Your RX10 II experiences?

[Oliver Daniel]

I've been using the RX10 II now for 2 months and I've used it on about 4 low budget music videos exclusively. (none of these have been released so I can't share yet). 

Generally i've had a pretty good time using the camera - you can get pretty good colour if you modify the Slog2 preset, although I would never use the factory Slog2 as it looks like a pile of sick. 

There are a lot of good things about the camera, it's a lot of fun - but these are the issues I'm coming across: 

• Under challenging lighting conditions, the image from this camera is exceptionally noisy - even under ISO800. This site reported in the RX10 II review it's usable at up to ISO6400. I don't find that to be true under any type of lighting whatsoever. Especially in Slog2 - noise is absolutely insane. This camera needs a lot of light, and I'd only go up to ISO800 in those conditions too.
• Focus peaking is slightly inaccurate. At the telephoto end, this makes it tricky to focus. 
• 120fps in HD looks very close in quality to 4k. Great for 1080p, but what does that say about the 4k? Hmmm...

Does anybody have any RX10 II experiences to share? Any decent picture profiles? Good results concerning noise? 

 

[hmcindie]

Shot this musicvideo with the A7s and RX10 ii. Colors are...Sony colors. I like shooting no-budget slowmo with it and 100fps is great. Don't remember the exact mix, something along 50/50. More RX10ii towards the end.

[AaronChicago]

I liked the image but hated the body. I broke a brand new model within a few hours.

[IronFilm]

I've been using the RX10 II now for 2 months and I've used it on about 4 low budget music videos exclusively. (none of these have been released so I can't share yet). 

Generally i've had a pretty good time using the camera - you can get pretty good colour if you modify the Slog2 preset, although I would never use the factory Slog2 as it looks like a pile of sick. 

What changes do you make to the Slog2 preset?

[Oliver Daniel]

What changes do you make to the Slog2 preset?

More or less increasing saturation and reducing yellow, and changing from S.Gamut to Pro. (+ other tweaks).

I use popular A7S user profiles as a base - but I find the RX10 II a little better for colour than the A7S, so it does need a bit of tweaking from those profiles.

Slog2 is a very tricky log profile. Noise is hard to control using this on the RX10 II. 

I liked the image but hated the body. I broke a brand new model within a few hours.

Wow. 

How did it break? I wouldn't be surprised if it was the back LCD. That thing is like a kids toy. 

[kaylee]

thanks for sharing your experiences oliver. im on the same page

Under challenging lighting conditions, the image from this camera is exceptionally noisy - even under ISO800. This site reported in the RX10 II review it's usable at up to ISO6400. I don't find that to be true under any type of lighting whatsoever

true story... ::sigh:: its p disappointing... and i never go above 800 iso, learned not to quickly 

How did it break? I wouldn't be surprised if it was the back LCD. That thing is like a kids toy. 

or the lens 

honestly when i first started using the cam i had this subconscious thought that i didnt rlly wanna acknowledge and tried to bury that was like 'Hope i can sell this thing before the lens or lcd breaks'

of and fwiw ive been using rec709 for gamut w slog2 and custom settings... i fought with pp7 quite a bit and finally gave up. wish i had some awesome insight on slog2 color but sadly i do not smh

[ntblowz]

Yeah it is super noisy, much worse than GH4, I can never do 2x crop from RX10II's 4K footage because it is soft and noisy unlike GH4 or NX1's 4K which still holds up after cropping. (for indoors)

but its a good cam for slowmo, 120p unlimited with sound is pretty nice, 250p is super fun except the focus bug is super annoying.

You can punch in while recording to check focus so I am ok with peaking not as good as GH4.

[AaronChicago]

 

Wow. 

How did it break? I wouldn't be surprised if it was the back LCD. That thing is like a kids toy. 

Actually it was the zoom button. It's connected to the on/off switch and they got stuck so everytime I'd try to zoom the camera would turn off. I ended up just taping down the on switch. But yeah that LCD was not very good either. Hard to judge focus. I really was digging the slow mo footage though!

[jgharding]

It's staying for the continuous 100fps, and simple fixed-lens solution for walkaround stabilised HD.

Other than that I find it average: noisy in general, hard to grade, Slog2 is drab and noisy as hell while other profiles have poor dynamic range, battery isn't amazing compared to camcorders I'm used to now, general Sony "look" is quite plastic, poor build makes it feel like it explode if you dropped it, the HFR ultra slow motion has a tiny buffer, is hard to focus and is even noisier

If you have lots of light it can be decent. It cut reasonably well with my Canons on the first interview shoot, which was well lit. it was a good B-cam. But the last shoot I did only one RX10 ii shot made it in, and that was slow-motion. The C100 shots just looked much nicer and were more flexible in the grade... that's 24mpbs vs the Sony at 100mbps in HD. Bitrate is not everything, "colour science" is practically unalterable, though it can be tweaked a little, and matters more for me on the whole. Also  how bitrate is implemented differs vastly. Try grading Sony FS700 AVCHD next to Canon C100 and you'll see what I mean...

I prefer my Canon's because I don't have to struggle to make them look good. TBH it put me off the FS5, which may be unreasonable as it's not an RX10 ii, but Sony now have to convince me it's worth the effort spending twice as long to grade it just for higher "specs".

If my Canon's did 100p it'd be gone, but for the price it's a very convenient way to fill that gap, so for now it stays. Since Canon are still milking specs for massive prices I'm stuck without a Canon option for 100p shoot from the hip.

If you have nothing else I'm sure you could make great things with it too, I'm just spoiled these days, so take my comments in the context of someone who makes a living with film as well as someone who likes to make their own stuff for fun.

Could please anyone share their nice Slog2 settings as I'm struggling to make it look nice?

 

[Oliver Daniel]

It's staying for the continuous 100fps, and simple fixed-lens solution for walkaround stabilised HD.

Other than that I find it average: noisy in general, hard to grade, Slog2 is drab and noisy as hell while other profiles have poor dynamic range, battery isn't amazing compared to camcorders I'm used to now, general Sony "look" is quite plastic, poor build makes it feel like it explode if you dropped it, the HFR ultra slow motion has a tiny buffer, is hard to focus and is even noisier

If you have lots of light it can be decent. It cut reasonably well with my Canons on the first interview shoot, which was well lit. it was a good B-cam. But the last shoot I did only one RX10 ii shot made it in, and that was slow-motion. The C100 shots just looked much nicer and were more flexible in the grade... that's 24mpbs vs the Sony at 100mbps in HD. Bitrate is not everything, "colour science" is practically unalterable, though it can be tweaked a little, and matters more for me on the whole. Also  how bitrate is implemented differs vastly. Try grading Sony FS700 AVCHD next to Canon C100 and you'll see what I mean...

I prefer my Canon's because I don't have to struggle to make them look good. TBH it put me off the FS5, which may be unreasonable as it's not an RX10 ii, but Sony now have to convince me it's worth the effort spending twice as long to grade it just for higher "specs".

If my Canon's did 100p it'd be gone, but for the price it's a very convenient way to fill that gap, so for now it stays. Since Canon are still milking specs for massive prices I'm stuck without a Canon option for 100p shoot from the hip.

If you have nothing else I'm sure you could make great things with it too, I'm just spoiled these days, so take my comments in the context of someone who makes a living with film as well as someone who likes to make their own stuff for fun.

Could please anyone share their nice Slog2 settings as I'm struggling to make it look nice?

 

 

Completed another shoot exclusively on the RX10 II yesterday. 

I don't know what it is, but I feel really strange when I use the camera. I just don't feel right in myself, even though the results are fine. 

My next personal assessment is that I find the sensor size hard to get used to - and the fixed lens offers great range but nothing else. Maybe that's it. Artistically, I'm not connecting with the footage because it's more creatively limiting on this sensor and the fixed lens. Probably. 

As for picture profiles, I don't have any on hand but I know I've used popular user created A7S Slog2 profiles and tweaked a bit. Seems to suffer a lot with purple noise. 

Also, I share your feelings with the whole not so good colour/great HFR conundrum. I only use Sony for that. If Canon had great HFR, I'd be Canon all over. 

 

[jgharding]

I think what you're describing is what happens when a tool gets in the way of your creativity. It's a unique form of frustration.

I forgot my biggest complaint of all... Operation!

It's quite slow... when you stop recording it spends time writing to the card making you wait to record again... the buffering mode on HFR is irritating and slow to react...

And the menus are grotesque. Changing between frame rates requires the main menu. The quick menu controls illogically so one ends up pressing the wrong thing all the time.

In short it's a chore to use, but provides a good feature set at a low price.

It's a necessary evil for me

 

[Jara Moravec]

Sorry, already answered.

[Sebastien Ross]

Thanks guys for the honest review ! 

[kaylee]

I don't know what it is, but I feel really strange when I use the camera. I just don't feel right in myself, even though the results are fine. 

My next personal assessment is that I find the sensor size hard to get used to - and the fixed lens offers great range but nothing else. Maybe that's it. Artistically, I'm not connecting with the footage because it's more creatively limiting on this sensor and the fixed lens. Probably. 

WOW. wth 100% agree same same same!!!

[Oliver Daniel]

WOW. wth 100% agree same same same!!!

Got another shoot tomorrow and this time it's on the DJI Ronin M! 

Also found that PP2 has less noise than the other profiles, but I can't remember if I modified it or not. 

I'm a "character" man, so that's maybe my weird issue with the camera. The combination of fixed lens/sensor has zero character! Something you will get with an A7S II by the bucketload (and some wonky vintage primes!) 

[hmcindie]

 

RX10 ii is best when doing those specific looking slowmo shots. Shot this one with the A7s (totolovision profile, great stuff) and the RX10 ii for the couple of slowmo shots.

Shooting explosions is quite difficult, they need a bunch of dynamic range especially when the sun goes down. When we did the last shot, I couldn't see anything off the lcd of the rx10, just had to hope the exposure was in the ballpark. In the end, it was a bit overexposed. 500fps mode used on the RX10 for the slowest one. RX10 is like a poor mans FS700, except it can do 100fps with good quality. The 2 second buffer is a shame, would love for it to be 4 or more. A7s is really nice when shooting in moonlight!

[hmcindie]

There's a new firmware for the RX10 ii just released. It should fix the focus shift in HFR mode!

[Oliver Daniel]

There's a new firmware for the RX10 ii just released. It should fix the focus shift in HFR mode!

Cool. 

I've not updated the firmware yet but I can definitely say that focus peaking is inaccurate on current firmware. 

You really need a focus aid with this camera, especially at the 200mm end. I'm disappointed with the peaking. 

I've gone from editing C300 footage to RX10 II footage in a few days... it's a weird experience. When people say Sony colour is weird, I wouldn't argue that. 

[Dean]

Does anyone know if the stabilisation is different in the RX10 ii compared to the RX100 iv in 4K mode? I hear that in the RX100 iv is defaults to lens based stabilisation only in 4K. Is this the case with the RX10 ii? Does the RX10 ii have better stabilisation in 4k? Thanks.