the screen remains blocked by the top of the body, preventing you from seeing the settings, but the compositional area is fully visible. The screen also folds down, but now by as much as 90 degrees, making it easier to frame when shooting straight down, such as for food photography. In another very welcome upgrade, the screen itself finally becomes touch-sensitive, allowing you to tap to reposition the AF area also possible while composing through the viewfinder and tap to pull-focus during video. These cameras are the preferred choice of vloggers and having a mic input of some description would allow a big upgrade in sound quality. The opportunity is there for someone to take the lead. As it stands, vloggers will have to continue to use an external sound recorder, like a or a for smartphones. Sony RX100 VI lens The big new feature of the Mark VI is its lens, starting at the same 24mm equivalent focal length of its predecessors, but now extending way beyond their 70mm telephoto to a much longer 200mm. This gives the Mark VI considerably more reach than before, making it much more flexible as a pocketable do-it-all camera. Above: Sony RX100 VI coverage at 24mm left and 200mm right With variable aperture lenses, I always like to note where in the range the focal ratio reduces. On the RX100 VI, the brightest aperture of f2. At 25mm it reduces to f3. The Mark VI impressively maintains the f4 focal ratio between 40 and 109mm after which it reduces to f4. I really noticed it when vlogging in dim interiors with the Mark VI where the higher ISO resulted in less detailed footage than the Mark V under the same conditions. The slower aperture also means less chance of achieving a shallow depth-of-field in that shared 24-70mm range. That said, it is still possible to achieve some blurring at 24mm f2. Above: Sony RX100 VI at 24mm f2. But its absence will make long exposure photography of buildings and landscapes harder, forcing you to wait for much dimmer conditions before you can deploy long shutter speeds. For example, when filming with the RX100 VI on an average overcast day at the lowest sensitivity and maximum f2. The slower aperture at 24mm and loss of the ND filter make the RX100 VI less desirable for vlogging than its predecessor. At this point, you may be wondering if Sony has scored an own-goal with the new lens. While it may not be as suitable for vlogging as the Mark V, it remains far preferable for day-to-day shooting thanks to its much longer range. The maximum aperture of f2. So while all three cameras start at roughly similar wide-angle coverage, both Lumix models zoom longer than the RX100 VI, reaching 250mm or 360mm. Their slower focal ratios again mean the necessity to deploy even higher ISOs or slower shutter speeds under the same conditions, and again less of a chance to enjoy a shallow depth-of-field at the same subject distance, although both Lumix cameras can focus closer at their wide-ends which compensates to some degree. I plan on making a variety of tests and comparisons between the Sony and Lumix models in the future and will update this page with my results. The Mark VI also inherits the electronic shutter option introduced on the Mark IV. To put this to the test I shot a variety of straight vertical subjects using a panning motion which, with an electronic shutter, would normally result in the line leaning to one side. I also panned to follow fast subjects as they went past. Like the Mark V before it, the results were varied. In some comparisons there was no skewing what-so-ever, with the electronic shutter matching the output from the mechanical shutter. The ISO sensitivity can be set manually between 125 and 12800 ISO, extendable at the low-end to 80 and 100 ISO, or up to 25600 ISO at the high-end with Multi-frame Noise Reduction. Like the higher-end Sony mirrorless cameras, you can also tweak the focal-length-aware option, encouraging the Mark VI to deploy slower or faster shutter speeds than the usual one-over-focal length rule suggests. I found the Slow and Slower options generally selected shutter speeds one or two stops slower than the Standard setting, while Fast and Faster selected shutter speeds one or two stops faster. Auto Exposure Bracketing is available on the RX100 VI for three, five or an impressive nine frames at 0. The availability of nine frame bracketing is an impressive addition to a compact. As before you can also set the bracket order, which is handy when organising bursts from, say, darkest to brightest. White Balance and DRO bracketing is also available. Olympus handles this much more sensibly with its ART filters, which are only applied to JPEG files, leaving the RAW file if enabled as a backup, and even lets you grab all or a selected bunch of the ART filters in one go with ART filter bracketing. Anyway, back to the RX100 VI. With RAW disabled, you can choose from Toy Camera with five different filters , Pop Colour, Posterisation in Colour or Black and White , Retro, Soft High Key, Partial Colour with the choice of red, green, blue and yellow , High Contrast Mono, Soft focus with the choice of Low, Mid or High , HDR Painting with the choice of Low, Mid or High, or as I like to call them, awful, horrendous or appalling , Rich Tone Mono, Miniature with the stripe of focus variable between Auto, Top, Middle Horizontal, Bottom, Right, Middle Vertical or Left , Watercolour, or Illustration with the choice of Low, Mid or High. The HDR mode takes three images at the desired interval and combines them in-camera into a single JPEG file. If you have RAW or RAW+JPEG selected, the HDR options are greyed-out -thanks Sony. In the example below I used it to capture the bright background through the window without severely under-exposing the interior. Above: Sony RX100 VI HDR: disabled left , 3EV enabled right The SCN mode on the dial lets you choose from 13 presets, including the usual suspects like Portrait, Landscape and Sunset, but also including the composite Handheld Twilight and Anti Motion Blur modes which take a burst and combine them to reduce shake and noise. Like previous Sony cameras you can choose between Standard and Wide for the size, and Right, Left, Up or Down for the direction. Above: Sony RX100 Mark VI Panorama: tall Sony was one of the first companies to deploy in-camera Panoramas and it remains a highlight of their cameras. I also found some of my panoramas included a small blank grey area on the far side, but this was easy to crop off. Sony RX100 VI focusing The RX100 VI shares the same sensor as the Mark V and as such inherits its phase-detect autofocus system which embeds 315 points across 65% of the frame. Sony remains the only company to offer a 1in sensor camera with phase-detect autofocus and it really gives them an advantage when it comes to tracking moving subjects or smoothly refocusing during movies. So far so similar to the Mark V, but in a huge upgrade, you can now adjust the single AF area positions by touch using the touchscreen. Previously shifting the AF area was a convoluted process with multiple button presses, but now it involves nothing more than a simple tap. You can also use the screen as a touchpad to adjust the AF area while composing through the viewfinder. It also thankfully works for pulling-focus during movies. But how usable is it in practice, especially with the new longer zoom range? Can it be used to realistically capture action? To find out, I photographed cyclists approaching me over a long stretch, using the lens set to 200mm f4. I set the burst speed to High and the quality to fine JPEG, then experimented with different AF area configurations. Like other Sony cameras, I found the Wide area mode works best for faces or defined subjects against a fairly simple background. For cyclists riding without helmets — careful there! Sony RX100 VI at 200mm f4. One second of action using H speed Above: full images, below 100% crops Above: full images, below 100% crops Above: full images, below 100% crops Above: full images, below 100% crops Above: full images, below 100% crops Across a selection of bursts I found the RX100 VI did a good job at keeping the approaching subjects in sharp focus. Typically in a group of 20 shots like those above, all but two or three were perfectly sharp, with the remainder being close enough to use at a reduced size. To be fair, the depth-of-field at 200mm f4. Sony RX100 VI movie mode The RX100 VI inherits the excellent movie capabilities of its predecessor and upgrades them in a number of regards. So like the Mark V, you get the chance to record 4k at 24 to 30p with a mild 1. Above: Registered members of Vimeo only. You can see examples in my first-looks video review at the top of the page. Above: Registered members of Vimeo only. The phase-detect AF system introduced on the Mark V continues to do a great job at smoothly refocusing without hunting, making it ideal for casual vlogging especially with face detection or product demos. It also works well with the extended focal range, confidently refocusing on moving subjects at 200mm if required. Moving on, the RX100 VI offers full manual control over exposures with the choice of filming in Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority or full Manual. You can adjust the aperture, shutter, ISO, exposure compensation and even the AF mode while filming. Above: Registered members of Vimeo only. You can apply a selection of Creative Styles, which also provide manual tweaking of contrast, saturation and sharpness. You can also apply a selection of Picture Profiles which now include S-Log 3 and Hybrid Log Gamma HDR in addition to S-Log 2. Proxy recording is also now available. As noted earlier, the longer zoom range prevented Sony from including the built-in ND filter of earlier models, making the Mark VI less practical for filming video in daylight with motion-friendly shutter speeds. The lens aperture is also a stop slower across the 24-70mm range of its predecessors which means vloggers will almost certainly prefer using the previous RX100 V instead; see my for more details. While the RX100 VI finally gains a touchscreen, it still lacks any kind of external microphone input. As it stands, vloggers will have to continue to use an external sound recorder, like a or a for smartphones. Sony RX100 VI Wifi, NFC and Bluetooth The Sony RX100 VI has built-in Wifi with NFC to aid negotiation with compatible devices, and in a first for the RX100 series, now also includes Bluetooth. Wifi on the RX100 VI allows you to wirelessly transfer JPEG images to an iOS or Android device using a free app, and also remote control the camera with your device. Bluetooth and NFC make the initial connection a breeze, while Bluetooth can additionally retrieve location information from your phone and embed it automatically in your images. This means the RX100 VI, along with other recent Sony cameras, misses out on some useful features found on many rivals, most notably Interval and timelapse facilities. If you have an NFC-equipped device, such as my GS7, the entire process is incredibly simple: just choose the image you want to send in playback on the camera, then hold your phone against the side of the camera for a few seconds. The NFC then instructs the camera and phone to connect automatically taking care of network names and passwords , before then transferring the image and finally disconnecting. Selecting either configures the RX100 VI as a Wifi access point which your phone needs to connect to. Whichever approach you take, you can choose to copy images in their original 20 Megapixel size, or a down-scaled 2 Megapixel or VGA version. With the camera powered-up and ready to shoot, simply hold your phone against the NFC logo on the side of the body and the RX100 VI will automatically fire-up the Smart Remote app, connect itself to your phone again taking care of Wifi network names and passwords , then start the PlayMemories app. The RX100 VI also gains Bluetooth over its predecessor, allowing it to inherit the seamless location-embedding capabilities of recent Alpha bodies. You simply pair the camera and phone like any other Bluetooth accessories, after which they maintain a low-power link, requesting and embedding GPS co-ordinates as you shoot. Once both are paired, all you need to do is fire-up the PlayMemories app on your phone. Anything you shoot from this moment onwards will be tagged by the position provided by your phone without further interaction, and the camera will automatically re-establish the link when powered off and on again. I used it for most of my outdoor shooting with the RX100 VI and it worked a treat, successfully embedding co-ordinates as I shot and never requiring further interaction. The only issue, as with all smartphone solutions, is the accuracy being limited to the actual phone. On the whole, the wireless capabilities of the RX100 VI are very good. The icing on the cake is Bluetooth which — once running — delivers a seamless approach to location-tagging. No logs, no interaction, no fuss. Next check out my sample images, quality results or head to my verdict! Alternatively get yourself a copy of my or Thanks!
Setting: Sets the display for the counter, time code, and user bit. Aspect ratio: You can choose 3:2 which uses the full sensor surface4:3, 1:1 or 16:9 crop but a more broad view. LCD is Touch screen type, so you can change the settings and set the focus point with your fingertips. When the latter is enabled, the Sony RX100 V will automatically capture an image when a smile is detected. You can find it as page 10. One second of action using H speed Above: full images, below 100% crops Above: full images, below 100% crops Above: full images, below 100% crops Above: full images, below 100% sony rx100 vi manual Above: full images, below 100% crops Across a selection of bursts I found the RX100 VI did a good job at keeping the approaching subjects in sharp focus. If someone can point it out that would be helpful. While the RX100 VI finally gains a touchscreen, it still lacks any kind of external microphone input. Dual Video Rec Allows you to simultaneously record an XAVC S movie and an MP4 movie, or an AVCHD movie and an MP4 movie. I always carry my gear in various sized bags. It brings truly remarkable telephoto capability to a pocket-size package, to vastly expand your range of creative expression.
