CPWarner Offline Upload & Sell: On
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Interesting debate. I have a RX100 and hate it. Being used to Olympus menus and controls with my EM-5, I spend way to much time figuring it out again every time I pick it up. That might be ok, but I bought it to put in a housing and be a dive camera. I just picked up an XZ-2 with the excellent quality and low cost Olympus PT-054 housing. The short story is the RX100 will be up for sale.
The longer story is that the familiarity with controls is so critical underwater where there are so many other significant complications to taking photos, that I feel the XZ-2 will give me better results than if I stuck with the RX100. If I am struggling with controls, menus etc. I am missing shots. There are additional issues with my use of the RX100 (NOTE the MY USE here as it is not the norm on this board). First the housings for the RX100 came out much more expensive than initially anticipated at over $1000. That increased the cost a lot going the route of the RX100 (I probably jumped the gun on buying the camera there.. ). Next, the control ring on the RX100 is a mushy mess in my opinion. Selecting settings on it is a task in frustration, and only gets worse when placed in a housing. The control ring on the XZ-2 is outstanding. With the lever in one position, it clicks through settings like aperture, shutterspeed, etc. In the other setting it switches to a smooth focusing ring and automatically goes to 4x on the lcd screen. That is utterly brilliant implementation. I predict all compacts will adopt this in a hurry as it is so good. Lastly, the macro capability on the RX100 is not that good. I like underwater macro work. Even with diopters attached, the RX100 just does not focus close very well. The XZ-2 is much better at macro. So all those features, issues added up to an overall lower cost underwater camera that I am totally at ease with from menus and controls. Yes it does not have the ultimate resolution and/or dynamic range (not sure there as we need to see controlled studies), but it works better for me. Lastly, in the world of underwater photography, Olympus has some very unique flash technology that gives it an edge in my opinion.
For someone who owns an XZ-1, I could see how it might not be enough of a change to convince one to make a switch. If I were buying this for anything but an underwater camera, I would make a different choice, and keep the RX100. It is more compact, and I would get used to it eventually. But I do not need that and am only interested in it for a dive camera, so the XZ-2 is a better option for me.
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