Beginner Looking for some advice

J

JayKay70

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Hi all,

New here and have very little knowledge when it comes to cameras.

:agree:

I recently purchased a Sony Cybershot DSC RX100M3 because my old camera broke, my main use for having a camera is for taking pictures on holiday with my family/kids/grand kids.

When i look at all the settings i just give up as it all just goes over my head so i thought what better place to ask so here i am.

My questions are as follows:

  1. Is there anything i should change in the settings or is it good to go at default?
  2. What is the best setting for daytime, Intelligent Auto or something else?
  3. What is the best setting for night time, Intelligent Auto or something else?
  4. What is the best setting for fast moving things?

My last camera was pretty bad when it came to taking pictures at night so i don't expect this to be much better, but it was all my wallet could afford.

Any answers would be most welcome.

All the best

Jay

​

 
I suggest using the camera on Intelligent Auto until you find something that setting fails to handle to your satisfaction.

I use a pair of Sony A65s and a Sony HX90. I very seldom take them off the AI setting. This example was recorded in that mode at sunset...

Sidmouth evening sun and clouds A65 DSC00539.JPG
 
I'd suggest you set it to best quality in the jpeg options (or largest size) to get the best out of it. Only use RAW if you are used to working with it as it needs prosessing later.
I dont know that model but modern camera have improved a lot of the last few years, My Sony zv1 is pretty good in low light.
As Andrew says keep it simple and use AI, it'll work most of the time.
 
@AndrewFlannigan thanks.

@swanseamale47 on my default settings they are:

  • Image Size: It's on "L:20M"
  • Aspect Ratio: It's on "3:2"
  • Quality: It's on "Fine" but there is also: RAW/RAW & JPG/Extra Fine/Standard
  • File Format: It's on "AVCHD"

Just looked and there is a total of 22 screens of settings o_O:eek:
 
4. What is the best setting for fast moving things?

It depends on whether you want to freeze the action or have an element of motion blur. If the camera has a Shutter Priority mode, the you select the shutter speed you want - Maybe 1/1000th of a second to freeze action in a football game, or 1/60th of a second to blur the background and wheels whilst panning a racing car.


Fully automatic modes are very clever but they cannot always interpret what you hope to achieve, and sometimes you have to switch to a semi-automatic or a fully manual mode in order to adjust the settings for the situation in front of you.
 
I was lent a bridge camera about 2 years back to test, think it was a Lumix but I cant remember now. The menus wes a disaster area. Dozens of pages and worse they changed (or seemed to) depending on what mode you were in. I had it for about 2 months and never figured it out. You could set something and go back an hour later to change it and it was gone. It drove me crazy.
I loved the superzoom lens, hated the menu.
I have a Lumix compact now, the TZ80 and the menus in that are normal. Maybe the one I tested was faulty (the owner couldnt work it either, thats why he gave it to me to test) To be fair I'm an experienced photographer. Heaven help a new photographer. :)
 
swanseamale47 said:
The menus wes a disaster area.
Click to expand...
Perhaps the important point here is that a digital camera is a computer with an optical interface.

Mechanical engineers managed to create cameras that were unpleasant to use, so it's no surprise that programmers have carried on that proud tradition! ;)
 
You already got you camera, now if you could only learn to use it. I recently went through this with my Panasonic P&S. Was about ready to send it back and guy on here helped me out. The directions that came with it were useless to me, no idea what they were talking about. But the guy on here got me to reset the camera to it's original settings, then got it in P mode and it works great! Figured out that the easiest way to figure out todays cameras is to keep them simple as I can. It is a camera but reality is it's a computer and I'm terrible with computer's. Still haven't figured out much new stuff with this camera but now it goes every where with me and takes nice photo's for me. have no idea how to work most of this camera but I do know how to get photo's I like with it and that's what counts!
 
Thanks all, gonna leave everything at default and let it do it's work on Intelligent Auto, the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

:ty:
 
bovey9 said:
One thing to mention, if you bought the camera second hand, do a factory reset as you never know what settings the previous owner had it set. Not a problem if you bought it new.
Click to expand...
Yea, factory reset is when I was told to do. Works!
 
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