RX10 IV custom settings revisited

[AlwynS]

Thanks Rodger!

 

[AlwynS]

Not really huge changes but hopefully some incremental improvements. I will be trying these settings for the next little while and report back how it works out for me in practice.

Thanks for the update. I had pretty much independently come to exactly the same settings as yours.

A case of great minds thinking alike? We will ignore the the second part of the saying....

I also use max of ISO3200 for the BIF as I can quite easily take care of the noise at that level.

Not tried that yet...

 

[AlwynS]

Went for a walk this morning and got the following:

BIF:

Long range:

Closer:

Closest:

The light was reasonably good, which certainly helped. But generally I would have expected the camera to have chosen around 1/1000th with lower ISO for most of these shots. Early days but this just "feels" as if I was able to get sharper images a bit more consistently and more easily.

Perched:

Not sure if anything really changed with this. At least to me it seems no worse than what I would have expected with the previous settings

So far so good I think.

Nice images. Your new settings certainly work in good light when the ISO doesn't need to be very high. Only wish I could experiment with obliging eagles and hummingbirds under glorious blue skies - very envious!!

Thanks kindly David: this time of year they are certainly very common.

And as for the blue skies: most people tend to think of Canada as being rather arctic. Not sure exactly where in the UK you are but interestingly enough Vancouver is 2 degrees closer to the equator than London for instance. But boy, we sure get a lot of clouds and rain in winter! For instance: London gets around 600mm of precipitation per year, we get almost 1,600mm! But curiously we do beat London for sunshine hours, even if not by much!

So don't be fooled by the few sunny pics I post: timing is everything!

 

[R_T]

Enjoyed reading this interesting thread. I am new to this camera, having a hard time setting up these custom settings and m1 m2 recall. I seem to overwrite myself...

I looked thru forum to see if anyone has a link to explain setting up I would greatly appreciate if anyone has run across. I mostly enjoy birding as a hobby, nothing too serious but do want to try to set up custom settings..

Thanks

 

[hwvlover]

[No message]

 

[Horacecoker]

Not really huge changes but hopefully some incremental improvements. I will be trying these settings for the next little while and report back how it works out for me in practice.

Thanks for the update. I had pretty much independently come to exactly the same settings as yours. I also use max of ISO3200 for the BIF as I can quite easily take care of the noise at that level.

Would love to see some examples of how you take care of the noise levels at 3200 ISO.

Thanks

 

[shikasta]

I was using your old settings, I tried today your new ones (many thanks).

One today's try.







Regards.



Fabrice.

 

[AlwynS]

That's different!

 

[Digital Nigel]

Food for thought indeed Alwyn, I going to try it. I knew about manual mode allowing auto ISO (most modern cameras do) but never thought to make use of it.

Yes, Sony has allowed Auto ISO in Manual mode for many years now. The original RX100 in 2012 didn't have it, but I think it came soon after. For example, the original RX10 (introduced in 2013) has it, as Elliott reported here:
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3596601#forum-post-52772944

Very dubious regards 3200 ISO for BIF, I will stick to 1600 for both perched and BIF but even 1600 is a stop more than I would normally allow the ISO to go up to on a 1" sensor camera. For me, it might be a case of biting the bullet and splashing out on DXO PL to get my hands on Deep Prime.

I'm sure the next DxO 30% sale will be along soon...

Please let me know when that happens.

It turns out that 'soon' was even sooner than I expected…

Loading…

shop.dxo.com

You need the Elite edition of PL4. I also find ViewPoint extremely useful, but I shoot much more wide angle images than you do, and that's where VP is most useful.



I don't use NIK, and it really has little relevance to the other DxO products. But Photoshop users may find its plug-ins handy.

 

[Horacecoker]

I was using your old settings, I tried today your new ones (many thanks).

One today's try.



Regards.

Fabrice.

Like Alwyn said - it's different! I thought it would also make a striking crop, so I've taken the liberty. Got rid of the unsightly hanging raw meat while I was at it.

 

[Horacecoker]

Food for thought indeed Alwyn, I going to try it. I knew about manual mode allowing auto ISO (most modern cameras do) but never thought to make use of it.

Yes, Sony has allowed Auto ISO in Manual mode for many years now. The original RX100 in 2012 didn't have it, but I think it came soon after. For example, the original RX10 (introduced in 2013) has it, as Elliott reported here:
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3596601#forum-post-52772944

Very dubious regards 3200 ISO for BIF, I will stick to 1600 for both perched and BIF but even 1600 is a stop more than I would normally allow the ISO to go up to on a 1" sensor camera. For me, it might be a case of biting the bullet and splashing out on DXO PL to get my hands on Deep Prime.

I'm sure the next DxO 30% sale will be along soon...

Please let me know when that happens.

It turns out that 'soon' was even sooner than I expected…

https://shop.dxo.com/en

You need the Elite edition of PL4. I also find ViewPoint extremely useful, but I shoot much more wide angle images than you do, and that's where VP is most useful.

I don't use NIK, and it really has little relevance to the other DxO products. But Photoshop users may find its plug-ins handy.

Thanks Nigel. Seems like the offer runs for 18 days so before committing I'll download the trial version and have a dabble! Problem is I haven't got any RX10iv bird images taken at 1600 iso let alone 3200 ISO to try it out on against Topaz DeNoise.

 

[Digital Nigel]

Food for thought indeed Alwyn, I going to try it. I knew about manual mode allowing auto ISO (most modern cameras do) but never thought to make use of it.

Yes, Sony has allowed Auto ISO in Manual mode for many years now. The original RX100 in 2012 didn't have it, but I think it came soon after. For example, the original RX10 (introduced in 2013) has it, as Elliott reported here:
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3596601#forum-post-52772944

Very dubious regards 3200 ISO for BIF, I will stick to 1600 for both perched and BIF but even 1600 is a stop more than I would normally allow the ISO to go up to on a 1" sensor camera. For me, it might be a case of biting the bullet and splashing out on DXO PL to get my hands on Deep Prime.

I'm sure the next DxO 30% sale will be along soon...

Please let me know when that happens.

It turns out that 'soon' was even sooner than I expected…

https://shop.dxo.com/en

You need the Elite edition of PL4. I also find ViewPoint extremely useful, but I shoot much more wide angle images than you do, and that's where VP is most useful.

I don't use NIK, and it really has little relevance to the other DxO products. But Photoshop users may find its plug-ins handy.

Thanks Nigel. Seems like the offer runs for 18 days so before committing I'll download the trial version and have a dabble! Problem is I haven't got any RX10iv bird images taken at 1600 iso let alone 3200 ISO to try it out on against Topaz DeNoise.

I'm sure you can take some high ISO test images, with or without exotic avian content!

 

[shikasta]

You guys are always very good with crops ! This one should be ok.







Sorry for the meat ^^

 

[Horacecoker]

You guys are always very good with crops ! This one should be ok.



Sorry for the meat ^^

Which one?

 

[shikasta]

The first one, no ?

 

[Digital Nigel]

You guys are always very good with crops ! This one should be ok.

You want something like this?

 

[Horacecoker]

You guys are always very good with crops ! This one should be ok.

You want something like this?

Nice work. Now get rid of that side of beef the gull's struggling with in the other image and job's a good un.

Chucking huge slabs of gore over the side of a boat then snapping away at the resultant carnage isn't my idea of bird photography.

 

[shikasta]

I understand Horacecoker and Nigel ! I think it's life but I understand perfectly. Thanks.

Regards.

Fabrice.

 

[D Lynch]

Or: When manual isn't

Some of you may recall that in the far distant past I created a thread on custom settings for the RX10 IV HERE . And for the past 2 years+ I have pretty much stuck with the latest revisions in that post.

Until today.

What drives one to make changes this far down the road you might ask? Well, in this case it started with a friend and fellow RX10 IV photographer sending me an e-mail with a question about shutter speed in the "Auto ISO" settings. In practice it gives SOME control but really not much: you can select a fixed shutter speed (not ideal) or Shutter speed slower, slow, normal or faster. But while helpful, those are really not very powerful or specific.

In the e-mail thread discussing this, my brother (a Panasonic FZ1000 user) asked but why not define both Aperture and shutter speed (which was what we were debating) and using Auto ISO. To which I responded: you can't! You can use Aperture mode (in which you control the aperture and lightly influence shutter speed with Auto ISO settings), you can use Shutter speed mode (in which you control the shutter speed and the rest is lightly influenced) or Manual, in which case case you have to fix everything because (as I thought), you cannot use Auto ISO because that is not a manual setting.

But that set me to thinking: is that REALLY the case? I checked... and no, that is NOT the case! It turns out that in Manual, you CAN use Auto ISO with upper and lower limits! Who'da thunk it? That was not what I was expecting in Manual hence I never even looked! Classic case of man with faulty parachute jump to conclusion....

So: now my BIF settings are stored in M1 as:

Manual mode

Shutter speed 1/2000th

F4

Auto ISO, lower limit 100, upper limit 3200 (this one will likely attract some comments)

Wide AF, continuous

Center metering (pretty much accepting that I almost invariably using some EC)

High burst rate

And my PERCHED BIRDS settings are stored in M2 as:

Manual mode

Shutter speed 1/1000th

F4

Auto ISO, lower limit 100, upper limit 1600

Small Flexible Spot AF, continuous

Spot metering

Medium burst rate

In both cases it it dead simple and almost instantaneous to change any of aperture (on the lens, duh!), shutter speed (with the control dial) and ISO (with the control wheel).

I have programmed these approximate settings to Custom Hold 1 and 2 as well. I normally walk around with the camera in the MR1 position (BIF) because these are the opportunities that tend to give you the least warning and opportunity to get the shot. As a consequence, Focus Hold 2 (Perched birds) is the Hold I use most often. Because that it the most commonly used I used to have my Perched bird Custom Hold setting programmed to the Focus Hold button on the lens as I thought that was the most convenient. However: I have recently come to the conclusion that I can better control the camera while pressing the AEL button while shooting rather than the Focus Hold button. So I have now mapped Custom Hold 2 (perched birds) to the AEL button and Custom Hold 1 (BIF) to the Focus Hold button.

Not really huge changes but hopefully some incremental improvements. I will be trying these settings for the next little while and report back how it works out for me in practice.

I like the logic here. I don't have this camera, but I do have a used RX100-7 I bought.

I've experimented with Elliott's settings. And I've bought and read two books....

I used to have no trouble using my Nikon F2 Photomic taking photos of fast moving subjects. That was completely manual.

Considering my age, I'm relying upon the automatic features in the 100-7 more. The focus speed is incredible.

So I'm using higher shutter speed to reduce the effect of camera shake. That drives me to higher ISO's. We've come a long way from Kodachrome 10, then 25! I still have my a6000/FE24240 and D300S...but I carry my RX100-7 a lot.

Thanks for posting these hints. They help me a lot.

 

[AlwynS]

Thanks Dave: happy that it could have been of use to someone!