Sony RX - 100 or canon 100d

[Interceptor121]

Look at the two fish portraits and see which image you like best. It's not difficult to see that not only there is no gap but the canon image is worse.
A portrait gives you an idea of the richness of colour of the camera sensor. It is obvious that that the RX100 has better colours
For dynamic range you need to find a scene with a lot of contrast and dark and bright areas. I can post a few examples here but again the sensor of the RX100 has got more dynamic range. What a set up like the 100D can offer is lens quality however you need to consider that the eye is less interested in detail than colors and dynamic range and that when you use lenses behind domes image quality also drops so you need smaller aperture that in turn need higher ISO that in turn mean less color and dynamic range

A good explanation of sensor and lens iq is on dxomark so you can have a look how those things are evaluated taking into account that lens iq in water generally drops more for SLR and domes than it does for flat ports

Motorbike in Hold 2 by Interceptor121, on Flickr

Example picture with very dark and very bright areas

 

[ShootingUnderwater.com]

Wow, you guys. This is interesting banter for sure. : ) Ppina, have you taken a closer look at both? Which will you choose, curious minds would like to know. oh, then write your own review. :cool2:
~ R

 

[James R]

I wonder how much of these issues are down to post processing. It's easy to get a bit over-zealous with the sliders in Lightroom!

PS - Can you please at least learn to write in paragraphs broken into short statements and thoughts...........It's almost painful to read unless one is drinking a cocktail

FYI - your overuse of words in all caps (which can be interpreted as yelling) and so many periods between sentences isn't exactly what I would call easy to read.

 

[ppina]

Thanks. After all these information I don't sell my RX 100 to buy the new canon 100d.

 

[bvanant]

I am not sure how to look at raw images and make comparisons, someone or some program needs to convert raw images to something to edit. Lightroom or Aperture or Photoshop or Camera Raw or ???. That being said, if you shoot raw you will have the ability to make your pics look like you want (more or less). As for subjective scientific data the folks at DXo suggest that the Rx100 sensor is a bit better than the Canon except for low light performance, but within their margin of difference.
To me the differences are noticeable but I mostly shoot macro with Canon macro lenses and the macro performance of the RX100 is not quite as good. The sony lens can capture a frame of about [FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]76 x 51 mm while the Canon 60 is 1:1 on the APS-C sensor [/FONT]25.1 × 16.7 mm or about 10x more resolution (in terms of area). In any case, both are good cameras and if I wanted to go to a P&S it would be with the Sony.
Bill

 

[KeithG]

I am not sure how to look at raw images and make comparisons, someone or some program needs to convert raw images to something to edit. Lightroom or Aperture or Photoshop or Camera Raw or ???. That being said, if you shoot raw you will have the ability to make your pics look like you want (more or less). As for subjective scientific data the folks at DXo suggest that the Rx100 sensor is a bit better than the Canon except for low light performance, but within their margin of difference.
To me the differences are noticeable but I mostly shoot macro with Canon macro lenses and the macro performance of the RX100 is not quite as good. The sony lens can capture a frame of about 76 x 51 mm while the Canon 60 is 1:1 on the APS-C sensor 25.1 × 16.7 mm or about 10x more resolution (in terms of area). In any case, both are good cameras and if I wanted to go to a P&S it would be with the Sony.
Bill

Thanks for the facts!
I started looking for dynamic range information and found a few online reviews that indicated the #s for the cameras where very close (the canon had a slight edge), but I do not have the back ground knowledge to determine if the difference will be significant.
I do know that a car getting 10mpg is better than one that gets 9mpg AND that they both suck at gas consumption. So 10 is still a lousy #.

 

[Interceptor121]

Am very skeptical when magazines talk about image quality just by comparing pictures. DXO mark has a good approach splitting sensor ratings from lens ratings.
If you look at the comparison overall the RX100 has a better score of 67 vs 63 this is actually not sufficient for a conclusion.
What is more important are the two subscores and the ISO that they are measured at.
In terms of colour depth the Sony is 0.7 Ev better which means difference in colour richness are barely noticeable in normal cases except very colourful subjects as the fish portraits. Generally a score of 22 bit (this is measured not subjective) corresponds to an excellent result the sony has 22.5 bits that is great and the canon falls short of 22 stopping at 21.8 bits.
In terms of dynamic range the RX100 has a score of 12.4 Ev which again is excellent the canon has 11.3 Ev that really is a bit poor as similar or lower than a canon powershot s series.
The low iso performance in sport I don't find it useful as rarely you shoot continuous frame in ambient light underwater actually never. It just gives an indication at which ISO the SNR drops below 18 dB and the image starts looking grainy

When you instead compare lenses you really can only look at flat port as performance in domes drops significantly
If you look at the canon macro 60mm you have very little chromatic aberration and a fairly sharp lens much sharper than the RX100, taking into account that a cropped sensor has anyway more depth of field than a compact (contrary to what people think) when it comes to macro not only things look bigger but also sharper in virtue or sharper lens but larger depth of field and less fringing. A wet diopter deteriorates image quality even more adding more chromatic aberrations
This is the reason why a compact with few exception can never match a DSLR when it comes to macro and can't even match a micro 4:3 actually with a good lens.

A comparable camera to the Canon 100D would be the Olympus OMD-EM-10 this camera in fact despite being only a 4:3 beats this entry level canon DSLR on all sensor features and at lens level has a similar sharpness. When you look at wide angle pictures in water however based on personal experience taking the same shots on the same dive there is no perceived visual difference with the RX100

 

[KeithG]

The low iso performance in sport I don't find it useful as rarely you shoot continuous frame in ambient light underwater actually never. It just gives an indication at which ISO the SNR drops below 18 dB and the image starts looking grainy

I am very interested in continuous frame capture at low ISO since I use strobes and so am not limited by ambient. I am currently mostly limited by camera card write speed and strobe cycle time.

Continuous or burst mode allows me to capture shots like the following:



Maybe I should be shooting video and picking out a frame?

 

[Interceptor121]

You need around 1/500 of a second to shoot without strobes or more to avoid motion blur on moving fish. That means ISO 800 and higher. A job for a full frame DSLR like the nikon D800 definitely not for an entry level camera

 

[dantes]

This is a great thread. Thank you all. I found this site as I was looking for a comparison for these two for an upcoming trip.

Im actually leaving in a few days. I just got the Ikelite D100 package. But now am having buyers remorse, as I am thinking I should have gone with the RX100 for it's 1.8 lens.

My photographic goals are:
1. Black and white natural lighting photos - therefore the 1.8 lens was appealing (inspired by: This award-winning underwater photographer makes stunning images on a point-and-shoot camera - Business Insider)
2. Wanted to try doing those split level photos - therefore the larger dome was appealing on the D100. Never tried this, so I dont know what the best equipment would be, as there is also a dome for the RX100.

Any thoughts/wisdom? Thank you all.