Sony RX100M3 Part 3: Recommended Settings and Tips 

This gentleman explains very clearly one of the facets of this camera. This camera is one that offers so many features that unless one has some familiarity with photographic principles, the learning curve can be quite steep. Even with some familiarity with things like ISO, shutter speed, f-stops and exposure values, the learning curve can still be daunting. However, this being said, the camera is an excellent one, and this presentation is very good. In my humble opinion, the best thing to do is to read as much of the manual as one can, and to see as many videos about this camera as possible until one acquires the necessary familiarity with the way it works. There is also the problem of being able to recall all the many features the camera offers. Again, this camera is excellent for what it can do. It can give the photographer more or less control over the photograph one wants to make. Many thanks to this gentleman for sharing his knowledge and expertise in such a clear and concise manner.

Hi Dave. Turn the monitor off This is possible. Go to settings. 2nd menu page 3 Goto FINDER/MONITOR chose viewfinder instead of the default auto. This will make the monitor off when the view finder is up regardless of whether or not your eye is up to the view finder.

7 dislikes? Seriously? Some people are just grumpy and mean. I just purchased a Sony RX100M3 and I really enjoyed your clear and concise walk through the menu. I'm typically an avid reader, so I had checked the manual first. The manual is terribly inadequate. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with us! God Bless.

Thanks for a great overview! So many things I would have had to try to dig up, and/or would never have thought to look up. Seriously, with so many terrible "tutorials" and "tips" vids out there, this is straight to the point and very helpful. Thank you!

I had a Nikon DSLR and i switch to this camera because it's light and compact, perfect for my hiking trips. But boy was i lost! So different from a Nikon. Thank you so much! Your video help me a lot

This is exactly what youtube should be about. Some pro explaining in a semi simple way how to do .-) Hats of for you sir

This was the best review I’ve seen on the RX model three. You did skip over several settings because you do not use them. I would like a follow up where you went into more detail about the items you skipped. Overall a great and helpful tool. Thanks

I was dismayed by the JPEG image quality compared to my RX100M2, then found out that the smudgey images were thanks to the Long Exposure NR setting. Set that to 'off' and things improved immediately. Just sharing for the benefit of anybody else experiencing that.

A very clear and informative post, Dave. Many thanks. I do believe this will be my next camera.

Finally a video that show some practical feature of this camera, thanks for sharing!

I just got the Sony RX100M4, and although it is a different version o the camera, I found this setup run through very helpful in learning the Sony way of thinking.. Thanks

Thank you! I'm have been considering selling my 8-month old Canon Rebel T3i and just using the Sony exclusively--this video all but seals the deal. The Canon is just too bulky for a walk-around camera, and, more importantly, too complicated for my meager ability. I'm just a girl who loves taking pictures of family and scenery but who doesn't want to sacrifice superb image quality that is typical with a "point and shoot". I have had this Sony for about 3 hours and am so impressed by the user friendliness! Your video has some great suggestions that I certainly couldn't have pulled from the Sony online help guide. Love the idea of being able to use memory recall! Vacationing in California and Canada later this year and can't wait to use this little (and I do mean little!) gem!

Thanks for this video. Original settings really bugging me until I saw this and learnt how to change the presets.

Thanks so much for this quick video filled with tidbits. I just bought this camera and I've been a Canon girl from day one, so it's been an uphill learning experience but this is putting me on the right path. Warm regards & God Bless!

Really helpful guide thanks- One note I think the eyepiece sensor does automatically turn off the monitor screen when you put your eye to it or even set your finger up to it to save power.

Thank you, Dave, for all the tips! I don't have a RX100 (but now thinking to have one!) but Sony a5100 - I still find this tutorial very useful. The Sony's menu interface, it seems, have a terrible reputation by many camera reviewers; however, few seriously get into the menu system and explains it to novices like myself.

Tip regarding saving battery life: If you set the viewfinder setting to viewfinder (instead of auto), the display will be completely turned off when the viewfinder is up (but otherwise active). You won't be needing the pseudo-deactivate button as suggested in the video.

Hi there! thanks for this walk through, I just got an M3 and this has been extremely helpful!

Just picked up a used RX100 mk3, your video helped a lot, thanks!

Thanks for this. I will try some of this on m4 that I have got regarding the light trail settings as been trying other ways and not getting far!

Liked it. Some nice setting suggestions. I enjoy the information you impart in your videos, keep them coming. I will subscribe.

This vid has taught me so much. Thankyou!👍👌. Love my Miii. Mainly do astrophotography, timelapse and moving objects in focus with blurred background. I put them up on my RU-vid channel. Many many thanks from the UK

Have you noticed a slight inaccuracy in metered manual mode. When exposure is set at M.M0 (correct exposure) it can take 2/3rds of a stop (either direction) before it registers either a + or - 0.3 shift (depending which side of + or - run-up to 0). There should only be a 1/3rd stop shift.

This is a really excellent tutorial! Just got this camera and I've been looking through tutorials and yours is the best I've found! Thank you! You're a good teacher. Subscribed. :)

pretty awesome review, thank you! will plan to buy on black friday!

This is a great help and excellent video on the settings for this cool camera. You did a great job with it!

perfect breakdown..all the important things i needed to hear.. great video..

Dave, Great video. Love the exposure compensation on the ring, great idea. Mike

Thanks, Dave! Very clear and helpful.

You know if you look in the viewfinder the lcd turns off. It has a proximity reader, so you can just save battery by putting your finger over the evf.

Great video! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and tips!

Thanks for making this! Really informative. Much appreciated.

Very good review Dave. It really helps. The thing I am really missing comparing to RX100M2 is to turn of the GUI of the Control Ring. I hope Sony will fix this in the firmware.

Thank you I never thought about that ☺

Thank you for making this video - huge help!

Thanks for an informative and entertaining set of three videos on the RX100 Mk iii. I wonder if you can help me. I noticed you use the front ring for exposure compensation and I'm eager to find out whether exposure compensation works in movie mode. I've searched everywhere and even called Sony today but nobody seemed to know what I was talking about! Looking at the Instruction pdf, I'm pretty sure it does - but maybe you can tell me

Thanks for this awesome video and the helpful tips!

Dear Dave Cheung, thank you very much for posting this very helpful video. I have just purchased a second hand 'as new' RX100 Mk III and implemented all your settings. Resulting in some pretty wonderful pictures, thank you! What I am struggling with is how to implement the Memory Recall settings i.e. how to fix them as 1, 2 and 3. No doubt time eludes you but, if by miracle you find time, please can you do a short video on achieving precisely that task. Thank you in advance, kind regards, Han.

Thank's Dave! A good tutorial

Do you need an sd card to store pictures on the camera

I have the Sony RX100 V this was helpful!

I think they should keep an ae lock as default button, I use ae lock in every picture

Man this is a super-cool-well-done video. Thank you ;)

5:15 It's not weird, don't talk this feature down. You can also specify a specific ISO for Mult Noise Reduction when going right in this menu and it will take 4 images and process them together to get a stunning result with less noise. This is a killer feature in low light photography when you need to pick a higher ISO. Actually I use Mult NR anytime when I don't need continuous shutter (many images), because the result is so much better than using regular ISO (unless I am in dynamic conditions where I benefit from better exposure range through Auto HDR Exposure Differences). I never have to modify my preferred drive mode, unless I need the timer, since those features requires single shutter mode and it will jump back to my preferred continuous shutter when I disable any of those again. Mult NR is just not so nice for battery life or when you want to take a lot of pictures in a short time, but it's certainly an upgrade to the image quality.

Great tutorial on the too-complicated Sony menu system.

Hi Dave ,Thank you very much! God bless you!

Hi Dave, Very good video of explaining the set up on the Sony RXM3..I have just purchased one and am setting it up.. I do 90% video and underwater..So I will be trying to set the camera up accordingly.... Do you have any suggestions on this? Also how do you add an item mode to your function menu for example steady shot video?

great job bro! any more instructional vids on the camera please?

This is awesome. Thanks for sharing. BTW, why dont you shoot in raw?

Many thanks for a superb tutorial..

Best explanation yet, keep at it!!!!!!!!

thanks a lot for the effort on this great video!

Thanks for this helpful video how do I remove the date imprint from my shots ?

So yeah I bought it and thanks followed along to set it up- great. Sorry to be such a newb but I'm having trouble setting up the MR presets- little helps please?

Dave, thank you for your post..but, we have a dedicated button to change the exposure compensation...right..?..so we do not need to program that function on the control ring..right..?

I have the same problem as Richard Demaray in his comment below where I cant change the settings in memory recall. The settings for both 1 2 and 3 are the same and I cant select to change. Anyone got any ideas on this? Great video btw.

thx so much for this interesting video man! Great job! Best regards, matteo

Absolutely super video ... great information packed in at a "near-perfect" pace. Kudos to you. How would you rate the RX100m3 v/s the Panasonic LX-100? I'm about to make a purchase & am on the fence between these two.

Your "Huh" is cute haha. I like repeated it 3x haha

Thank you so much for this informative video. I learned a lot. Any recommended settings for taking video on a cruise ship due to all the motion?

Excellent video. Keep going!

When i change the control ring to the exposure comp. nothing happens???? it's just as if there is nothing happening but when i choose back to zoom it works??? why?

Thanks for all the tips. Is there a way to turn off the shutter noise on this camera?

very nice videos - thanks -

Having now configured my camera to his liking; I want to know how to revert to default settings with everything automated because I am not going to remember any of this.

i followed Mr Dave every steps he taught, and i lost how to set the timer, anyone can teach me please? thanks in advance.

Many thanks!

*A tip for you: You can take pictures with your RX100M3 when you plug in a 5V, 1.0A electric power from the mobile power pack

Thank you! Very clear, and informative. I love your idea of changing the control ring to exposure compensation. I find that my RX100 iii often gets the exposure wrong, and that is the most frustrating thing to have to change on any camera when you already have focus and composition lined up. But I also use that control ring for manual focus because I do a lot of closeup and 'macro' shots and I find the auto focus really sucks on this camera if you don't have an edge with lots of contrast to focus on. I have focus mode in the function menu, and one of the rocker buttons set to toggle MF and AF (I set mine to the right button, but it's hard to hit it and hold on to the camera at the same time, so I'm going to try setting it to other positions. I do wish we could re-assign that Movie button to back button focus. I 2nd your wishlist for the deactivate monitor option to ACTUALLY deactivate the monitor.

Does it have a picture profile settings or anything alike?

Screen turns off automatically when you put your eye to the view finder.

Is there a possible way to hide the bottom icons? Using this as a webcam the icons kind of get in the way with wanting to not display them for the viewers.

Your video on Recommended Settings and Tips was a great help in navigating the RX100M3 menus and settings. I set most settings as you suggest, and that has helped me get comfortable with the camera pretty quickly. However, I'm confused regarding your recommended video settings. You say that the XAVC S plays well with Mac, but that raises some issues: 1) I currently have a Sony HD TV (not 4K)- so my understanding is that I currently have no way show all the resolution that XAVC S offers. 2) If I were to acquire a 4K TV, would I need Final Cut Pro or some other professional level Mac program to edit XAVC S files? 3) Before buying the RX100M3, I would load AVCHD videos from my SD card into Aperture, iPhoto or iMovie and then edit them in iMovie for display on my HD TV via AppleTV (2nd Gen.). Am I correct in thinking that to continue working that way I should be recording video in AVCHD on the RX100M3? 4) If I use AVCHD, what's the best Record Setting that's also usable by iMovie? 5) Any thoughts on if or when Mac iLife software will be able to handle XAVC S? Is it continent on wide acceptance of 4K TV? Finally, you mention a piece of software for translating AVCHD to something more compatible with iMovie, etc. I wasn't able to find what that software was.

Is the auto focus significantly better than S95?

love the site by the way!

Does it has step zoom function like S95? 28mm 35mm 50mm and so forth

Terrific video but need - Help (anyone). Why is the Auto Flash setting grayed out and not available regardless which shooting mode I choose on my RX100M III? How does one make the Auto Flash available and in doing so, does this mean that under low light situations, would the built-in flash "automatically" pop up? Cannot understand why the "Auto Flash" (as well as the "Flash Off" options are always grayed out and not available. Any help wold be appreciated.

What should my top dial be set at while I make these changes?

Where are parts 1 and 2?

Perfect

Great info! Just what I was looking for! You mentioned a software for converting avchd, I browsed your blog, but I couldn't find it. Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks!

Thank you, I wanted to ask you please let me know how to unlock the rocket dial ring we used for ISO on right and left for Focus and downside for exposure and upper side for screen function when I trying to use for shutter speed to move clock or anti clock it is locked. please help me out. regards

thanks i've learnt a lot from this vid :D

Hi Dave! Can you please help me to get the right settings to film in the dark, mostly fireworks!? I was told this camera would be great for that but all I film turns out to be crap compared to other videos with fireworks. Doesnt matter if they use phones, GoPros or other cameras, it´s always a lot better quality than I get. Sorry for my bad english.

Thanks

Dave, I can't get the Exposure Compensation to work on the Control Ring in the 2 Auto Modes & any of the Scene Modes. It will only work in the "A", "P", "S" & "M"' modes. What am I doing wrong?

where do i go exactly for iMovie to read my avchd videos? can't find the "blog" you refer to

hey I was wondering if a 128gb sdxc card will work on this camera?

David Great review, lots of camera not so much talking heads, must be an actual secret given the huge number of talking head camera guys. I also just picked up the DX100M3, a week before the M4 announcement. Just one question, on the MR setting I can see the 3 different memory settings. On my camera they are all the same. I can't seem to get into the settings on each page and change the settings. I have the 1.2 firmware. Any hints or better yet, another video on how to change the settings and maybe some choices like black and white, etc.? Cheers

does it use the same battery type as the previous versions?

Can anyone tell what is "4k still image PB"? And why is it not turning on?

Hi Dave, I have just purchased this camera, mainly to use at large arena concerts. What would be the best settings to use? Or maybe just Auto mode? Thanks.

You saved my life, thank you ~

So I got this camera as of recently and recorded a video in XAVC S format, but when I connect it to my mac pro via usb it will try and import it as mp4. Even if I just go to finder and look at the file it says MP4. Why is that? Is it because I'm not connecting the SD card directly? This makes no sense to me.

Why not RAW photos?

I want to get rid of the histogram and all of that info. I go to the gear icon DISP button, monitor, and mark no disp info, enter and it continues to show. Annoying. HELP!

Can you recommend me the settings if i want to take long-shutter pics when I'm using a tripod? (e.g. taking pics of northern lights)

Hi there, Very good videos on this great little camera, thanks. I'm just wondering... having the exposure compensation on the control ring is interesting, but isn't the EC merely another way of adjusting the ISO or am I missing something?

6:25 Hi Dave! I'm new to cameras and I was just wondering how to easily get my AVCHD video onto a Mac? I can't find the link you mentioned and I accidentally recorded a few videos on that format! Thanks!

Hi there! I’m extremely curious about the part where you mentioned you are able to convert the AVCHD files into something that will work better on Mac? I wasn’t able to find that on your website so I was just curious if you could point me in the right direction for that information? Thanks!