RX100 Low Light with filter

[Skating101]

I am intending on purchasing the Sony RX100 VA camera for underwater videography.

The Sony cameras have a maximum custom white balance of 9900K which leads to imperfect white balance. Most divers use filters to compensate for this shortfall. My question is how much of an effect do these filters have on the low light performance of the camera as it only has a 1" sensor?

I have read in other guides that the filters do between 1 to 1 1/2 stops of light reduction. In real world applications has anyone found these filters to significantly effect the low light performance of the RX100? With the filter what is the most common ISO setting for underwater filming?

I intend to use lights for close range/macro filming however lights are ineffective for medium range/large/skittish subjects.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[npole]

Old thread but gonna reply for whoever may have the same questions (I own a M5 not a VA).

For what I tested:

- Manual settings of the custom white balance is effectively limited to 9900K (you can't set a higher value manually), but setting it with the custom function (pointing at white/grey or whatever) seems to set the camera to a higher value, even if it returns the "error" while setting it. Basically it will just tell you that the WB may be out of scale, but it will be set regardless. You can test this by setting it to 9900K and then via the custom function and notice the difference.

- Filters does help. I didn't noticed that the end result (after have color corrected in both cases) will be hugely different, neither at 30-40 meters deep, but it does help indeed. It removes 1 stop, but you won't notice this in normal conditions. The annoyance is about if you do both videos and pictures using strobes: you are forced to put and remove the filter, even with a flip is an annoyance and even more if you're already using a double flip like me (macro lens, wide lens). Most of the times I do not use a red filter at all because of this by accepting the compromise of having to color correct the videos more accurately.

- I leave the ISO on auto (max 1200) and have set a minimum of 1/120 shutter speed in the options.

 

[thegrandpoohbah]

Have you seen this?

Best Underwater Cameras of 2018: Compacts & Mirrorless Cameras - Underwater Photography - Backscatter

For video you might be better off with the Panasonic Lumix LX10. I just bought a RX100 VA with a Nauticam housing and all the goodies but I was very close to getting the LX10 myself for the better underwater white balance capabilities and its ability to assign autofocus to the back function button. Ultimately I shoot mostly still phtos in RAW so the more advanced autofocus system of the Sony won out.

 

[peterak]

@thegrandpoohbah, your thought process is exactly the same as mine—I chose the Sony for raw stills of fast-moving, hard to focus on fish. Would go with Panny for video though. I find the "underwater auto" white balance setting on the Sony kinda, sorta helps a bit, but post-processing is still needed.

@npole, thanks for posting your custom white balance experience. Will have to try it.

 

[tugela]

Hello! This seems to be a professional forum, I want to ask a question here.
I am selling off my Sony A7II as on our last vacation I hardly used it as I didn't want to lug around that thing through the islands. It's a great camera, but I'm also not really into investing more into the lenses for the camera.

We travel and I wanted to have a camera that I can do stills and video for some travel vlogs. The Sony RX100 seems to fit that nearly perfectly. The only thing I'm caught between the III and V. At B&H I can get the V for about $950 with some goodies, and the III is about $698 now.

That's a decent price difference and through my reading here and other places, I'm still not quite sure what, if any, big differences there are between those two. I'd prefer to save around $250 and put that into some accessories, but if there's something that's worth that upgrade I was hoping others with experience could give their advice. Thanks.

 

[thegrandpoohbah]

tugela, I found this article to be quite useful: Sony RX100 Series Comparison (I, II, III, IV, V and VI) - Photography Life

 

[Barmaglot]

The biggest difference is PDAF. Models I through IV rely on CDAF, same as most other compacts, but V and VI have hybrid PDAF similar to what you had on A7II. If you get V(A) rather than V, I believe it has the improved manual white balance (no longer restricted to 9900K). There's also 4K and high-speed video, deeper buffer, higher continuous frame rate, but they aren't important as those two.

 

[thegrandpoohbah]

If you get V(A) rather than V, I believe it has the improved manual white balance (no longer restricted to 9900K).

Nope, still limited to 9900K.

 

[Barmaglot]

Nope, still limited to 9900K.

This review of model VI indicates that it can go above 9900K, although the displayed value is simply '>9900K' rather than an actual number. I though RX100VA is an update of RX100V body and lens with RX100VI's electronics and software?

 

[npole]

This review of model VI indicates that it can go above 9900K, although the displayed value is simply '>9900K' rather than an actual number.

That should be true for the V as well... you get an error, but it actually store the value.
However now that I'm using the RX100 by a while, I can say that my worries about the white balance limitation was just that.. worries. Auto balance is OK for video (and post production), I rarely used any filter, and it works perfectly (of course) for the pictures (with strobes a/o lights).