what’s up guys siggy here from tech gear talk today we’re gonna be taking a look at possibly the best all-in-one photography and videography camera from Sony the RX 10 mark for now this is a pretty unique camera and Sony was able to combine kind of a crazy amount of features into one camera the mark 4 is the next iteration of the really popular mark 3 and it’s a good camera for casual sports for action and wildlife photographers and also a great camera to take with you when you travel or go on family vacations I also think that if you’re interested in video and looking for a high quality all-in-one option that this might be a good camera for you my goal with every product review is to give you a good overview of the features of the product but in a way that relates to how you use it in real life and if you find that this review was helpful please let me know by giving it a like and then hitting the subscribe and notification buttons for more camera and tech reviews this is gonna be a pretty in-depth review of the rx 10 mark 4 and every camera has its pros and it’s cons if you’re serious about your research I suggest that you
watch this video to the end as I mentioned this camera has a pretty unique set of features so let’s take a look at some highlights before we dive into the detailed review the rx 10 mark 4 is what we call bridge camera and it has a twenty point one megapixel one inch CMOS sensor that comes with 315 phase detection autofocus points and it also uses the new buy on Zechs image processor which improves the speed and performance and then also the image quality for photography it’s capable of continuous shooting at 24 frames per second and that’s up to two hundred and forty nine consecutive images and now we’re talking with autofocus and auto exposure now for video you can shoot up to 4k at up to 30 frames per second and then full HD or 1080p at up to 120
frames per second Sony paired this camera with a 25 times zoom Zeiss lens with a 35 millimeter equivalent focal range of 24 to 600 which is just insane and then on top of that they added image stabilization there’s also a super cool high frame rate feature which lets you do slow-motion adopting 960 frames per second at Full HD or 1080p and then another nice feature for video users is that Sony included a 3.5 millimeter mic input and that way you can connect an external microphone and get better audio finally like many of the new cameras it’s got Wi-Fi with NFC so that you can super easily move images to your mobile device and then even control the camera using an app alright so let’s jump into these features in a little more detail I want to start out by talking about the camera type and the rx10 mark 4 is what we call bridge camera now
that’s a general name that we give digital cameras that have a level of control that’s similar to that of DSLRs they come with long-range zoom lenses and a viewfinder but usually they don’t allow for interchangeable lenses so essentially there’s somewhere between a point and click and a full DSLR one thing I wanted to mention about actually using this camera is that the aperture has changed using a ring here it’s kind of old-school I’m not really sure why because if you’re shooting in p or shutter priority exposure modes the camera can make that change digitally but if in all the other modes you have to actually change it yourself using this dial and you can’t use the buttons on the back but ultimately as far as the body is concerned it’s super easy to handle and very comfortable to shoot with now let’s talk about the sensor and the processor the rx10 mark 4 comes with a 20-point one megapixel one inch CMOS sensor that is back lighted and stacked and that means that the DRAM is built into the chip which ultimately gives it more processing power now without getting too nerdy this processor contributes to some of the
features that we’ll talk about later so like things like super slow-motion 4k video and then faster and more precise autofocus in the past a lot of the bridge cameras that we saw had super small sensors and what’s nice is that Sony put a one-inch sensor in this camera which gives you really good results now in order to make this camera even more powerful Sony paired it up with the BIONZ X image processor and front and lsi and together that’s what allows for continuous shooting rate of 24 frames per second and the new processor does a pretty nice job at reducing noise and increasing readout speeds which is really great for video another thing that Sony added is an extended buffer which lets you shoot 249 JPEG images continuously and that’s with auto focus and auto exposure for each image so that’s more than ten seconds of continuous shooting so if you can’t get one good picture out of 249 I don’t know if I’d blame the camera I want to give you an example of what that looks like so I’m going to hold down the button and start shooting that’s crazy that’s just
crazy I don’t even know how many pictures I just took on top of that the new processor also makes the camera super responsive and it’s fast to operate the menu functions are fast and it turns on really fast so you’re pretty much ready to shoot right away and this is a very versatile camera both for photography and videography and you’ll see that as we go into the next bunch of features alright so next I want to jump into resolution and frame rates the rx10 mark 4 can shoot 4k video at 24 and 30 frames per second and then Full HD or 1080p at up to 120 frames per second and that’s pretty sweet for this type of bridge camera I know I’ve talked about it before but choosing a frames per second setting has to do with what you want your final video to look like so if you want something that looks a little bit softer and more cinematic then you can shoot at let’s say 24 frames per second if you want something else that’s more crisp and sharp then you go with 60 frames per second I shoot all my videos at 30
frames per second because I like to go somewhere in between I want to talk about 4k video just a little bit so essentially 4k shoots four times the number of pixels as full HD or 1080p so for each frame you have that many more pixels to work with and I don’t want to get into it too much so this video doesn’t get too long but I’ll link to another video where I explain why you might want to shoot in 4k okay next I want to talk about slow motion and then even super slow motion which is something that you don’t really see at this price range as I mentioned before you can shoot Full HD at 120 frames per second so that gives you some flexibility because if you edit your videos at 30 frames per second like I and I slowed down 120 to 30 then I’m getting four times slow-motion so that’s really good if that’s not good enough for you the rx10 mark 4 has an HF R or a high frame rate feature that lets you shoot at up to 960 frames per second at 1080p and there are three options for HF our 240 480 and 960 frames per second and so in theory if your output file is 24 frames per
second this would be slowing things down by a factor of 40 40 now to be honest the quality of the 960 frames per second footage is too low for me personally I wouldn’t really use that in my videos and you can see it’s super noisy but 480 frames per second is definitely better and I might use it if I really need it to be that slow now 240 is really nice and is definitely something that I would use so that’s still 10 times slow motion at 24 frames per second and eight times slow motion at 30 frames per second and that’s just an awesome feature to have if you like slow motion this is awesome okay so let’s move on to lenses and here Sony added a built-in Zeiss 25 times zoom lens and this is a 24 to 600 millimeter Zeiss very of sonar lens and it has the t-star coating on it if you’re not familiar with that t star is a multi-layer anti-reflective coating from Zeiss and what it does is allows more light to pass through the lens and then it produces color that’s more true to what our eyes see this is a really
impressive range that we’re working with from a focal length standpoint 24 to 600 millimeters so I’ll show you some examples of what that actually means in terms of zoom 24 is pretty wide but then 600 is just insane I don’t have any lenses that give me this much telephoto now a lot of times people look at a built-in lens as a limiting factor and I mean technically it is because you can’t change it out but the ability to go from 24 all the way to 600 I would say covers and then even exceeds what most people use and this is why it’s a great wildlife camera because you can capture things that are really far away from you all right so that brings us to the next topic which is autofocus and I’m gonna talk about it both in terms of photography and video the rx10 mark for uses a 315.50 m
which sony says can focus in as little as point zero three seconds and you can also use the system to track subjects as they move through the frame what’s nice about having all these focus points is that you can easily set an off-center focus point and then you can frame your shot exactly how you want without having to get focused and then reframe it for each shot you can also tap on the screen to set your focus point so it included a continuous autofocus mode which lets you select a subject by clicking on it and then the camera will follow it so as you’re taking pictures of it it’s always in focus so check out how this system works I can click on a subject and then keep shooting it and the rx10 mark 4 will reacquire focus for each exposure and for video works the same way so if you’re shooting an interview and your subject is off-center you can just click on right where they are and it will keep them in focus or you can select a subject right on the screen and then tell the camera to follow it and then even if it’s moving through the frame it’s always gonna go around and track it now you can also frame a shot with multiple layers and then you tap to focus while recording so the rx10 mark 4 will automatically switch focus points and it does a really good job at shifting focus and it’s pretty fast and it’s really really smooth overall the autofocus system for video is really good so if you’re shooting video if you’re creating content for
YouTube if you’re vlogging anything like that it’s gonna do a really nice job for you now one of the things that I found frustrating both on this camera and the a 6500 is that the focus indicator is like a middle to dark gray so as you’re moving the focus point around it’s orange so it’s super easy to see but then it turns to gray and sometimes it’s really hard to see where your focus point is I just wish there was a simple setting in the menu where you can go and say okay I want my focus indicator to be white or orange or whatever it is and then I can change it based on what I’m shoot it’s not a big deal but just something that I noticed ok so let’s move on to audio which is something else that people who are going to use this for video are really gonna appreciate now Sony added a 3.5 millimeter external mic input and what that lets you do is instead of using the built-in microphone which does a pretty decent job you can connect an external microphone and then get much better sound so the microphones are here on top of the camera and they do a pretty good
job if you’re close to the camera and also if you’re interested in picking up some ambient noise but there’s really no question and this is nothing to do with this camera there’s really no question that if you want to pick up better audio you’re always going to want to use an external microphone so you can easily put an external microphone right on top of the camera on the hot shoe and you’re good to go now you can use it for vlogging or recording interviews or anything else where you want to pick up directional sound instead of using the omnidirectional mics that are built into the camera and they would just pretty much pick up audio from anywhere as far as vlogging this isn’t a super light setup because the rx10 mark 4 is better than most of your vlogging cameras so I don’t know that you’re gonna want to be walking around while hand-holding it for a long period of time but it’s doable for short times but it’s definitely great for traveling and you can just set it on a small tripod and you’re good to go I want to give props to Sony for again including audio levels on the screen so you don’t have to go into the menu in order to test your audio
levels now we’ll get into this a little bit more later but because the screen doesn’t flip up or to the side you can’t see the levels when the camera is facing you so what I do is I end up placing the mic on the camera facing the wrong way mount it on the tripod now I can test the levels then I just flip it around and have the microphone pointing at the front and that works it’s not ideal but it works and of course you’ve got other options you can use a lavalier microphone if you don’t mind being tethered to the camera or you can use a wireless lab and then you’re not tethered at all it doesn’t matter where the camera is the microphone stays on you and you’re free to move the camera around and get all different types of shots now another thing that videographers are absolutely going to love is the fact that Sony included a headphone jack and that means you can monitor your audio right as you’re recording and that’s something that’s gonna save you a lot of time it makes it super easy to identify problems a lot of times when you’re recording if you’re not monitoring there could be something that would be super obvious to you if you could listen to it but instead you’re recording and then by the time you’re actually editing then you realize there was a problem whereas if you could just plug in
headphones and listen for two seconds you’d say hey that fan is on or the heaters on let’s turn that off and boom now you have much better audio so that’s a feature I really like okay next I want to talk about the size weight and build quality of the rx 10 mark 4 and I would call it a medium sized camera so it’s not a full size camera like maybe a 5d but and it’s definitely not as small as something like the a 6500 now I’m it’s right in between it’s got a magnesium alloy body and it has pretty unique sharp lines which is something you don’t see on many other cameras and this design is both dust and moisture resistant which is nice because you can use the rx 10 mark 4 and relatively harsh environments now the grip is super deep so I can get my entire hand on the camera and then Sony covered the right side with rubber so you always get good friction and you don’t have to worry about this camera slipping out of your hand and Sony also incorporated a super bright high resolution xg8 OLED true finder EDF and you can use the electronic viewfinder for previewing your image and to see all the settings and the image quality is outstanding it’s really bright and crisp is definitely a high-level ebf okay next we’re going
to take a look at the new 3-inch screen so the image quality is excellent and it could be tilted down like this for overhead shots and then it can also be pointed up so at any time where it’s on a slider or any time where you’re above the camera looking down you can go ahead and set up the screen wherever it’s comfortable so it’s always easy to see what you’re shooting another thing that I really like about this screen is that you can always use the sunny weather mode so that even in 4k and when you’re shooting 120 frames per second and that’s something you couldn’t do on the a 6500 and then made it a little bit difficult to look at in some weather condition so this screen can always be bright so that’s awesome I have a couple of little issues with the screen first it can’t be flipped up or to the side so it can’t be used in selfie mode so if it’s like this I can’t see whether I’m framed correctly or not now this might not matter to you depending on what you’re using this camera for but if you’re planning on using it to create content where you’re in front of the camera just take that into account because you’re not going to be able to see how your frame and then whether you’re in focus or not and of course you can use
an external monitor to preview the shot but I’ll talk more about that later and then the second issue I have with the screen is that it’s only partially touchscreen so you can use the screen to set focus and also when you’re previewing images you can zoom in and out but that’s pretty much it so you can’t use it for any of the functions you can’t change any of the settings using the touch screen you can’t use the menu it’s pretty much just for focus and for zooming in on when you’re previewing shots I just wished that Sony would have made it a full touch screen you know obviously it has the ability to detect when I touch it I would be nice if I could just use it for all the features so hopefully that’s something that Sony does in the future next I want to talk about the communication options the rx10 mark 4 has built-in Wi-Fi with NFC or near field communication and that lets you pair it up with a mobile device and then transfer images and videos and even control the camera using an app so transferring files is pretty easy you can just go to the menu and hit sent to smartphone then connect to the phone and the images or videos will be transferred for remote control to play memories app does give you
control over most of the features that you’re gonna need so for video you could set exposure mode change shutter speed ISO you can do exposure compensation white balance and then start and stop your video now for images for some reason I could do all the same things except for change the exposure mode which is strange now one of the issues that I did run into is that for both photography and you can’t set focus or see where the focus point is so basically you’re looking at the screen and it’s up to you to tell what’s in focus but you can’t tell where the focus point is so you can’t even reframe to put the focus point over your subject that made it a little challenging I also couldn’t change aperture because the aperture is changed using the manual ring on the lens and again I don’t know why it wouldn’t let me change the aperture through the app because there are some exposure modes where the camera can change the aperture for you and it does that electronically
regardless of where the ring is at so I’m not sure why the app couldn’t do it but I couldn’t figure out how to do it and that’s not a super big deal but if you did this much work just go ahead and finish the job so I can do everything for the app and that would make it awesome that’s a lot more functionality than what we saw with the a 6500 when operating remotely and I hope that Sony at some point just incorporates the focus issue that’s really the biggest deal once they do that this thing is gonna rock let’s talk about the skill level that I think is required for using this camera the rx10 mark 4 is really easy to use and beginners should have no problems just picking it up selecting one of the automated settings and then immediately starting to shoot honestly the first thing that stumped me is the aperture control because I just wasn’t expecting to have to do it from the ring now obviously once you know that that’s how you do it it’s not a big deal but I was looking on the back here and I’m thinking like how come none of these change the aperture but that’s just me again it’s super easy it’s just a ring on the lens now more advanced users are still
gonna love the level of control that this camera offers and that’s where both photography and video you really have so much that you can do their picture styles and different profiles that you can set tons of exposure modes there is so much that you can do with this like I seriously doubt that from that standpoint you’re gonna find that you’re limited by this camera and the focal length range is obviously outstanding so there’s a lot of flexibility there and it’s a great camera to take with you when you’re traveling or when you just want to go out and shoot you don’t need a bulky bag additional lenses you just throw this in a small bag or just put it over your shoulder with a nice camera strap and then off you go all right so the rx10 mark 4 is an awesome all-in-one camera for someone who just wants to own one camera and lens combo and then use it for everything we’ve got the twenty point one megapixel one inch sensor and a new processor so you get excellent image quality and good little light performance you can shoot 4k video at up to 30 frames per
second and in full HD or 1080p at up to 120 frames per second and then don’t forget the high frame rate function which is even more impressive for slow-motion we’ve got an excellent 24 to 600 millimeter equivalent zeiss lens it’s got the ability to shoot continuously at 24 frames per second the 315 phase detection autofocus points work great with continuous autofocus for both photography and for video there’s a mic input which lets you connect an external microphone and get great audio without having to record it separately and then sync it in post-production and then even a headphone jack which lets you monitor audio while recording the touch screen is a little limited but it’s great for auto focus and for displaying the current selected attributes and settings I just remember that you can’t use it to control the camera or navigate the
menus the built-in Wi-Fi lets you move images and videos from the camera to a mobile device and you have a pretty good level of control of the camera using the PlayMemories camera app right now the RX 10 mark 4 sells for 698 dollars and I’ll put links in the description both to this camera and then all the accessories or anything else that I talked about in this video and those links will always be updated with the most current prices so whenever there are discounts or specials you’ll always get the lowest prices I really hope this video gave you a good overview of the sony rx10 mark 4 if it did please let me know by giving it a thumbs up tweet it share it and then hit the subscribe and notification buttons you can always find me on Instagram Twitter and Facebook a tech gear talk good luck and see you soon
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