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Mountainpines
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PostWed Jul 07, 2021 4:58 pm 
I bought this camera awhile ago. I did not play with its settings. I usually use auto settings. Should I play with its settings before my trip? What would be important features to get me started? I probably won’t have time to go through the whole guide that is available only online. Recommendations are welcome!

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neek
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PostWed Jul 07, 2021 5:49 pm 
From what I remember of that camera before mine broke, you'd be fine just leaving it in Landscape mode. Learn more advanced settings if you're curious, not because some people on the internet told you to. But serious, if you're going to spend on a camera like that, learn how to use it smile.gif

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Bowregard
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PostThu Jul 08, 2021 9:28 am 
I have the first generation of that camera and in general I don't mess with the settings much because the auto modes work well. But we recently took a trip in Oregon and I found that finding a mode to slow down the shutter enough to capture streaming waterfalls was not as easy as I thought it would be (I should have figured out the best settings before the trip). There is a SCN (Scene Selection) mode on the top dial that allows you to select from a variety of pre-programmed settings that are pretty good. Landscape, macro, portrait, sport, etc. You get the idea. One setting that surprised me is night portrait - it combines a flash to light the foreground with a longer shutter to brighten the background. Works great for twilight photos. It is hard to search for these scenes when you are out and about (takes time) so I would play with them before you go. I often take photos of people in front of landscapes and the auto modes on the dial put one or the other out of focus. So if you take photos like that test and find a mode that increases the DOF enough (reduces Aperture) to get everything in focus. I never can remember which works best so I just use Aperture Priority to close down the aperture. Another mode worth playing with is "sweep shooting" (panorama). You can set it to sweep parallel or perpendicular to the camera orientation and it works fairly well although if you really want good panoramas you are better off taking multiple frames and using something like ICE to stitch them together. Great camera overall. It has limited zoom and the flash is a bit weak but you can't beat the photo quality from something that fits in your pocket. I also found that if you have any of those neoprene cases for small portable hard drives (i.e. "My Passport") they work great as a case for the RX100.

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InFlight
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PostThu Jul 08, 2021 9:49 pm 
For outdoor landscapes, using the Aperture Mode (A) lets use manually adjust the depth of field. The camera will simply adjust the shutter speed and ISO to get the correct exposure. Narrow Apertures provide a wider area in “focus”, and wide open Apertures blur the out of focus areas (“Bokah”). Shutter Priority (P) allows you to take either very fast pictures or very slow pictures. Freeze water or blur it. Night Sky photos. The camera auto adjusts the Aperture and ISO for exposure. I would spend some time playing with these settings to see how they change the photos. Even a lawn sprinkler could be used to experiment with shutter speeds.

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neek
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PostFri Jul 09, 2021 7:22 am 
InFlight wrote:
Shutter Priority (P)
Isn't this (S)? Program is (P)
InFlight wrote:
Bokah
Usually "bokeh"... FWIW, I almost always use (A)perture priority. Forgot about those other modes. I even found HDR useful at times and it's probably improved in later models.

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Bowregard
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PostFri Jul 09, 2021 9:33 am 
Yes - Shutter Priority is (S). (P) is "Program Auto" - I assume that means the camera tries to make the decisions depending upon the inputs it senses. I never really played with it enough to find out. I also use (A) most often because I usually care more about DOF than Speed. The Scene Selection icons on this camera are reasonably intuitive - enough so that if I hand the camera to someone with no knowledge of photography in the SCN mode and tell them to pick a shooting mode and start snapping they usually get good results. At least my wife and kids have done pretty well with it after a few tries.

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Bosterson
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PostSun Jul 11, 2021 8:36 pm 
InFlight wrote:
For outdoor landscapes, using the Aperture Mode (A) lets use manually adjust the depth of field. The camera will simply adjust the shutter speed and ISO to get the correct exposure. Narrow Apertures provide a wider area in “focus”, and wide open Apertures blur the out of focus areas (“Bokah”).
This is generally true, however with a compact camera like the RX-100, since the smaller sensor already creates so much extra depth of field, and since usually your focal point for landscapes is already somewhat in the distance, infinity is usually in focus regardless. This is especially true considering the wide end of the RX-100's lens (which one would likely be using for landscapes) is 24mm I believe. (Any focal distance beyond "close" is usually in focus at almost all apertures with wide lenses.) With the rare exception of trying to do something special like capture water motion (does the camera have a built in neutral density filter?) that requires you to manually set a slow shutter speed, you should probably be fine shooting in program (P) mode all the time. Trying to get extra small apertures in aperture priority probably won't result in any more depth of field (unless you are doing complicated framing with something you want in focus very near in the foreground), and will instead just result in unnecessarily slow shutter speeds (potential for camera shake to cause blur) and maybe loss of sharpness due to lens diffraction.

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Mountainpines
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PostSun Jul 18, 2021 8:24 pm 
These tips are helpful. I always forget about these settings since I am not using my camera often. I stopped buying cameras for some time now.

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OwenT
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PostMon Jul 19, 2021 11:03 am 
I have the mark I. I like it well enough. A mode is usually nice for landscapes but the full auto does well too. I would try out the auto HDR feature too. Sometimes it can make some really nice shots without looking too over-done.

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Bowregard
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PostMon Jul 19, 2021 1:17 pm 
One word of caution regarding the HDR feature. This takes multiple shots to compose an image (different exposures) which will delay the time before the next shot. If you forget to turn the HDR off (or, as in my case let somebody play with the settings) it can cost you image opportunities especially for moving subjects - yes, it happened to me and finding it took some time.

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