tsk1979
Senior Member
Sony invited local photographers(amateurs as well as professional photographers) to the GMaster launch in Delhi.
The launch encompassed the GMaster of course + the A6300 and the RX100, RX10-III along with other new E mount lenses.
The professionals(mostly wedding photographers) were mostly going ga ga over GMaster, and the test setup was totally hogged by them. Now GMaster is uber expensive and right now, I am not really interested in them. I went there primarily for the A6300.
RX10 III came as a surprise actually. I spent more time with the RX10-III than the A6300, and would like to share my thoughts. I am kicking myself for not carrying a memory card. So I had to do all the pixel peeping on 55" 4K televisions which were connected via HDMI.
I tried out the cameras for about 2 hours, of which 3/4th the time was spent with the RX-10 III.
Since I am in the market for the A6300, I initially picked this up just for fun, and then I realized what an amazing piece of kit is that.
Now, naturally, the much larger APS-C sensor has an edge. There are no two ways about it. However, it is well known that to resolve the sensor fully, you need a class leading lens. I intended to use the A6300 with the 18-200 lens, which gives a sharpness index of about 7 Mpix on DXO mark.
Therefore, white testing, I decided to test in a way I would be using both the cameras. So A6300 with 16-50 and the 18-200 vs RX10-III.
My thoughts:
Resolution Sharpness and Image quality(Incl high ISO)
Bokeh
The RX10 goes to F4 about 40mm onwards I guess. So upto 150mm or so the 18-200 with A6300 has the bokeh edge. However, with 400mm and up at F4, the bokeh is amazing. If you want to shoot portraits, of course a 50mm 1.8 will do wonders, but with the RX10, 200mm at F4 gives very pleasing results. Subject isolation is not too bad. But then large sensor is a large sensor.
Auto Focus and speed:
This is where the A6300 shines. RX10 is no slouch, but A6300 is in a different league. Even with the Slow 18-200 lens. That said, RX10 may be slow, but like many other cameras of this type it does not hunt. There was a decorated ceiling in one corner of the room not lit. RX10 and A6300 both could touch focus, but RX10 hunted more before locking onto it. In darker corners without much contrast lines, it hunted, and in one case A6300 could get a lock at upto 80mm, but not beyond that, while RX10 could not lock at all. But to be fair, this was like mostly plain surface with little light.
When it comes to brightly lit scenes, RX10 is slower than the A6300, but fully accurate. Its not "slow", just "slower". A6300 AF is something you have to try it out yourself. esp with 50mm 1.8 attached, AF is like magic.
Subject tracking naturally was better on A6300 as compared to RX10.
As far as use speed is concerned, the camera starts up fast enough, but the fly by wire zoom is slow. A wedding photographer loved the quality, but the zoom was not enough. He says for candid stuff, it is very important that you can zoom in a jiffy. Not with a fly by wire I guess
Size and handling + Subjective things:
Its big. Slightly Bigger than A6300+18-200 when switched on. But then its 600mm. It will not fit in your shirt pocket. A photographers vest can handle the A6300+18-200, but with this, it becomes more difficult. That said, a wedding guy was wearing this jacket with real huge pockets, and both cams fit.
Controls are similar, but RX10 gets a dedicated switch to toggle focus modes. Having extra space on the body is great.
I also loved the Aperture ring. I set it at 2.8 and then when I zoomed beyond 40mm or so it went to F4 and when I zoomed back it came back to 2.8. I remember with some lenses when you zoom the aperture goes down to 5.6 but when you go wide it stays at F5.6(Seen with D7000)
In my hands, the RX10 was better balanced, however, with zoom extended there was this "tip front" tendency. This matters if you like table top photography with gorillapod kind of tripods. With zoom extended, this is a real bazooka.
Using both cams is a breeze as I have been used to NEX 5N and the sony A7. If you are coming from a different system you will find both cumbersome. A lot of photographers there was Nikon shooters, and they had a tough time navigating the menu system.
I shot with D7000 earlier, therefore from a personal subjective POV, I would say the D7000 menu system is better. However, the custom buttons, once programmed tilt the scales in favor of sony.
Out of the box Nikon menu system is better, but with tuning Sony is better.
Battery life
Well we have CIPA test results for that. However, with USB charging, you can use a powerbank for timelapse or on trips use a car charger. This is a very big plus point for Sony. Use your cell phone chargers.
Timelapse shooters who are worried should not be. Just attach a powerbank to your tripod. No DSLR can beat the Xiaomi 20,000 mAh beat and it costs what? 25$
Conclusion
There are some things which are called "Budget destroyers". This is the budget destroyer. Now I want this instead of the A6300.
If I did not have an A7 as my Astro camera, I would have taken the A6300. If you want excellent low light capability, and ability to shoot indoors even in dim light, A6300 wins but by a small margin. The reason is that at 300mm equivalent, the A6300 is running 1.5 stop slower. So where you need to use ISO 3200 you would maybe need ISO 1000 on the RX10, so RX10 wins. But if you have good lenses, A6300 will blow it out. But then the kit won't be 1500$, rather than 3000$
As a final summation.
A6300 + 18-200 LE is 1600$. RX-10 is 1500$.
So if low light is not your primary use case, get the RX10, esp if you are one lens on camera kind of person. However, if you like to have different primes etc., then the A6300 is the king.
To sum it all up
My general observations about the event and Sony in India
The launch encompassed the GMaster of course + the A6300 and the RX100, RX10-III along with other new E mount lenses.
The professionals(mostly wedding photographers) were mostly going ga ga over GMaster, and the test setup was totally hogged by them. Now GMaster is uber expensive and right now, I am not really interested in them. I went there primarily for the A6300.
RX10 III came as a surprise actually. I spent more time with the RX10-III than the A6300, and would like to share my thoughts. I am kicking myself for not carrying a memory card. So I had to do all the pixel peeping on 55" 4K televisions which were connected via HDMI.
I tried out the cameras for about 2 hours, of which 3/4th the time was spent with the RX-10 III.
Since I am in the market for the A6300, I initially picked this up just for fun, and then I realized what an amazing piece of kit is that.
Now, naturally, the much larger APS-C sensor has an edge. There are no two ways about it. However, it is well known that to resolve the sensor fully, you need a class leading lens. I intended to use the A6300 with the 18-200 lens, which gives a sharpness index of about 7 Mpix on DXO mark.
Therefore, white testing, I decided to test in a way I would be using both the cameras. So A6300 with 16-50 and the 18-200 vs RX10-III.
My thoughts:
Resolution Sharpness and Image quality(Incl high ISO)
- With a budget lens attached to A6300 and ISO at 400 or below, the RX10 beat the A6300 hands down when it comes to resolution. For testing purposes, apart from models, there was also still life stuff like bookshelf etc., The colors straight out of camera were richer and more contrasty (both cams on vivid) with the RX10
- At ISO 800, the A6300 and the RX10 are mostly head to head, with noise reduction smudging starting to eat into the amazing 24-600 resolution
- At ISO 1600, the A6300 with the 18-200 had an edge upto 50mm or so, after which again the lens of the RX10 showed its edge and both cameras were neck to neck
- At ISO 3200, the A6300, even with budget lenses outclassed the RX10, but still it was not a ground breaking difference.
- Above that however, it is clear that the APS-C A6300 wins hands down, even with a budget lens attached.
- I did a couple of shots with 50mm 1.8(newly launched nifty fifty) at F4 vs RX10 at F4, and the A6300 was neck to neck upto ISO 200, ISO 400 and above, the A6300 definitely won. However one caveat. Corner sharpness on the RX10-III looked a trifle better.
- Conclusion : APS-C sensor has a distinctive edge, however the 24-600 lens is so good that it can make up the sensor loss in terms of optical quality. I now understand the 1500$ price tag. This lens alone is worth the price I think.
- Superb 24 - 120 mm F2.8 - F4.8 lens is worth the $999 alone
Bokeh
The RX10 goes to F4 about 40mm onwards I guess. So upto 150mm or so the 18-200 with A6300 has the bokeh edge. However, with 400mm and up at F4, the bokeh is amazing. If you want to shoot portraits, of course a 50mm 1.8 will do wonders, but with the RX10, 200mm at F4 gives very pleasing results. Subject isolation is not too bad. But then large sensor is a large sensor.
Auto Focus and speed:
This is where the A6300 shines. RX10 is no slouch, but A6300 is in a different league. Even with the Slow 18-200 lens. That said, RX10 may be slow, but like many other cameras of this type it does not hunt. There was a decorated ceiling in one corner of the room not lit. RX10 and A6300 both could touch focus, but RX10 hunted more before locking onto it. In darker corners without much contrast lines, it hunted, and in one case A6300 could get a lock at upto 80mm, but not beyond that, while RX10 could not lock at all. But to be fair, this was like mostly plain surface with little light.
When it comes to brightly lit scenes, RX10 is slower than the A6300, but fully accurate. Its not "slow", just "slower". A6300 AF is something you have to try it out yourself. esp with 50mm 1.8 attached, AF is like magic.
Subject tracking naturally was better on A6300 as compared to RX10.
As far as use speed is concerned, the camera starts up fast enough, but the fly by wire zoom is slow. A wedding photographer loved the quality, but the zoom was not enough. He says for candid stuff, it is very important that you can zoom in a jiffy. Not with a fly by wire I guess
Size and handling + Subjective things:
Its big. Slightly Bigger than A6300+18-200 when switched on. But then its 600mm. It will not fit in your shirt pocket. A photographers vest can handle the A6300+18-200, but with this, it becomes more difficult. That said, a wedding guy was wearing this jacket with real huge pockets, and both cams fit.
Controls are similar, but RX10 gets a dedicated switch to toggle focus modes. Having extra space on the body is great.
I also loved the Aperture ring. I set it at 2.8 and then when I zoomed beyond 40mm or so it went to F4 and when I zoomed back it came back to 2.8. I remember with some lenses when you zoom the aperture goes down to 5.6 but when you go wide it stays at F5.6(Seen with D7000)
In my hands, the RX10 was better balanced, however, with zoom extended there was this "tip front" tendency. This matters if you like table top photography with gorillapod kind of tripods. With zoom extended, this is a real bazooka.
Using both cams is a breeze as I have been used to NEX 5N and the sony A7. If you are coming from a different system you will find both cumbersome. A lot of photographers there was Nikon shooters, and they had a tough time navigating the menu system.
I shot with D7000 earlier, therefore from a personal subjective POV, I would say the D7000 menu system is better. However, the custom buttons, once programmed tilt the scales in favor of sony.
Out of the box Nikon menu system is better, but with tuning Sony is better.
Battery life
Well we have CIPA test results for that. However, with USB charging, you can use a powerbank for timelapse or on trips use a car charger. This is a very big plus point for Sony. Use your cell phone chargers.
Timelapse shooters who are worried should not be. Just attach a powerbank to your tripod. No DSLR can beat the Xiaomi 20,000 mAh beat and it costs what? 25$
Conclusion
There are some things which are called "Budget destroyers". This is the budget destroyer. Now I want this instead of the A6300.
If I did not have an A7 as my Astro camera, I would have taken the A6300. If you want excellent low light capability, and ability to shoot indoors even in dim light, A6300 wins but by a small margin. The reason is that at 300mm equivalent, the A6300 is running 1.5 stop slower. So where you need to use ISO 3200 you would maybe need ISO 1000 on the RX10, so RX10 wins. But if you have good lenses, A6300 will blow it out. But then the kit won't be 1500$, rather than 3000$
As a final summation.
A6300 + 18-200 LE is 1600$. RX-10 is 1500$.
So if low light is not your primary use case, get the RX10, esp if you are one lens on camera kind of person. However, if you like to have different primes etc., then the A6300 is the king.
To sum it all up
- RX10 III is amazing in good light
- Pretty decent even in low light
- ISO 1600 is very usable
- Lens is a gem
- A "disrupter"
- 1500$ is a bit too much, I guess 1200-1300$ price would have gotten them more volumes. But then I feel 6 months from now street price would be around 1300$
- One lens always on camera, and low light not primary use model : RX10
- One lens always on camera, and low light very important : Toss up between RX10 and A6300+18-200
- Like different lenses and changing lenses? : A6300
- Already own an ILC and want a second cam? : RX10
My general observations about the event and Sony in India
- Sony price in India is less than 5-7% more at launch at USA. Considering higher taxes here, this is very very good. This has started attracting video guys to Sony from Panasonic. Panasonic is about 30% more in India. Even Nikon shooters with high end cams(wedding guys) are getting pulled
- Canon team is not moving to Sony India. A friend who does workshops for Sony and also is Sony brand ambassador in India(in house pro kind of guy) says that Canon has very good entry level stuff costing 25000 INR with kit lens. That is 400$. Unless Sony can get A6000 body at that price here (400$ body in India), Sony will have an uphill task. A6000 body after discounts is around 35000 (550$ approx).
- Except for "no memory cards available", the event was stellar. They had enough cameras and lenses for everyone to try out. They setup their studio scenes very well and provided enough 4K 55" TVs to pixel peep.
- Sony managers from Japan were eager and earnest. Whenever we gave any feedback, they always were jotting down notes. I believe they are really really serious and motivated to wrestle market share from the big 2
- RX10 started pulling crowds. The GMaster customers were quite intrigued when they saw the super zoom on the large screen. I know atleast one who has abandoned GMaster for now, and wants to get this as a second backup cam for assistant(who currently is on a second SLR body with a 18-105 lens).
- Sony A6000 is a surprise hit. With A6300 the price has dropped and enthusiasts have started lapping it up. But sony definitely needs to come below 500$
- Sony A6300 is out of stock. Sony under-estimated the demand. As a result they have lost customers. I feel this is a marketing oversight. Your flagship APS-C not in any store.
- Sony is pushing the 18-200 LE over the 18-200. I guess the smaller size is the advantage. AS far as image quality is concerned, I guess there is a slight difference only.
- These events are a start, but the Canon Pro Eco system machine is a much bigger juggernaut. Their events, workshops etc., outnumber sony 10:1 and they have an iron hold over dealers. In India there is lot of "Be Sheep". So everybody follows their idol. If your idol uses a Canon, so do you. Some big name guys are switching, but wedding scene is Canon-Nikon land still. This is where Sony can focus.
