hi all, im looking for suggestions for pocket size camera which i would use it mainly in daily life for capturing photos and videos children (running, playing etc), landscape, sunset. i have seen for this category mostly suggested sony rx100.

i would like to find out if sony rx100 iii, iv, v differences and for my usage. or is there any better choice other than sony rx100?

thank you for your input.

If you want 4k, rx100iv and above. If just photo and ordinary video that doesn't eat up sdcard, rx100mkiii is good enough plus an eye viewfinder. Depend on your budget and picture quality preference, rx100 may even suffice.

Alternatively Canon g7x ii or g5x or even some of panasonic compact cameras like the DMC.

if you can get the RX100 then, YES it is the 'best' so far. feature-packed camera
but Canon Powershot G7 and G9 is also a good camera..
but, if you want something nice to hold, try the Fujifilm X30 lah..

what is your budget?

my budget is around 3-4k. i really want to make use of the camera instead of relying on my iphone to capture daily moments. the photos from the phone are not really nice when printed out on photobook or for framing.

for the learning curve, canon g7x and sony rx100, which is easier to understand for a beginner?

also, for a really noob question, i always face the problem when using my phone to capture my kids running and playing, and the image always turn out blur. having a camera will sort out this problem?

Go for RX100 IV. The lens is better.

Focus blur or motion blur? (RX100 IV has higher burst rate that can be helpful)

Just braced myself with two kiddos to the shop today, the sales assistant told me the difference between m3 and m4 is the 4K video, and rx100 image quality is not much better than phone, is that true?


In return he recommends the alpha6000, and I think personally it's not for me because it seems bulky and heavy for the handbag.

It's motion blur, how do I overcome that if using camera? Sorry for all these questions, I'm too used to just capture image with phone, abit overwhelming with the actual camera 😱😱

Wrong. Img quality of A6000 with kit lens lose to rx100mkiii with zeiss lens. If you dont intend to change lens, stick with rx. If you dont have 4k TV, really, no point in rx100mkiv. Kids blurry mostly due to motion blur. Rx100 should have a function allowing you to set higher shutter speed, of course under good light.

As for img quality between rx100mk3 and phone is subjective. Landscape in daytime, maybe you wont notice the difference but other aspect like low light and autofocus tend to beat phone camera.

RX100 is as good as APS-C camera with kit lens, and it is way better than phone.
When phone goes up to ISO-800, the noise is unbearable, while RX-100 still has the headroom too ISO-3200. (ISO-6400 usable if you don't mind bursting for several images and stack them into single image later). The burst rate is way higher than phone. (Up to 11FPS with JPG, 5.6FPS with RAW)
For comparison,

Z5 Compact, DSC_3418 by kingkingyyk, on Flickr


RX100 III, DSC04771 by kingkingyyk, on Flickr
Both are on their respective lowest ISO. So what the salesman meant is this. You will start seeing phone's image start tearing apart at high ISO.

For motion blur, you can use shutter priority mode with auto-ISO & largest aperture. It freezes the moment by opening the shutter for a very short time.

This post has been edited by kingkingyyk: Jan 19 2017, 07:11 PM

Did a quick high ISO comparison.

very nice comparison you have there, thank you so much. i think the salesman intention is to get the money more well spent as alpha6000 is around the same price, he also showed me the depth of the images with alpha with various lenses. but i think its just not for me due to its bulkiness and weights, also i don't plan to buy various lenses.

now i just gotta check out the canon g7 and g9 in the store before making the final decision!
phew...so much to learn these days for a small camera!

yes, this is the reason i want to get a camera. i took load of load of pictures of my children using iphone, it looks fine on the camera but they all were so grainy when i blow it up to frame size or making photobooks.

G9X is not as usable as G7X or RX100 III (IV/V) due to the aperture being too small at the long end (it is f/4.9!)

G7X :
+ Lens has longer reach
- Softer lens
- Slow AF in lowlight
- Practically no burst when shooting with RAW (~1.2FPS), slower than your phone
- Poor battery life
+ Skin colour reproduction is pinkish (eye-pleasing) out of the box
+ Touchscreen
- Manual focus is almost impossible in video (Clicky focus ring, hence you will record the clicky sound in your video)

RX100 III :
- Lens has shorter reach
+ Sharper lens (it is a Zeiss* )
__*probably Sony-made + Zeiss-certified
+ Has electronic viewfinder (useful when under big sunlight)
+ Faster AF
+ Way higher burst rate (5.6FPS @ RAW), but takes quite long time before flushing to the card & able to view.
+ Better battery life (but still poor compared to sub-2K shot DSLRs)
+ Extremely good video that rivals full frame DSLRs (due to full sensor readout -> Entire 20.2MP is downsampled into the video instead of line skipping)
- High end video features require a 64GB or larger SDXC card (a 90 bucks Sandisk Ultra 64GB will do)
- Skin colour requires some post-processing tricks, as it tends to be flat and yellowish

This post has been edited by kingkingyyk: Jan 20 2017, 04:42 PM

Dpreview Studio Comparison

Just click above on the testing and comparison done between cameras. Hover over the "i", to see what lens they use for the shot. In this case a6000 + Zeiss 55mm f1.8 which cost roughly RM3000 on top of the camera body itself, RM2000. With this lens, RX100mkIII at 50mm lost to a6000+Zeiss combo, but quality wise is already very good for a fixed lens. a6000 with kit lens is really not that sharp under not too bright area.

You can even compare them to the canon G7 and G9 if you want to.

This post has been edited by DaddyO: Jan 20 2017, 07:47 PM

https://m.flickr.com/#/search/advanced_QM_q...IS_93794087@N00

I hope this link works. It's all my Japan trip album, taken SOLELY on RX100M3, ditched my full frame A99 due to its size (took the leap of faith). Of course, the photos underwent some post processing, but believe it or not, at lower ISOs, the files were superior to even A99 files.

This post has been edited by lwliam: Jan 24 2017, 07:02 PM

the sony rx100 series is a good camera, but quite tight in the pocket,

i'm more towards suggesting you the canon S120 or the other S1xx siries, which is more pocketable

once i owned a rx100 II , but sell it due to quite heavy when in pocket, but the image quality is very good.

Wow! Love all ur shots 👍

If pocketability is of importance, then i would use a phone camera, the quality from phones nowadays can match or even trump many basic point and shoot cameras.

Sorry, i think the link i posted earlier was the wrong link. I think I've fixed the link now.

The sacrifices in image quality is unacceptable for 1/1.7".

U will be surprised how many ppl can live with Smartphone camera... A 1/1.7 sensor look fantastic to them.

For me, to sacrifice the quality is not that big compare to leave your camera at home.

Being say that,
I ex-owned a d80, d700, x100, eos-m, rx100 mk ii, epl-6,
I owned a fujifilm xq2 and s110.

In my opinion, camera nowadays not relying much on sensor,
but more on how the processor process the image.
It's like the sensor size does not matter anymore.

I've printed all of my taken picture in 4r size, and hard to differentiate them in term of noise quality and sharpness.
The different is always in color, bokeh quality and on camera flash performance.

If i got to stay with 1 camera, then i choose the fuji xq2, the color is superb and the fill flash is superbly super super well balance and sync up to 1/2000.

Though its still not ultra compactly as the canon s110 series.....

The difference would be rather minimal to phone camera, especially we are comparing 1/2.33" latest sensor to 1/1.7" old sensor.

TS wants something better.

hi,gong xi fa cai to all. im just back from cny holidays, i will go thru each suggestion one by one.

previously, i was gifted with a dslr entry level years ago and sadly it was hardly being used. now i must rajin do homework with each recommendation by you guys before i make the purchase.

i have a ip6s, the image looks nice on the phone but they are definitely not sharp when i frame it up at home or make the photobooks.

tumpang tanya: Which pocketable camera is best if you do not want to do any post processing. Just use the image straight out from camera.

Hi all! Just an update to all of you who offered your valuable advices! In the end I got myself a rx100m3. I'm very happy with it, it's amazing. I've been Very takin in taking photos since the day I got it!

Congratulations!

For portrait get G7X II. Otherwise, RX100 III/IV/V.

How much?

This post has been edited by kingkingyyk: May 12 2017, 08:32 AM

How about fujifilm x70? Is it pocketable enough? Been looking around and still deciding whether to get rx100 or x70.

just curious. since most of u guys here suggested canon, rx and fujifilm.. what about Panasonic lumix? any input?

Any suggestion on good camera phone? Currently using RX100Mk3. Although it's small but still find it hard to pocketable. Thanks.

[Edit] Any idea about Canon G9X Mk2.

This post has been edited by laihuhng: Jul 10 2017, 10:14 AM

How much u bought?

g9x isnt much smaller.
just buy a belt pouch for the rx100.

Already have that. Still find it inconvenience. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion.

compare with g7x ii with rx100 iii, which image will come out nicer with point and shoot auto setting? wanna buy either 1 to use it like a phone camera, my a6000 photo come out nice but always 1 stop darker, need to plphotoahop it, if I increase the brightness some place will overexposed..

Sony tends to underexpose, but the sensor itself is good to retain the details in shadow (also clean, but G7X II uses Sony sensor anyway). In extreme case, Sony also has handheld twilight mode to deal with ultra low light.
But if you shoot portrait a lot, Canon's skin tone is way better. RX100 III always add liver disease to people.

This post has been edited by kingkingyyk: Jul 16 2017, 07:07 PM