What the buyer must be aware of before making a purchase, is the lack of macro features of the camera. At 70mm, the minimum focusing distance is 30cm proud, that's not enough, for example, for the frame-filling shot of flowers OAE.
For landscapes, or in the city / vacation camera is due to their focal length in their element. The Zeiss lens provides for a compact camera very sharp images, here the Sony its competitors is a clear step forward. Although edge blurring occur, but noticeable only at high magnification on the PC, in print, this is likely depending on the output size have little impact. The pictures look very natural, the colors of the camera liked me a lot. Despite the 20 megapixel Sony delivers the comparatively low-noise images, it's really amazing what this sensor provides. The JPEGs are used, the compression-related artifacts are limited. It is great that the high-ISO noise reduction can be switched off in the menu, oil paintings ade!
In order to assess the image quality more closely, I have the Sony compared to my Canon S90 and Olympus E-M10 to the Panasonic 14-45mm. The S90 is beaten hands down and has compared almost milky. For Olympus, the result is increasingly scarce. In the center of the image, the Sony can compete in sharpness, but towards the edge they can significantly. Here the Olympus can contrast points and beats the Sony clearly. Comparing the size of the lenses, this result is predictable and in no way a disadvantage for Sony.
Regarding the S90 also falls on the autofocus speed, this is worlds better, because much faster at the Sony. However, it is not as easy to move the focus point, depending on the configuration needed at least three keystrokes. Here is a touch screen would have been more helpful, which would generally facilitate the operation of a compact camera and should be standard today.
A unique selling point of RX100III is the viewfinder, the Sony has squeezed into the camera. That there were so never and is already in itself a reason to buy. Although the Sony screen is quite bright, but there are always situations in which the sun is so unfavorable that anything on the screen can be seen. I would not deny that the viewfinder is quite small and a eyecup must by design be lacking, but the image is sharp and almost flicker. Although I am happy if I can again look through the viewfinder of the E-M10 (I thought that would be small ...), but I think it's great that Sony gives me the opportunity to take a picture yet, even if I see nothing on the screen.
I would note at this point to the excellent product meeting the RX100III on DPReview.com. The camera still has so many other benefits that I can not list them all, here is a professional review certainly helpful.
Instead I have to focus on the things that struck me negatively - who who refuse to hear, should stop reading here;)
I'll start with the video area:
In order to play movies without Microruckler on a PC screen with 60Hz refresh rate, I wanted to switch the camera from PAL to NTSC. Apart from the fact that Sony hereafter enforces formatting the memory card (what the ...) Now the message appears every time you turn the camera: "Runs in NTSC" which must first be clicked away. This is annoying and unnecessary, a one-time notice would have been enough. I then switched back to PAL.
The Sony offers the possibility of the video codec of AVCHD with 28MBit / s on XAVC-S with 50 MBit / s switch. For this purpose, however, a SDXC memory card is absolutely required, which would have meant an additional issue in my case.
Finally, the stability in the video can be heard, but this is probably not technically change.
To screen:
Here I do not have a live RGB histogram to adjust the exposure, only a luminance histogram is present. In the image reproduction there is then the RGB histogram. In addition, shows a flash in the photo over and underexposed areas of the image to. Here is another point of criticism to call, because the picture flashes even before a channel is clipping. In Photoshop then are eg values of 235, so still enough room for improvement.
What interested me was the built-in wireless feature to transfer images to your PC. After downloading an additional program which also managed the speed of 700kB / s (min. 10s per JPEG, ~ 30s per RAW) but makes the whole not suitable for everyday use.
Thread Additional expenses:
Sony delivers to the camera with an external charger. While I am pleased when I have the opportunity to charge the battery to additional charge via a USB cable in order to save weight, but that's convenient in everyday life is not particularly due to the tiny cap of the mini-USB port. Besides, I can not use the camera in this time and at the latest with spare batteries the whole becomes a torment.
The addressed replacement battery is also compulsory, because long does not the camera.
Further issues could include:
a new camera bag that had my S90 hoodie
a screen protector (made of real glass ~ 15)
an SDXC Memory Card for XAVC-S
a handle for sticking
And now I come to my main point of criticism: the folding screen. What I had initially suspected as a major advantage, soon turned out to be a weak point of the camera. The mechanics are so thin and delicate that every time I'm afraid I could destroy something if I'm not careful. In the closed state, the display does not stick to the casing. This is partly because only one magnet is used in a corner, on the other hand, the hinges are smooth and have some play. As a result of these shortcomings, the display does not sit straight on the camera body and works minimal high at the bottom. Every time I put the camera in a camera or jacket pocket, I have a bad feeling. Compared this sits the display of my e-M10 bombproof.
Conclusion:
The RX100III is a camera whose picture quality is second to none. However, this can only be achieved at the expense of the focal length range and the macro properties. The viewfinder is unique, the autofocus quickly. Despite good configurability lacks a touch screen for focus shift. Disappointing is the stability of the screen and forced extra expenses for at least a charger and a battery.
