Comments

Andy_L wrote on 5/22/2013, 10:53 AM
Laurence, for still photography I don't have any trouble with mine in sunlight -- but -- shooting video in daylight especially in snowy scenes can be a little challenging.

Hopefully someday they'll come up with some sort of polorized screen or something so this issue will be a thing of the past for all lcd screens outside! Hope that helps
dalemccl wrote on 5/22/2013, 11:17 AM
The RX-100 has a screen brightness setting named "Sunny Weather" that is intended to help in bright outdoor conditions. It does help a lot. The only time I have found that the screen was hard to see was in Las Vegas on a bright cloudless morning with the sun at my back and shining directly onto the screen. I could barely see what was on the LCD screen and it was hard to frame properly. Shooting in a direction where the sun was not directly behind me was no problem. Also once the sun was more overhead later in the day, the screen was usable in any direction.

That Sunny Weather LCD screen brightness setting makes the RX100 the most usable in sunlight of any "viewfinder-less" camera that I have owned. It's not a 100% solution, but it does make a noticeable difference.
ritsmer wrote on 5/22/2013, 3:23 PM
Have spent several days with a RX100 taking stills and videos of flowers in Thailand in bright sunlight/shadows without any problems - except for some occasional overheating (where the camera just shuts down) - when ambient temp was above 30 Celsius.
Could see the screen well (without sunglasses, of course) and also use the Peak view focus.

For normal - but still astonishing good quality holiday pics and video (and recorded as Full HD at 25 Mbps AVCHD) I would rather use my Sony TX55 which has a larger display - and easier and very reliable automatic - and it does not overheat.
Do not mix up the TX55 with TX66, TX20 or the new TX30 btw. - the TX55 is definitely sharper, clearer and has better colors - to my humble opinion, at least.
I have bought and compared all of them - taped side-to-side on a board and compared on a 58" plasma TV - but am still the happy owner of two TX55s.
john_dennis wrote on 5/23/2013, 12:48 AM
As much as I appreciate the quality of the video that I've seen from the RX-100, I didn't like the mechanicals of it and the lack of something to hold on to.

I just bought a Canon G15. It has a viewfinder.

As far as being pocket sized, I wear cargo pants a lot, but I've carried it in slacks.
Laurence wrote on 5/23/2013, 6:52 AM
You know, the G15 is what I ended up recommending for my father to buy. He said he was going to pick it up yesterday. A smaller sensor than the RX-100 by far, but it does do an f1.8 and the optical viewfinder should be great outdoors. If the framing isn't exact it really won't matter to him. He'll be leaving it in auto mode and it should get some great shots with minimal fiddling. I considered recommending a super zoom, but he wanted something smaller, and I felt like the f-stop was more important than the reach.
john_dennis wrote on 5/23/2013, 7:32 AM
I've been happy with mine. The stills and video have been better than I expected. The one bother for me has been the lack of manual audio recording. The AGC can't be turned off like my G9. But, I knew that going in. I'm looking for a hack.
Laurence wrote on 5/23/2013, 8:55 AM
I just talked to my dad this morning and he picked up the G15 yesterday. He is in his late 70s and says things like "gigapixel" instead of gigabyte, but used to run a mid sized company and is still one of the smartest people I know. This camera seems to be about as good as you can get if you want something with a viewfinder that you can stick in your pocket. For myself, I would really want 30p and a mic input with meters and adjustable levels, but for him it will be perfect.