Exclusive review - Sony RX10

[Andrew Reid]

Super 8 and Super 16 movie cameras took a free-roaming Henri-Cartier Bresson style to documentary filmmaking and "run & gun" for the first time (as early as the 1960's). Cadid footage of JFK on the election trail. French New Wave cinema in the 80's. The run & gun simplicity of Bolex Super 16mm cameras is timeless.

The Sony RX10 on paper is perfectly equipped to be a cinematic run & gun camera. The lens for example: a stunning Zeiss 8.5-73mm F2.8 (constant aperture) zoom, would be worth $10,000 on a 16mm cine camera.

But does the camera as a whole deliver a cinematic image?

Read the full article here

[Rungunshoot]

Cool video, Andrew! Tech issues aside, I like your "aerial" footage from the ferris wheel and the moody lighting on the pedestrian shots.

 

The shots look great until the contrast is too high or there's too much motion.  Most of the mid-contrast shots looked better than what I've been seeing from the BMPCC.  If Sony could improve how that sensor handles highlights we'd be in a lot better shape.

 

Regardless, I'm not sold on this camera yet because I'm sick of buying cameras that do half of what I need or just "almost" look good enough.  This one's not pocketable at all, so size isn't really that much of an advantage over full-frame.  Plus a 5dmkIII with a Tamron 24-70mm VC will cover the same range with ML's 3x mode enabled.  

 

I'll be testing my own unit soon. Hopefully there's a niche for it.

[Juank]

nice video

"Although you won’t be able to get a 24-20mm F2.8 for it." (typo)

[jgharding]

I like the rating system, it's a good quick overview.

 

Looks like another camera is wrecked by AVCHD.... sighs...

[Guest c2dd7b52878779b55f43cc8c269267c1]

nice video

"Although you won’t be able to get a 24-20mm F2.8 for it." (typo)

 

I think this article must be in Beta  ;) Needs a thorough proof read …  :)

 

Great stuff as always though Andrew. And really nice video - I think your filmmaking talents have done this camera more favours than it deserves. Lovely compositions throughout ...

[biginvegas]

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[zephyrnoid]

Well done sir! Finally. You've started to apply numerical ratings! Don't be too generous though. 7/10 might be enough for Sony to call it a Big Win!
Further. "A small rant" should be a pinned block of bold text in your reviews banner, to remind the makers that this is our cardinal lamentation!
Finally. In a new section,it might behoove you to start a conversation about the next generation of products.Your energy might be put to better use this way.

[MattH]

Well done sir! Finally. You've started to apply numerical ratings! Don't be too generous though. 7/10 might be enough for Sony to call it a Big Win!
Further. "A small rant" should be a pinned block of bold text in your reviews banner, to remind the makers that this is our cardinal lamentation!
 

 

I agree with this.  If we are talking primarily about video, and 10/10 is alexa like quality in a small form factor, is the RX10 really 7/10? With limited dynamic range, aliasing and compression mud i'd say more like 5/10.  An A- for effort with the hardware features but D for attainment with the lousy processing and codec. And it's not exactly cheap either.

[HurtinMinorKey]

props for using a song off Arcade Fire's best album.

 

I thought the footage looked quite nice too. I was pleasantly surprised.

[jgharding]

Yeah No Cars Go is one of my favorite songs too.... I like The Suburbs album best tough

[Guest c2dd7b52878779b55f43cc8c269267c1]

No you're both wrong, Funeral is best  ;)

[Grasshopper]

I'd love to see you pick up the new Nikon d5300. You liked the d5200, this new model keeps all the good stuff from the previous, but removes the anti-aliasing filter and adds support for 60P... AND it uses the h264 codec just like the GH3.

 

You don't often mention Nikon because of the lens mount, but there's tons of great Nikon lenses extending back a long way. What do you think, can you do a review and comparison?

[noirist]

Thanks for the well-considered review, Andrew, and the great footage. I really enjoyed your use of "found" motion to create a variety interesting shots on the ferris wheel and merry go round. 

[alanpoiuyt]

I'd love to see you pick up the new Nikon d5300. You liked the d5200, this new model keeps all the good stuff from the previous, but removes the anti-aliasing filter and adds support for 60P... AND it uses the h264 codec just like the GH3.

 

You don't often mention Nikon because of the lens mount, but there's tons of great Nikon lenses extending back a long way. What do you think, can you do a review and comparison?

+1 So bummed how 1080 60p AVCHD is looking on the A7r. Wide shots are mush.

[Guest c2dd7b52878779b55f43cc8c269267c1]

:) I'd love to see you pick up the new Nikon d5300. You liked the d5200, this new model keeps all the good stuff from the previous, but removes the anti-aliasing filter and adds support for 60P... AND it uses the h264 codec just like the GH3.

 

You don't often mention Nikon because of the lens mount, but there's tons of great Nikon lenses extending back a long way. What do you think, can you do a review and comparison?

 

We've been there already. Andrew had a brief look at the camera - see this thread: 

 

'?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

 

It looks like a great camera. The best evolution of the D5300 is that it doesn't suffer from banding like the D5200 and has a slightly higher bit rate, so grading looks like an option now. Unfortunately Andrew overlooked this which is a shame because it looks like a very solid, worthwhile update.

 

New and 'innovative' cameras are always going to be sexier than modest, worthwhile evolutions of already great cameras. A shame.

 

Andrew's footage with the RX10 is really nice, but there's no way I'm paying £1000GBP for a camera that has aliasing problems and mushy 60p. Not in late 2013. Not when you can buy a G6 for £450.

 

The D5300 has no aliasing or moire problems, and as you say it uses H264, so 60p will hopefully be better than the RX10.

[pocma]

Thank your for review ... I must say that you pretty scare me. I have bought RX10 5 days ago and did not have enough time to check all functions.

Do you think that SONY can improve AVCHD by soft. update? I would like to use camera mainly for video and on youtube.com I have found only nice videos before purchase. :(

I have chance to return it back, but you did not mentioned any alternatives in the same price range. Do you have any suggestions? ... Panasonic GX7 or GH3 or Nikon D5300 .... uf.

 

Thanks for response

 

Martin

[Andrew Reid]

We've been there already. Andrew had a brief look at the camera but passed it up. See this thread: 
 
'?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>
 
It looks like a great camera. The best evolution of the D5300 is that it doesn't suffer from banding like the D5200 and has a slightly higher bit rate, so grading looks like an option now. Unfortunately Andrew overlooked this which is a shame because it looks like a very solid, worthwhile update.

 

Dude, please give it a break about the D5300. It's a known quantity. It's a D5200 image, with 60p. That's it! Is there any proof the bit rate has gone up and the banding has gone? If so, show it! Is the image any different to the D5200? I just don't think it is. It's a boring evolutionary update of an OK camera, what doesn't stand out.

 

The Nikon is outclassed on image quality by the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, 5D Mark III, 7D with raw and anti-aliasing filter, RX10 and various others. The G6 and GH3 are Speed Booster capable unlike the Nikon and resolve more detail, and offer more video features.

 

If it is purely the low light you want, you can get it with the D5200.

 

God… I know this thread will go off topic now. Don't expect it to stay off topic long if it is a D5300 advert.

[Guest c2dd7b52878779b55f43cc8c269267c1]

Dude, please give it a break about the D5300. It's a known quantity. It's a D5200 image, with 60p. That's it! Is there any proof the bit rate has gone up and the banding has gone? If so, show it! Is the image any different to the D5200? I just don't think it is. It's a boring evolutionary update of an OK camera, what doesn't stand out.

 

The Nikon is outclassed on image quality by the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, 5D Mark III, 7D with raw and anti-aliasing filter, RX10 and various others. The G6 and GH3 are Speed Booster capable unlike the Nikon and resolve more detail, and offer more video features.

 

If it is purely the low light you want, you can get it with the D5200.

 

God… I know this thread will go off topic now. Don't expect it to stay off topic long if it is a D5300 advert.

 

Well yeah, I'm genuinely sorry that this is off topic and won't pursue it any further on this thread. But you do have readers who are interested in the camera for legitimate reasons (and you had 2 people asking for a review before me on this thread!).  

 

No I don't have any "proof" the banding has gone - that's what I want you to do! But if you look at the 5300 thread you'll see there's pretty compelling evidence that the FPN has gone. As for "show it" - I did, to the best of my ability (considering lack of D5300 and appropriate skills) - see the stills I posted in the thread.

 

I don't want a "purely" low light camera. I want a good all-round camera that performs excellently in low light. The 5200 has banding issues, so I don't want that one.

 

Genuine apologies though - I was just hoping I might change your mind. I'll leave it alone now.

[Grasshopper]

Oops, sorry I didn't do a search first, but thank you Matt for the link to the other post. And sorry Andrew if I have derailed the RX10, I thought here might be an appropriate place simply because of your points about the RX10 AVCHD and poor video in motion shots. Your comments about the d5200 seemed relevant to your criticisms about the RX10, but I'll work harder to keep my questions aligned to the camera posts themselves, rather than the nature of video.

 

Cheers to you!

[noirist]

Andrew, Did you shoot your 60 fps footage with SteadyShot?  From the slashcam.de review and others, it looks like SteadyShot Active Mode uses crop out for roll correction, which is responsible for moire and loss of resolution. But the SteadyShot standard mode is entirely optical, with no moire or loss of resolution.