As long as no act's of God get in the way, Sony knows better than darn near anyone how to keep the supply of mass marketed consumer electronic goods flowing.
This is the company that has sold over 220 million Walkman's remember. They know how to ramp up for a product launch to meet initial demand and have a massive manufacturing capacity and distribution system.
Flooding in Thailand did hurt the NEX7 production of course, and the Zeiss 24mm is in short supply still (not a mass market lenses though) but overall you just don't see Sony have the type of shortages the likes of Panasonic et al will have.
RX100 had a huge number of preorders and pretty much every single retailer (which alone is many, many times the number Fuji, Olympus etc have) got stock on time and was able to fill all preorders and still meet the every growing popularity.
Well we all like it, but it remains to be seen if this is really a lucrative niche. Too high a price point for the masses probably. Time will tell I suppose
Yakim Peled wrote:
Thanks for the review. Indeed it looks like a game-changer, despite some oddities and small problems.
Happy shooting,
Yakim.
Glad you enjoyed it.
I can't wait for the RX200 or whatever they're going to call it.
If they put a F1.4 prime in there, oh man.
My impressions are that the RX100 not only destroys ALL of the Olympus line up right except for the OM-D but even beats the GX-1/G-3 and is close in performance to the old Canon 18mpx sensors in their current consumer DSLRs.
Lets not forget that Exmor technology scales better with smaller sensors.
kwalsh wrote:
Well we all like it, but it remains to be seen if this is really a lucrative niche. Too high a price point for the masses probably. Time will tell I suppose
Ken
Hardly the end all yardstick, but the RX100 has been listed among Amazon's top selling camera's ever since it was announced which is a pretty telling indication. I would have to think the camera has gotten (and is selling) far better than Sony could of ever hoped and if anything I think its still picking up steam with more and more positive reviews coming in.
It is a premium to pay for a compact of course, but I think its a case where you really are getting a true premium and unmatched product to match the price.
Total contrast to something like a Leica (cough Panasonic lol) V-lux camera which has a premium price tag, higher than the RX100 even and only delivers what is a dime a dozen small sensor Panasonic. Your paying hundreds extra for a red plastic dot.
RX100 still has you paying hundreds more, but your getting a much larger sensor, the White Magic LCD, exceptional video quality etc.
I don't think we are going to see one in every pocket, but I think a good number of enthusiast photographers are all going to end up picking one up sooner or later. Its just a tough camera to resist because it not only does so much right, but frankly does something that most of us rather always wanted but thought impossible, but "big" camera performance into a pocket.
Hopefully given the roll Sony has been on, it will be a F 1.2 prime
13mm f1.2 fixed lens for a 35mm equiv and keep the camera the same size = sold!
FlyPenFly wrote:
Glad you enjoyed it.
I can't wait for the RX200 or whatever they're going to call it.
If they put a F1.4 prime in there, oh man.
My impressions are that the RX100 not only destroys ALL of the Olympus line up right except for the OM-D but even beats the GX-1/G-3 and is close in performance to the old Canon 18mpx sensors in their current consumer DSLRs.
Lets not forget that Exmor technology scales better with smaller sensors.
For me, we're at a point in time where I'm actually very happy with what I've got (NEX 7 and RX 100) and am not spending any energy thinking about future products. I wasn't expecting the RX100, but I'm thrilled with it as it fits a need I've had since I first got into digital photography.
millsart wrote:
Hardly the end all yardstick, but the RX100 has been listed among Amazon's top selling camera's ever since it was announced which is a pretty telling indication. I would have to think the camera has gotten (and is selling) far better than Sony could of ever hoped and if anything I think its still picking up steam with more and more positive reviews coming in.
I know I'll be getting one eventually almost for sure. I wonder about the larger market, but the Amazon indication is certainly a good one. Also, Pogue told everyone to buy one so that's got to help as well! I wonder about price. I often unreasonably worry about getting a "deal" and should probably just buy the thing sooner rather than later. On the other hand, I also buy a lot camera stuff that I use less than I expect... Right now what is holding back the impulse purchase is no LR support yet. So maybe I'm safe until September or so!
I fully know all about buying things and ending up using them less than expected (darn large format printer that wasted more ink in cleaning cycles than actual printing being a prime example lol)
RX100 is one rare time that something actually turned out to be more used than I expected. I thought it was going to be for those rare times when I didn't want to carry a CSC but still wanted more than my iPhone. Mind you I'm actually rather happy shooting with my iPhone as well. My other compacts usually always gathered dust.
RX100 though is really so much better than my iPhone, which in turn means its much better than any compact I've owned, and in fact on par with many CSC's and APS-C DSLR's that I've had that its rather replaced both.
I'm not taking a CSC with me anymore (in fact sold them) I'm taking the RX100 as for a majority of what I'd shoot with them it works just as well. Of course some CSC owners use those cameras for more "serious" photography, which they can do, but when I'm "serious" its usually a FF DSLR.
Hopefully with LR support we can see just what the RX100's raw files are capable of too, and fingers crossed its some rather nice dynamic range and detail.
I think I could easily picture myself starting to take the RX100 when doing some landscape shooting if the DR and detail from the 20 meg files are there. Lens is pretty good, especially stopped down. Just need to not be limited by the Sony JPEG's which aren't bad, but if my previous NEX ownership was an indication, a bit soft.
Ha! I have a Canon 9000 still in its B&H box sitting in the hallway. Couldn't pass it up at $139 and rationalized it as a cheap way to learn color printing so prints sent out to services would be better.
For me CSC is my "serious" camera these days, but it still doesn't fit in a pocket any better than a FF camera.
So a few years ago when the LX3 first came out I bought one at a deep discount (for some reason they were cheaper when introduced than a few months later) just before a landscape trip. Brought it as a back-up. On a whim I decided to keep my APS-C DSLR in the bag as much as possible and see what the LX3 could do. That was an eye-opening trip. At base ISO that camera was excellent and so was the lens when stopped down just a bit. I pretty much shot the whole trip with just the LX3 and based on that did a few other trips in a similar manner. I expect the RX100 will do just as well as my E-M5+14-45 for landscape. That is a big draw for me.
To achieve a 28mm field of view (73°) for an in-camera JPEG, the corrections must deal with a very high level of barrel distortion. The raw file is uncorrected, and shows a diagonal field of view closer to that of a 24mm (85°). This may explain why Sony’s own information has claimed both 24mm and 28mm as the widest angle, when the stated focal length and sensor size clearly equate to 28mm. My measurements from the two image versions below indicate that if the correct equivalent is 28mm, the uncorrected diagonal angle is equivalent to a 24.8mm. Either way the RX100 should not be criticised if you could be happy with a new Canon EOS M – 1.6X sensor, 18-55mm lens, that’s a 28.8mm widest limit before applying Adobe Lens Profile corrections which will probably reduce the true angle to a 31mm....Show more →
That is interesting, but not really surprising as software correction is really becoming the norm as far as most lenses are designed these days, especially on smaller formats like compacts and m4/3. My Canon S100 had a massive amount of barrel distortion on the wide end but I think its just the price one has to pay if they want a wider/fast lens. Its perhaps possible to design a well corrected yet compact lens but I'm sure the cost would just be far too steep for the target market.Luckily with 20megs of resolution, the RX100 has some pixels to spare when applying some lens correction profiles.
Will be interesting to play with the raw's in LR and perhaps try a lens correction profile along the lines of what the popular Fisheye Hemi does by correcting just the verticals to provide a still distorted, but far more natural look, while giving a bit of extra FoV.
I for one would of loved a 24-100mm instead of a 28-100, so if I can shoot RAW and perhaps get a 25/26mm instead with some optical compromise, thats a step in the right direction for me
Also rather interesting in that review is their claim "At the best – ISO 80 to 125, stopped down just one full step from full aperture – the RX100 can match or better the typical output of a 21 megapixel full frame DSLR with 24-105mm lens."
According to lenstip.com, this is what m4/3 and Samsung NX do with wide lenses, too. They don't worry about correcting distortion in lens, and rely on software after the fact, so the lenses are actually a little wider than advertised, which enables the distortion corrected image to have the stated angle of view.
the photoclubalpha review is the first really critical one I have read:
The RAW shows plenty more detail than the corrected JPEG but this is expected. The distortion is severe though, who knows what RAWs will really look like.
Is it wise to buy a camera before major RAW support appears?
I somehow did not like the JPEGs from the evening shots, probably a OM-D can do better here and be still (semi)pocketable (large coat).
I like the shots on this page though, even VERY MUCH, especially the newborn cub!
Jeff Kott wrote:
For me, we're at a point in time where I'm actually very happy with what I've got (NEX 7 and RX 100) and am not spending any energy thinking about future products.
You will when they'll hit the market. Alas, GAS is not curable....
