Thoughts on the new Sony RX100 VI

[Donka]

I notice there are a few on here that use a Sony RX100 and wanted to know what people's thoughts were on the new mark 6?
I personally use a mark 3 and I love the camera. I did consider the mark 5 but didn't need the extra speed and would have loved a touch screen.
Now the mark 6 is out, the touch screen would be welcome but more so the extra reach and I'm having a hard time resisting even though the price is on the very high side for a compact. I just love what the RX100 range offers us.

 

[kenoh]

Lol. I was fine with my MKIII accepting reach wasnt great and not wanting to go to the RX10 as it defeats my pocket rocket needs.

Now the MKVI is there though I am itching to get one. I think the sensor and reach are a killer combo but yeah a lot of wonga for a point and shoot.

 

[Hughmac]

I have a Mk ii and love it as a carry around. I sometimes question why I need anything else.
However much I fancy a Mk vi I have to consider that it is over £1000 to buy at the moment.

I shall try and wait until I can get one for half that price, however long that takes (a few years?).

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Clix Pix]

I have the RX100 M5 (and previously owned the M3) -- and the minute I heard about the M6 I started lusting after it, particularly because of that extended focal range.....a dream come true!! 200mm!!! YES!!!!! So, bottom line here is that I succumbed to temptation and have preordered from B&H since my local store isn't taking preorders. The release date is July 10th but I'm not sure if my order will be included in the first shipment or not..... At least it's ordered and now I won't be obsessively checking my local store's website every day!

The M5 is wonderful, I love the thing for so many reasons, and that f/1.8 - f/2.8 aperture is pretty wonderful, too. The new M6 will have f/2.8 - f/4.5 and, well, that's the price we pay for the longer focal length.... I am planning to keep my M5 because there are times I really want and need the widest aperture possible.

 

[Ray2]

I have an M3 as a side kick to Fuji gear. I find, at best, ok for a well lit scene under pure natural light. It's an ISO 800 absolute max sensor. It's also typical Sony: terrible color and terrible awb if there's any artificial light. Which forces me to shoot raw and do post. For a 1" sensor, no thank you. And at the price, a big no thank you. Had I to do it again I would have given it a pass.

I suppose it's healthy to have some divergence in opinions.

 

[Donka]

Well John Lewis have it in stock here in the UK but of course the m6 isn't part of the current cashback campaign which would have been good for a 10% saving. Still undecided. If I succumb, I would be holding onto the m3 as well for the wider aperture but part of the allure of the m6 was after reviewing some of the latest candid images of our boys with the m3. I often like to get in tight on head shots but the m3 doesn't allow for this without getting in the kids faces which ruins the candid nature of the shot. I love the RX10m4 for these kind of shots but that isn't a take anywhere camera for me due to the size and the RX100m6 would be the sweet spot.

If this new camera had any kind of weather sealing then it would probably be on a van to me already as that would make it easier to justify the price.

 

[Clix Pix]

Ah, so you guys in the UK already have the camera available! Here in the US we don't get it until July 10th....

 

[Donka]

Most places have pre-orders for the next few days but some have it in stock such as John Lewis:

https://www.johnlewis.com/sony-cybe...-tiltable-touch-screen/p3613241?sku=237571884

 

[rotlex]

MK III user here since it became available. It's my every day, travel, go to camera for just about everything. I've been waiting a long time to replace it, and the VI is everything I have been waiting for. Problem is, $1200, at least in my view, is just over the top price wise. I had a hard time justifying the III, and this is really going to be hard to swallow.

Will I buy one? Most likely. Just not sure when yet.

 

[Donka]

I asked about the current cashback campaign with the mark 6 but they have confirmed it is not part of the campaign. I did get an email from Panamoz though who are planning to sell in the coming weeks and I've bought a couple of cameras from them so will keep an eye on their price.

 

[Clix Pix]

Very pleased so far with my new RX100 M6, which arrived yesterday...... After getting it all set up I went out and did some shooting, but it was beastly hot, with the sun beating down fiercely so I didn't stay out all that long. Even the neighbors decided to take shelter in a shady area rather than being on the lake!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Very pleased so far with my new RX100 M6, which arrived yesterday...... After getting it all set up I went out and did some shooting, but it was beastly hot, with the sun beating down fiercely so I didn't stay out all that long. Even the neighbors decided to take shelter in a shady area rather than being on the lake!

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I always where a big floppy hat for photography on sunny days as you can't use sunglasses with a viewfinder.
I look a wolly but it's better than a sunburnt head.

 

[Clix Pix]

Somehow I seem to have lost the clip-on sunglasses that I normally use with my regular glasses, and that was a problem being out there without any eye protection; I need to do a more exhaustive search, see if I can find that elusive case with the sunglasses in there..... Anyway, I usually take my glasses off and just use the viewfinder with the diopter set to my needs, and that works well for me.

The only time I wear hats is when I'm out at the condo community swimming pool, where I'll be sitting in the sun, but otherwise I don't really care for them that much. They are useful, though, at times!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Somehow I seem to have lost the clip-on sunglasses that I normally use with my regular glasses, and that was a problem being out there without any eye protection; I need to do a more exhaustive search, see if I can find that elusive case with the sunglasses in there..... Anyway, I usually take my glasses off and just use the viewfinder with the diopter set to my needs, and that works well for me.

The only time I wear hats is when I'm out at the condo community swimming pool, where I'll be sitting in the sun, but otherwise I don't really care for them that much. They are useful, though, at times!

I don't really suit them, but I find a hat a necessity for my pasty white skin and slightly thinning hair.

 

[Clix Pix]

I am really liking this little camera very much! I'm especially appreciating the fact that now all one has to do to raise the VF is to push the button and the thing pops up, immediately ready for use, unlike in previous RX100s, where we had to carefully pull out the eye piece part. Finished with the VF? A simple press down and away it goes. I still am tweaking settings a bit, haven't set up the special functions or the "My Menu" features yet, still just working with the basics.

Even though this doesn't seem to do 1:1 macros, it can produce nice closeups:

 

[Donka]

@Clix Pix
How is the VI working for you after having it a week or so? Any further thoughts?

 

[Clix Pix]

I am really loving this amazing little camera! Its small size and deceptively simple exterior appearance doesn't begin to reveal the level of sophistication that is available here. Of course I am greatly appreciating the extra reach of the lens, and I also like the new features such as the touch screen/touch pad. This is used for establishing the focus point, and can be done either using the camera's LCD screen (touch screen function) or the EVF (name changes to touch pad as the LCD screen is dark but one can use a finger on it and see where to aim while looking through the EVF).

The menu system, as always, is a bit daunting at first and I spent some time doing the initial settings, then tweaking here-and-there, then tweaking further. When I got to a point where I was ready to try out the "My Menu" feature, I tackled that and it's another nifty new tool! Now I can quickly access that and immediately click on the "format" function and format a memory card without needing to dig through the entire menu to find "format" or some of the other functions I use frequently. This is similar to, but a bit different from setting custom buttons for specific functions.

Gary Friedman is working on an eBook about the M6, and Alexander White is preparing a print book for publication as well. In the meantime I found an excellent setup guide (free!) by Wim Arys: https://www.wimarys.com/rx100vi-setup-guide-with-tips-and-tricks/ It takes the user step-by-step through each of the menu items and clarifies them (sometimes Sony's language is a bit obtuse). This was very helpful for me and I'm sure it is to others as well.

The lens on the M6 is sharp, sharp, sharp and autofocus is quite fast, more so than on earlier iterations of the RX100 series. Some people were not pleased at hearing that the lens at its widest point is f/2.8 as opposed to the RX100 M5's f/1.8, but Sony has an answer for them: the new RX100 M5 A.....a revised version of the M5 which includes some of the improved functionality and features of the M6 (but not all), while retaining that valuable f/1.8 - f/2.8 lens and its 24-70 range. This will be released in early August.

I haven't tried eye focus, since I don't really shoot that many people, and I haven't yet tried shooting birds-in-flight (BIF), but am really enjoying exploring with my new little camera:

 

[Clix Pix]

....and one more, fresh out of the camera:

 

[kenoh]

....and one more, fresh out of the camera:

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Looks good. By any chance do you have any images of a landscape with distant detail we can look at?

 

[Clix Pix]

Thanks, Ken! I'm not really into landscape photography much..... In the early days with the camera I did take a couple of shots of the area where I live; I'll take a look and see if I even hung onto those. OK, yes, here are a couple:

 

[kenoh]

Thanks, Ken! I'm not really into landscape photography much..... In the early days with the camera I did take a couple of shots of the area where I live; I'll take a look and see if I even hung onto those. OK, yes, here are a couple:

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View attachment 772338

Oh dear... that’s put the cat in the hen house... Hmm, that second low light pic looks nice and clean. Seems noise performance has improved a lot since the MK III.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Oh dear... that’s put the cat in the hen house... Hmm, that second low light pic looks nice and clean. Seems noise performance has improved a lot since the MK III.

Don't do it Ken! You know the Nikon Mirrorless you secretly desire is out shortly!

 

[Clix Pix]

Hee, hee, AFB!! Hey, no reason why Ken couldn't buy BOTH cameras, eh?? After all, it's only money......

Ken, yes, I think the noise performance has improved since the earlier versions of the RX100. I no longer have my RX100 M III but I recall that when I bought the M5 last year there seemed to be a difference and although I haven't compared the two cameras head-to-head yet, M5 and M6 yet, I think that there is even more of an improvement. In my settings I think I've got noise reduction at "low" or maybe it's "normal," in order to prevent overly-aggressive noise reduction. The ISO was set on "auto," letting the camera do its thing while I shot in Aperture Priority and probably f/2.8. Don't recall now...... OR, it could be that I shot this one in "Intelligent Auto," as I used that for some of the first shots while I was getting acquainted with the camera and just wanted to shoot and not tinker much with settings. Oh, and I have been shooting in jpeg since when the camera first was released no one had RAW conversion available yet. Not sure about now, and it's possible that Luminar does and I just haven't tried it yet. Need to check on that.....

 

[Hughmac]

Oh dear, looks like I will be lusting after a Mk 6 as well before long

Anyone want to buy an RX100 Mk 2?

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Apple fanboy]

Hee, hee, AFB!! Hey, no reason why Ken couldn't buy BOTH cameras, eh?? After all, it's only money......

Ken, yes, I think the noise performance has improved since the earlier versions of the RX100. I no longer have my RX100 M III but I recall that when I bought the M5 last year there seemed to be a difference and although I haven't compared the two cameras head-to-head yet, M5 and M6 yet, I think that there is even more of an improvement. In my settings I think I've got noise reduction at "low" or maybe it's "normal," in order to prevent overly-aggressive noise reduction. The ISO was set on "auto," letting the camera do its thing while I shot in Aperture Priority and probably f/2.8. Don't recall now...... OR, it could be that I shot this one in "Intelligent Auto," as I used that for some of the first shots while I was getting acquainted with the camera and just wanted to shoot and not tinker much with settings. Oh, and I have been shooting in jpeg since when the camera first was released no one had RAW conversion available yet. Not sure about now, and it's possible that Luminar does and I just haven't tried it yet. Need to check on that.....

Not if Mrs @kenoh gets her way! She prefers bathroom taps to camera bodies!

Plus he's lusting after a Leica M10!