Nick,

Utterly majestic. The footage from around 1.48 to the end was absolutely breathtaking - the backlit rower, followed by the 4 swans in a line. Simply brilliant visually., The piano piece set the mood, an inspired choice. Can't fault it. Worth every minute you've spent wrangling the camera (from a fellow RX100 owner who has yet to film anything remotely as impressive).


Duncan

Dark skin swathed in safron, brilliant.
Rays of sunlight through early morning mist by the river, brilliant.
Boats on the misty river, very good.
Mist rising from the river, hard to capture the feeling. Sort of been there, mist / fog being blown up and over cliffs on a grey day. Looked stunning n the day but somehow the camera didn't capture the feeling.

The music, beautiful but I think something local would have spoken more to the visuals.

The RX100 does a great job but again agree, can be a frustrating camera to work with.

Bob.

Only a beautiful Mind could Frame and then Select those shots.

Outstanding.

Grazie

Nick, what a nice way to start the morning here. Beautifully done!

/jerry

Very nice Nick!

The most moving image for me is at 1:22 the white face so unbelievably sad looking surrounded by awesome beauty, nice composition shots all round. You have a good feeling for people and it comes out in your work.

That shot reminds me of this one time I got up early, real early to get a shot it was a massive mountain/rock with a road running round I had a wide angle lens to get traffic travelling both sides everything was in view and I waited and waited and finally packed up with nothing decent and just then this guy on his over laden bicycle peddled past

Nick,
once again I tried to find a user manulal for the RX100.
Epic fail, the best Sony have is an online guide, useless.

What I did find was this book from Amazon. Just ordered it as the reviews are excellent.

Bob.

Thanks very much guys. I'm humbled.

Bob, I hear you re. the music. Unfortunately good, "atmospheric" Thai music with rights to use is very difficult to find. I recently "used up" the one really nice such piece in my library so I thought I'd go with the gentle/emotional piano on this one. Thanks for the link to the book which I will get ordered up. Besides that html RX100 manual you refer to, there are pdf manuals online here and here. I recently put pdf manuals for all my gear into dropbox, which is synced to my Galaxy Note 2 so I have them all with me when I'm out and about. Works well.

Grazie, believe it or not, during the editing of this I went back nearly 9 years and watched this, which I had cheekily saved all those years back. I recalled it and wanted to see how you had handled transitions on a memorable "atmospheric" piece.

Rory, we were having a laugh last night at that girl's face when we watched the video back. To be fair to her, it was very early, and it is absolutely freezing up there in the morning, especially for a Thai tourist who is used to the warmth of the rest of the rest of the country. If you think she looks miserable, you should have seen the grumpy Englishman behind the camera. Most of the raw soundtrack to this footage is the sound of me whinging and cursing lol.

Now then, here is an unfixed clip showing the zooming in and out. It is worse on the misty clips so I'm assuming this is because I have autofocus on. Right?

[url=

Hey Nick, where is Catherine Deneuve? She is missing in your video:)
Your video is as moody as Indochina movie...
Maybe more than it...

A few moments of my day . . . worth spending. Thanks.

+2

Yes, I'm sure that the AF is seeking a focal point in the mist.
Had the same thing happen during a stage show a decade ago shooting a fog scene, before we learned to lock down the focus.

Stunning images, Nick, and beautifully captured. I agree that the zooming is due to the AF hunting. You could either switch to MF mode, or AF-S (single) rather than AF-C (continuous). AF-S only seeks a focal point when you press the shutter button halfway.

What frame rate did you use?

Best,
Paddy
SCS

Thanks Paddy. I will check out the focusing options and nail it on my next shoot.

I shot at 60p but put it on a 30p timeline in Vegas so that alternate frames would be dropped for the YouTube render. I'm shooting everything at 60p. I can't really see a downside to it and I like the slomo option if I need it.

I noticed the focus pulsing issue right away with my RX100 . I've learned to live with it when I need autofocus, or otherwise shoot in manual. Even in high-contrast situations, if a moving object crosses the frame, it will cause a visible pulse in the corner due to so-called lens breathing (I assume). No solution other than shoot MF.

A 24p mode would be nice also, Sony. :)

Utterly breathtaking in every way. Thanks Nick - you really made my day.

Photographer's Guide to the Sony DSC-RX100 just arrived from Amazon.
It's a LOT of book for such a small camera. It's primary focus is on taking stills but there is a chapter devoted to video which does seem to have quite useful information in it. The chapter on accessories could also prove useful as the author has already done the hard work of finding out which ones work with this camera.

Bob.

Thanks Bob. I did another day's shooting with it the other day and it's starting to drive me nuts now. So confusing which mode to shoot video from. I can't seem to consistently achieve truly manual control of ISO/shutter/aperture for video in any mode. For example I'll set 1/60 shutter and then many times it'll switch to 1/125 by itself when I hit record. Seems like it really wants to be an auto camera. Plus in movie mode you can't switch off digital zoom, which is a pain.

In Movie Mode you should be able to select Manual Exposure.

Then the down button is for exposure compensation.
Centre button is for tracking focus
Function button is user programmable.

Bob.

Hmm...

I just rushed to my Canon PS SX50 to re-confirm I can lock exposure. I'm able to bring up the Exposure Bar; adjust for exposure and LEAVE it alone. I mustn't then SET or CLICK the Exposure Bar option again, otherwise my LOCK would have gone.

I realise it wont be the exact same procedure for your SONY, but consider once you have it "set" - whatever the equiv for the SONY is - then leave it. Maybe?

I know I can't manually adjust expo will recording.

Cheers

Grazie

Ah but there's a trap. Locking exposure does only that and the camera will most likely try to keep the exposure by adjusting aperature or shutter speed if the light changes. In Nick's case the camera is changing shutter speed.
On some cameras e.g. the old PD150 you had to switch the camera into manual and then select Shutter, Aperature and WB to get full manual. Just to confuse us on some cameras e.g. the EX1, it has the opposite logic. It's completely manual until you hit the "auto" buttons...well apart from focus if you're in real manual focus, then Full Auto is 'all automatic but focus.

On the RX100, in Movie Mode it seems you have quite a few choices including Manual however setting ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperature is a bit of a chore. Then I think what you'd want to do is assign aperature to the ring...I think.
Where it all gets confounding is pretty well every button and dial is assignable so changing ISO in a hurry for example would be a challenge unless of course you use the camera a lot...which I don't.


Bob.

Ah ! (No.2) - This Canon can also shoot Video within in Manual Stills mode too.

This means, I just found out, that NOT selecting Movie Mode (weird), but keeping it in Manual Stills I can adjust and lock the ISO and then hit the RED button. While and as there is now no ISO AUTO Icon showing, this would suggest that the previously ISO Manually Set setting is too being locked within taking Video.

It would appear I need to leave the camera in Stills mode and hit the Red Button - Canon calls this a Movie Journal - go figure . . - I get a locked ISO.

Interesting indeed.....

Grazie

I think the RX100 does that too. And while in Movie mode you can also take full res stills.
The Digital Zoom problem Nick mentioned seems relate to the resolution you're shooting at. If it's full res the "digital" zoom is what you'd expect. If you're shooting at lower res it doesn't become Digital until underscanning the sensor would affect the recorded res.

Did I mention the RX100 has an artifical horizon, I don't know how that got turned on and hopefully this 350 page book will tell me how to turn it off.

It also composes the shot for you by default, I guess great for some but incredibly frustrating for the rest of us.

To make matters even more of a challenge it's like trying to hold an ice block, feels very s-e-x-y but slippery. There's now a 3rd party stick on bumpy thing so you can get a grip.

Bob.