Non-Sony bridge camera alternative to the Sony RX100 VII

[TumblingTiger]

I've owned the Sony RX100 VII for a couple weeks now, and have found the Sony menu system to be utterly confusing and exhausting. Has anyone else had this experience? If so, I'd welcome your recommendations on alternative camera models (not Sony!) with solid autofocus & eye tracking, which is one of the reasons why I bought this camera in the first place. Thanks!

 

[Guy Parsons]

Incidentally that is one feature that my M6 model doesn't have, I cannot default to getting directly to My Menu when Menu is pressed, I need to navigate to My Menu though the usual menu display on my model. A few things are more sensibly tidied up on the M7 compared to my M6.

In the Sony cameras I have owned pushing the menu button automatically goes to the last menu item used which in my case is always something in the "my menu". My most common item used in that case is "format". Because I'm a RAW-only shooter I don't use much of what is available in the menu.

On the M6 at least Format is buried so deep that it is always worth promoting it to top spot in My Menu.

Other cameras in my collection make Format way easier to find, high up in the regular simple shooting menus, Sony buries it for some strange reason, lost down in the many pages of Setup. It is the 5th item on the 5th page of Setup whereas on my Olympus it is the first item on the first shooting menu, basically the very first menu item on the menu screen.

So for me the M6 menu remembering thing is always spoiled by some minor intermediate menu fiddle as it could be days or even months between needing a format.

That's why I put format in the "My Menu" where it's easy to find.

Now we've looped back to exactly what I said a few posts back.

 

[travelfoodphoto]

Bridge camera? What are those?

Only sony is still making premium compact cameras with zoom, there's nobody else. That ship has sailed.

You can get a canon mirorless and attach an all purpose zoom lens to it.

Don't forget the Panasonic FZ300. $450, 25mm - 600mm, constant f2.8 aperture. In the hands of a skilled user and decent light, it can produce excellent images.

Check these out: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/65012028

or https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63244070

Both from the same very skilled user, and all shot in JPEG!

TFP

I have one and love it!

 

[SQLGuy]

Bridge camera? What are those?

Only sony is still making premium compact cameras with zoom, there's nobody else. That ship has sailed.

You can get a canon mirorless and attach an all purpose zoom lens to it.

Don't forget the Panasonic FZ300. $450, 25mm - 600mm, constant f2.8 aperture. In the hands of a skilled user and decent light, it can produce excellent images.

Check these out: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/65012028

or https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63244070

Both from the same very skilled user, and all shot in JPEG!

TFP

I have one and love it!

Also 1" sensor? Or how big?

 

[travelfoodphoto]

Bridge camera? What are those?

Only sony is still making premium compact cameras with zoom, there's nobody else. That ship has sailed.

You can get a canon mirorless and attach an all purpose zoom lens to it.

Don't forget the Panasonic FZ300. $450, 25mm - 600mm, constant f2.8 aperture. In the hands of a skilled user and decent light, it can produce excellent images.

Check these out: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/65012028

or https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63244070

Both from the same very skilled user, and all shot in JPEG!

TFP

I have one and love it!

Also 1" sensor? Or how big?

No, small sensor and small size/weight for its focal range.

Do you find these acceptable, up to you what you find acceptable, right?

























Some comments from users on B&H

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...voQCjzdMmyqgUTHTKIddha3kl9m140LRoCCuQQAvD_BwE

 

[SQLGuy]

Very nice. Especially the hummingbirds. But all in daylight. My main use for the RX100VI is concerts and places like Meow Wolf, where ILC "Pro" cameras are banned, and the lighting is often pretty bad.

 

[travelfoodphoto]

Very nice. Especially the hummingbirds. But all in daylight. My main use for the RX100VI is concerts and places like Meow Wolf, where ILC "Pro" cameras are banned, and the lighting is often pretty bad.

FZ300 not the right camera for that whatsoever. And thanks for the kind words.

TFP

 

[aerorail]

thats the main complaint for most reviews and thats the worst of it. no seems to find a better camera of that type...unless the 8 comes out this year.

8 has always been associated with bad luck...maybe they'll skip that number

 

[Digital Nigel]

thats the main complaint for most reviews and thats the worst of it. no seems to find a better camera of that type...unless the 8 comes out this year.

8 has always been associated with bad luck

Really?

Lucky and unlucky numbers in Japan

In Japan, certain numbers are lucky and unlucky. It’s really important to know these numbers because if you don’t, you could be accidentally telling someone you’d like them to suffer a slow agonizing…

www.lingualift.com

...maybe they'll skip that number

Yes, there probably won't be an M8, or an M9.

 

[KENTGA]

I'm a Canon shooter but bought 2 RX100 VI's for lightweight travel cameras. After I made the initial menu setting I haven't changed anything and I'm well pleased with the results.

Kent

 

[TechnologistdotLive]

I've owned the Sony RX100 VII for a couple weeks now, and have found the Sony menu system to be utterly confusing and exhausting. Has anyone else had this experience? If so, I'd welcome your recommendations on alternative camera models (not Sony!) with solid autofocus & eye tracking, which is one of the reasons why I bought this camera in the first place. Thanks!

I didn't have that experience. The menus are fine. Refreshing and useful.

 

[tbcass]

I don't know if they are acceptable or not because your samples are tiny. Even at that size, your first hummingbird photo is loaded with noise at the low ISO of 400. That's a problem with small sensors. I suspect the FZ1000 will give better results at 400mm than this camera at 600mm because it's possible to crop more and the sensor has a lot more resolution (20mp vs 12). Another thing to consider is Sony cameras have AF superior to Panasonic.

--
Tom

 

[travelfoodphoto]

I don't know if they are acceptable or not because your samples are tiny. Even at that size, your first hummingbird photo is loaded with noise at the low ISO of 400. That's a problem with small sensors. I suspect the FZ1000 will give better results at 400mm than this camera at 600mm because it's possible to crop more and the sensor has a lot more resolution (20mp vs 12). Another thing to consider is Sony cameras have AF superior to Panasonic.

Hi Tom,

I realize small sensor cameras generate more noise, all other things being similar, than larger sensor cameras, and different people view photos differently.

However, the second hummingbird photo, while I'm sure has similar noise to the first one, was recently chosen as image of the day on imaging-resource.com, and has come in the top ten twice here on bird photo challenges, where darn near every other submittal is a ILC crop sensor/ff camera able to produce images with far less noise. My point, to many photographers/viewers, the composition and subject is far, far more relevant than the noise in an image.

I personally view many images on this DPreview.com, recently quite a few on the Nikon Z board shot with $5K Z9s and multi thousands of dollars lenses that I find not nearly as good (subjective, of course) as images shot with small sensor cameras with far more noise. And as we know, if one really cares about noise these days (I don't much at all), just use a good PP noise reduction software and the final image will have far less noise.

Composition and subject is what is important to me, not the amount of noise, which is close to irrelevant, as far as I'm concerned.

Also, if you went to the links I posted showing images shot by a serious amateur photographer using the FZ300 and some PP, I think you'll agree that the camera can hold its own in many situation against 1" sensor cameras, unless one cares more about pixel peeping than the actual photograph.

Best,

TFP

 

[tbcass]

I don't know if they are acceptable or not because your samples are tiny. Even at that size, your first hummingbird photo is loaded with noise at the low ISO of 400. That's a problem with small sensors. I suspect the FZ1000 will give better results at 400mm than this camera at 600mm because it's possible to crop more and the sensor has a lot more resolution (20mp vs 12). Another thing to consider is Sony cameras have AF superior to Panasonic.

Hi Tom,

unless one cares more about pixel peeping than the actual photograph.

Best,

TFP

I care about both equally. To me, noise, artifacts, and smearing can ruin an otherwise good photograph. We are different people with different desires.