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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Sony RX10 1V the new boy. (3 Viewers)

your Canon d7 would have a crop factor of about 1.5 so that your 600 mm have more reach than what 600 would give on a full frame camera. m4/3 (micro-four-thirds) which are panasonic and Olympus cameras have a 2x crop factor. These have a larger sensor then the sony bridge camera but smaller than your canon. When purchasing a camera body you could easily get a kit lens included, which in the pana for example could be a 12-60 mm (reach like a 24-120 on a full frame). There is a Pana-Leica version of the same lens with more impressive optics, and many other contenders depending on where you want to go. But carrying a phone for the other stuff would be fine for most people unless you want the very best quality in landscape, macro or portraits.

https://www.birdforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=375
https://www.birdforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=295

I see more high end wildlife using Oly, e.g., https://www.sulasula.com/en/olympus-for-wildlife-photography-one-month-in-the-rainforest/

Niels
 
Thanks Guys - I've ordered a Sony RX10 IV today.

Tony

Sorry seen this late and you've already ordered but to answer your questions basically anything you can do on an SLR e.g exposure compensation etc, you can do on this. It's not a normal bridge camera at all. It's in a different league. It's like using a SLR but without the weight. The downside is more noise than a SLR. But it takes more frames per second than the 7d mark ii - although I never found that an issue - and has a considerably bigger buffer - a big issue if you take RAW shots. I've never regretted switching. I will never go back to a SLR for nature shots although a m4/3 could be an option in the future.
 
Sorry seen this late and you've already ordered but to answer your questions basically anything you can do on an SLR e.g exposure compensation etc, you can do on this. It's not a normal bridge camera at all. It's in a different league. It's like using a SLR but without the weight. The downside is more noise than a SLR. But it takes more frames per second than the 7d mark ii - although I never found that an issue - and has a considerably bigger buffer - a big issue if you take RAW shots. I've never regretted switching. I will never go back to a SLR for nature shots although a m4/3 could be an option in the future.

Thanks Steve. I've followed your lead in many ways, buying this alongside a Canon DSLR and likely to end up using this 95% of the time if I can master it properly. I saw you used it in Thailand I'm due to be there in Dec though very unlikely CV19 will allow us to go (wife and I had the confirmed illness for about 3 weeks in late March/April so we are low risk so if rules permitted we'd certainly go). It arrives tomorrow and I'm then I'm away for a week walking in Yorkshire and it was the prospect of lugging 3.7kg of D7 mkii + 300m lens + 2x which drove me to very quickly make this decision....My guess is I may still stick with the Canon DSLR for Jeep safari holidays in Africa & Asia where there's little walking but otherwise just use the Sony to save my back and shoulders !
Thanks
Tony
 
In good African lighting the difference in image quality will be close to zero. Even in a car there are big advantages to a smaller camera in the poking it out of the window very quickly front. My last SLR trip was to Western Sahara as it was a mostly nocturnal trip. I wish I hadn't. Improved ISO was cancelled out by the fact that many things showed for seconds and a smaller camera would have made it more likely I would have at least got a shot. My 100 - 400 lens is now with Farnboro John.
 
...........It arrives tomorrow and I'm then I'm away for a week walking in Yorkshire and it was the prospect of lugging 3.7kg of D7 mkii + 300m lens + 2x which drove me to very quickly make this decision....My guess is I may still stick with the Canon DSLR for Jeep safari holidays in Africa & Asia where there's little walking but otherwise just use the Sony to save my back and shoulders !
Thanks
Tony

Tony, I advise against using this camera on your tour unless you are already familiar with the complexities of Sony menus. A good book will be mandatory to get the most out of the camera. That said, I definitely love this camera, but sometimes think a RX100 on the side would be nice as it has lots of the same features but is extremely compact. As for now, my back-up camera is a Panasonic FZ200 that has its own advantages. Not the least being much lower battery power consumption.
Make sure you have more than one battery along for your RX10. Better three than two!
 
Tony, I advise against using this camera on your tour unless you are already familiar with the complexities of Sony menus. A good book will be mandatory to get the most out of the camera. That said, I definitely love this camera, but sometimes think a RX100 on the side would be nice as it has lots of the same features but is extremely compact. As for now, my back-up camera is a Panasonic FZ200 that has its own advantages. Not the least being much lower battery power consumption.
Make sure you have more than one battery along for your RX10. Better three than two!
I would second that it takes some getting used to. I took it to Thailand shortly after buying it and did struggle a little, although a few weeks of playing should be fine. Battery life is much worse than a slr. I bought two of these https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XHFNRZV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 giving me two chargers as well.
 
Tony, I advise against using this camera on your tour unless you are already familiar with the complexities of Sony menus. A good book will be mandatory to get the most out of the camera. That said, I definitely love this camera, but sometimes think a RX100 on the side would be nice as it has lots of the same features but is extremely compact. As for now, my back-up camera is a Panasonic FZ200 that has its own advantages. Not the least being much lower battery power consumption.
Make sure you have more than one battery along for your RX10. Better three than two!

All spot on, especially the extra battery(ies) recommendation.
I would add that Sony color is an acquired taste, very subdued indeed, so that it takes real chops in RAW processing to get the vibrancy that nature offers.
My impression is that Canon is too punchy, Nikon is reasonably honest, Sony is morgue clinical. Ymmv, but be aware of the differences.
 
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Thanks Guys

Next week will be just a week trip to the Nth Yorkshire Moors so lots of walking and probably just the odd bird at this time of year. This is the main reason for the rushed research and purchase of this camera which arrived yesterday to avoid lugging 3.7kg of kit around :). I accept it certainly won't be second nature by then but if I can at least master the very basics and maybe set the camera up for "bird in a bush" as walking default (expand flexible spot focus and metering, max aperture) and then have 2 saved defaults that I can switch to at the press of a button, 1/ bird in flight (wide area focusing, +.75 stops to allow for bright sky background?) and 2/ scenery (small aperture, infinity focus) that would be great ! Is that what you guys do ?

As you say the menus are lengthy and very different from my Canon DSLR and with the internet version of the manual it's not immediately easy to see how to 1/set up the above defaults and especially 2/access these set ups quickly in the field (eg do you walk around with the camera wheel on AV and then have to switch the wheel to MR when you want to go to one of your preset favourites and hold a C1 or C2 button down while shooting?).

Any quick steers on the above and any other useful tips would be really appreciated as I'm trying to fit quickly getting up to rookie speed with the camera whilst working a full day today/tomorrow !

Thanks
Tony
 
I would second that it takes some getting used to. I took it to Thailand shortly after buying it and did struggle a little, although a few weeks of playing should be fine. Battery life is much worse than a slr. I bought two of these https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XHFNRZV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 giving me two chargers as well.
Thanks Steve, I bought myself a spare battery and plan to just charge them in the camera.
I've set myself 3 pre-sets (I hope !)
1/ bird in a bush - centre focus and meter, C-AF
2/ BiF - wide focus, centre metre, +0.7 exposure, C-AF
3/ scenery - wide focus, wide metre,

.....and presume I just leave the cog on MR and set it to the most likely scenario and switch between the 3 as required, adjusting exposure +/- if needed ? Is that what you do ?
Thanks
Tony
 
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Thanks Steve, I bought myself a spare battery and plan to just charge them in the camera.
I've set myself 3 pre-sets (I hope !)
1/ bird in a bush - centre focus and meter, C-AF
2/ BiF - wide focus, centre metre, +0.7 exposure, C-AF
3/ scenery - wide focus, wide metre,

.....and presume I just leave the cog on MR and set it to the most likely scenario and switch between the 3 as required, adjusting exposure +/- if needed ? Is that what you do ?
Thanks
Tony

You'll find that a charger is well worth the extra hassle.
Using the camera as the charger ties up the camera just when you want it. Two batteries means the camera is needed to charge much of the day, unless you like waking at 2am to change the batteries to be charged.
 
You'll find that a charger is well worth the extra hassle.
Using the camera as the charger ties up the camera just when you want it. Two batteries means the camera is needed to charge much of the day, unless you like waking at 2am to change the batteries to be charged.

Definitely agree with that. Especially as the battery life is nowhere near as good a SLR. Buying a third party charger and batteries is very cheap and one spare is really not enough if you have a very full day.
 
Thanks guys. If I stick with using the camera I will definitely invest in more batteries/charger.

The picture quality in anything but very good light seems really poor despite setting widest aperture (i guess understandable given the lens isn't that wide so light will always be a constraint). Shots of a dipper were at 1/1000 of a sec but that had pushed ISO up to 6400 at 220m. I'd much prefer to lose some speed and keep ISO at no higher than 800. When setting the 3 memory settings its possible to set auto iso but select a max and min. However when using the more limited settings in C1 (recall custom hold 2) and C2 (recall custom hold 3) it doesn't seem possible to set a max and min ISO, just auto or a specific ISO. I may therefore need to find a way to quickly switch to full the MR2 and MR3 rather than relying on the more limited choices in "recall custom hold".....back to the drawing board. What do you guys do, switch via the function key ?

Any idea why, when setting the 3 memory settings I can set exposures for BiF, static bird, and static bird backlit to be +1, -0.3, and +0.7, but when I recall the memory setting, each has reverted back to +0 ? Does whatever you save in the MR setting just get immediately overwritten by what the exposure dial is set at ?

I'm also struggling a bit with the quality of the viewfinder, finding a bird in a tree through the viewfinder is tough !

As things stand I will probably just use it for walking holidays where i only expect to see the odd bird so battery use may be more limited. I'm not sure I will be wanting to rely on the sony for nature holidays over my D7/300mm/2x set up which i can effectively use as a point and shoot from a jeep if I don't need to carry it.

Tony
 
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Hi, Tony,

I bought a Sony Rx10 IV a couple of months ago and, like you, I recognise its good points but have some reservations about it.

I can't answer the specific questions you raise, but if you aren't aware of it, the Sony Cybershot thread on DPreview is a great source of help and information.

Here is a link: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/1009

Malcolm
 
Sorry 3 quick questions;

Firstly, it seems with the options are limited with custom hold eg can't set min shutter speed so plan to use 3 MR settings. Why is it if I set each of these to have a different exposure +1.0, -0.7 and +0.7, when i recall the settings, while everything else is saved the exposure just goes back to whatever is selected on the exposure dial ? Surely I don't have to manually change this every time I switch between MR settings ?

Secondly, what is the quickest way to switch between the 3 MR settings without menu diving ? Is it using the Fn button which i think would need 4 presses (fn, select, adjust, select) to change each time.

Thirdly, how do I get the lens to go to sleep at 600mm every time so it's already fully zoomed when i press the shutter to waken the camera and I don't have to wait for the zoom to extend ?

Thanks
Tony
 
Hi, Tony,

I bought a Sony Rx10 IV a couple of months ago and, like you, I recognise its good points but have some reservations about it.

I can't answer the specific questions you raise, but if you aren't aware of it, the Sony Cybershot thread on DPreview is a great source of help and information.

Here is a link: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/1009

Malcolm
thanks Malcolm - we posted at the exact same time ! I will have a look at that forum tomorrow - thanks again.
 
Any idea how robust the camera is? Most of my birding now takes place after a run along the Mersey Estuary, my canon set up 7D and 100-400 (both mk1) stays at home and I take a small pair of bins. It's good for most things but I did have a possible rarity a couple of months back that I probably would have nailed the id on had I had a camera. I'm worried that one day it's going to cost me something really good.

My other concern about the sony is that I rarely see a photograph that I'd be happy with (compared to m canon set up). Most photos I see look almost sharp but remind me of photos that haven't fully loaded yet, I find myself looking at pictures and waiting for them to 'pop' into focus and they never do. This bloke seems to have some success though SzimiStyle Birding: Image (wordpress.com)

My old canon set up, like any camera is great with a close subject in good light but its capabilities for birds in flight is starting to annoy me, I had a close, hovering kestrel against a blue sky recently and the camera just searched back and forth without locking on. I've recently decided to ditch my macro set up on the Canon having found the Olympus TG6 to be more capable, I'm wondering whether to do the same with the 100-400 and part fund the sony.
 

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