Overview

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 IV digital camera

This blog is a guide to the operation of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 IV digital camera. It contains some of the same information as my complete book, Photographer’s Guide - Get The Most From Your Sony DSC-RX100 IV. It has been revised with new illustrations and text in many chapters to cover the new and enhanced features of this camera..

The RX100 IV camera continues in the tradition of the RX100 III and earlier models with great portability, excellent image quality, and advanced features for taking stills and videos. It adds several enhancements, foremost of which is a new type of image sensor, called the Exmor RS, a 1-inch type backside-illuminated sensor with stacked layers. The new design for the sensor gives it much greater speed than the sensors on previous RX100 models. As a result, the RX100 IV can shoot bursts of still images at speeds up to 16 frames per second and can shoot slow-motion video at a frame rate of 960 frames per second. The new sensor also lets the camera record video clips with 4K resolution (greater than HD), though only up to about 5 minutes at a time. The enhanced sensor also enables the use of an electronic shutter with speeds up to 1/32000 second.

Another new capability provided for the RX100 IV is tethered shooting. With Sony’s Remote Camera Control software, which you can download from Sony’s site, you can control the camera from your computer when the camera is connected to the computer with its USB cable.

The RX100 IV retains advanced features from the previous model, including a pop-up electronic viewfinder with an improved resolution of 2.3 million dots. The lens has a wide-angle setting of 24mm, a bright f/1.8 aperture at the wide-angle end, and an f/2.8 aperture at the telephoto end. The camera has a tilting LCD screen, a built-in neutral density filter, and the ability to download camera apps that can add features and functions. Besides the ability to take short bursts of super-slow-motion video, the RX100 IV comes with several features oriented to professional video production, including picture profiles with adjustments for gamma curve, knee, black level, and other settings, making this model suitable for use as a second or backup camera for serious videographers.

Despite the addition of several advanced features for still and video photography, the RX100 IV retains the small size of the earlier RX100 models, which leaves the new model as possibly the greatest value available in a camera that can fit into just about any pocket.

My goal on this blog is to provide a complete guide to the camera’s features, explaining how they work and when you might want to use them. The book is aimed largely at beginning and intermediate photographers who are not satisfied with the official documentation and prefer a more user-friendly explanation of the camera’s controls and menus. For those seeking more advanced information, I discuss some topics that go beyond the basics, and I include in the appendices information about additional resources. You can request for free updates and other information by contacting me.

PRELIMINARY SETUP

When you purchase your Sony DSC-RX100 IV, the box should contain the camera itself, battery, charger, wrist strap, two adapters for attaching a shoulder strap (though no shoulder strap is supplied), micro USB cable, and several brief instruction pamphlets. There is no CD with software or user’s guide; the software programs supplied by Sony are accessible through the Internet.

To install Sony’s software for viewing and working with images and videos on Windows-based computers, go to the following Internet address: http://www.sony.co.jp/imsoft/Win/. If you have a Macintosh computer, you can get the software at http://www.sony.co.jp/imsoft/Mac/. You can download Play Memories Home, a program for basic image editing, uploading, and management; Image Data Converter, a program for editing and processing images captured using the advanced Raw format; and Capture One Express, a special Sony-oriented version of Capture One, a sophisticated Raw-processing program from a company known as Phase One.

At the same websites, you also can install Sony’s Remote Camera Control software, which lets you control the RX100 IV from your computer when the camera is connected to the computer with its USB cable.

You might want to attach the wrist strap as soon as possible to help you keep a tight grip on the camera. The strap can be attached to the small mounting lug on either the left or right side of the camera. I have never attached the strap, though, because the camera is so small that I can hold it firmly without much risk of dropping it, even without a strap. See Appendix A for a discussion of custom grips that can also be of use. If you purchase an optional neck strap, you can attach it to the camera using the strap adapters provided by Sony in the box with the RX100 IV.