- Have I mentioned that this tends to be
my favorite camera?
Hey everybody, this is Roberto Blake of robertoblake.com
helping you create something awesome today.
Welcome to another video about cameras and camera gear.
Today we're gonna be talking about
the Sony RX100 Mark Five, and how it handles
low light situations, and what it's performance
and capabilities are when you're walking around,
and there's not nearly enough light.
Overall, the Sony RX100 Mark Five is
one of my favorite cameras.
It is the vlogging camera that I use
when I need to do selfie recording,
that kind of stuff.
You guys know that it's the camera that I
primarily use when doing my creative thoughts vlog
where I talk about my experiences as a creative person
in day to day life, and for being able to do that,
and capture my life pretty much each and every day,
and then compile that into a video vlog,
this is the ideal camera.
Unlike my Panasonic Lumix GH5,
which is recording this video right now,
it can't shoot continuous 4K.
It does not have a microphone input jack.
The one thing it excels at for being a pocket size camera
is the way that it handles low light situations,
and the fact that it has a great auto focusing system,
because of the phase detection.
Now, the reason this is important for a lot of people
is that in cameras like the Panasonic Lumix G5, G7,
et cetera, and even Canon, the Canon G7 X Mark Two,
which a lot of my friends have, and many have
switched out for this Sony pocket camera instead,
the issue is that the lack of phase detection,
and the lack of a fast auto focusing system
that's actually accurate becomes important.
In my case, the way that my complexion works,
when you have low light situations,
is not gonna be great when it comes to
contrast detection, because there is not
enough contrast for it to work accurately.
This may vary depending on what your complexion is,
and in full sunlight friends of mine
have an opposite problem sometimes.
They actually end up being very washed out,
and they have like a ghosting effect that happens,
and they look too bleached out, and that
has also to do with the way that it's contrasting
against them, and metering.
So, there are couple of tricks
to get around that, believe it or not.
One thing you want to deal with the exposure value.
If it's full sun, and you have a lighter complexion,
turn your exposure value down and see what works there,
and you'll find that the colors are much more accurate.
If you're someone with a darker complexion
in low light situations, turn your exposure value,
AKA the EV up in the camera, and that will also help.
When you're in full sunlight, you also need to
turn the ND filter on.
This is a neutral density filter that is
built into the camera, which is one of it's best features,
because what it does is it helps reduce
the overall exposure, and you won't be washed out,
and you can still shoot wide open at F 1.8, F 2.8,
whatever you need to get the stylistic effect
that you want without having to go up to
a higher F stop like 16, or what have you,
in order to be able to compensate for that.
So, you get to maintain the look that you want.
You get to have certain things in focus,
certain things with a blurry background,
and you'll be just fine because of the
built in ND filter, which is a fantastic feature.
When you're shooting in low light situations,
you'll want to make sure that the ND filter
is turned off, because then you won't get
the extra stops of light that you want.
Also, it'll look very grainy.
When you shoot in low light situations,
and you have this open at F 2.0, F 2.8, or F 1.8,
it looks amazing, and when you have the phase
detection turned on, even if you're someone
with a darker complexion, it can pick you up
fairly accurately.
Sometimes you'll have to move the camera
back and forth to adjust to get it to
kind of snap on to you.
I also use facial recognition, and that helps,
and it's a great feature in this camera.
So, that's something that you should really look at,
and I think that that will help you
when it comes to using this camera in low light.
Generally speaking, though,
I am happy with it's performance.
I feel like I don't get a lot of noise and grain from this
when I'm in those low light situations.
The auto focusing works fairly well for me,
and I get usable footage out of it when I'm self recording.
When I'm behind the camera, this does amazing work,
both for photography, and for video.
When it comes to those low light situations,
I get some of my best shots of the Brooklyn Bridge,
rather under the Brooklyn Bridge, from this camera,
and so I have no issues with the low light
performance on this camera.
I think that from my standpoint it's one of
the better overall low light shooters that I have,
and I think that if I need something
that's going to get the shot in low light,
and I need to not think about it,
that this is my go to, this is my default
for convenience and size.
It just works, and it works better than my iPhone.
So, I'm happy with it.
In fact, the ability to have the fast auto focus,
the low light performance features,
the fact that it can do F 1.8, and then
if I want to be consistent on the zoom range of 2.8,
are the primary reasons that I did end up choosing
the Sony RX100 Mark Five as part of my overall arsenal.
In terms of the cameras that I typically use now,
it's this.
I'm now also prioritizing the Panasonic Lumix GH5,
because I want to get used to shooting with that
as my primary camera, and now my secondary camera
is my Panasonic Lumix G7, which was my primary
for the last couple of months this year,
and I've pretty much discontinued using
any of my Nikon stuff.
So, that is kind of where I'm at with
these cameras right now.
I love the Sony system for it's phase detection,
and I love it's fast and accurate auto focusing,
and I love it's low light performance.
I think it's very hard to be competitive there,
but I also like the convenience in flip out screen
and size of the Panasonic cameras,
and the only thing holding me back
from getting an A7-S2, and the reason
I actually prefer to have my GH5 is because
aside from the Sony RX100 Mark Five
and it's flip out screen, Sony's not making
flip out screen cameras, and as somebody
who is mostly doing online video,
and working as a one man band,
I absolutely need that.
Bigger sensors help with low light performance,
but I think the Sony RX100 Mark Five
proves that whether it's Sony or Panasonic,
or whoever, that you can still get great
and tremendous low light performance
out of a small form camera, with a smaller sensor.
I think that they're still better than
the full frame cameras of just a few years ago,
to be honest, because of the newer technology,
and how much they're putting into
adapting and evolving that.
So, if you're looking for a pocket sized low light shooter,
the Sony RX100 Mark Five is definitely
what I'm gonna recommend for you.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed seeing
some of my sample footage, and my thoughts on
using it, especially how to use the ND filter,
and also my tips on just handling the exposure value
based on your complexion.
If you have lights around that are blowing you out,
turn down that exposure value, or if you don't
have enough contrast because of your complexion
with a dark background, turn the exposure value up,
and then just make sure you're using
the ND filter that's built in appropriately,
just depending on your circumstances.
Anyway, if you guys still have questions
about the Sony RX100 Mark Five, leave those in the comments.
If you have general questions about video or photography,
I'd love to help you out with that, too.
Also, be sure to check out the other feature videos
that I've done on this camera if you're
still trying to make a buying decision.
All of my gear is linked up in the description below.
Like this video if you like it.
Don't forget to subscribe.
Check out the other awesome content on the channel.
As always you guys, thanks so much for watching,
and don't forget, create something awesome today
with whatever camera you happen to have.
(hip hop music)