BRIDGE TO BRIDGE

360 DEGREES OF MADNESS?

In January 2018 I got a new SONY RX10 IV and it was fabulous! I couldn't believe how good it was! But 3 years later I thought I needed a full frame camera and so I sold the RX10 and bought a new A7III Body and a collection of the best lenses Sony had to offer, including the FE200-600mm, the FE24-105mm and the FE90mm. £OUCH!

Thankfully, I got the new A7III Body at an absolute bargain price, which is a good job, because I have now sold the whole kit after just 6 months and gone back to an RX10 😮.

WHY SELL A DREAM OUTFIT?

Well the truth is, that full-frame outfit with all its amazing lenses actually stopped me taking photos! Taking all that gear out with me was just one hell of a chore. It was heavy and cumbersome and I always worried about damaging something. I was bothered about constantly changing lenses and little things like getting dust on the sensor, etc. I was also concerned about the reported shutter failings and basically fell out with it all very quickly.

I knew I'd lose a chunk of money this time, but I was more concerned about my loss of interest in the hobby than a loss of money. So it had to go!

It probably seems ridiculous to many people that I was parting with such an amazing camera kit, but I have absolutely no regrets. I faced the truth - as much as I wanted to be a great photographer - I'm not. I'm more of a casual enthusiast and I had no business buying the A7III outfit in the first place. My bad.

THE REPLACEMENT

Now that the A7III was sold, I started to look for a brand new RX10 IV. I began my search by trying to find out if the Mk5 was due to come out soon, but no information was available and I could see that people had been predicting its arrival for around a year already. Sony remained tight-lipped.

So I needed to get the Mk4 for now. Unfortunately, no one had any stock - not even rip-off Amazon!! Damn this Covid!!

Used prices on eBay were pretty ridiculous thanks to supply and demand, but I was lucky enough to find someone just 7 miles away who was selling a 5 month old, virtually unused one.

I sent him a message with a cheeky offer, telling him that I could be there within minutes with the cash and he accepted! When I got there, I could see that this was a real bargain, coming with a genuine Sony leather case, a UV filter, a mains charger and two batteries. It was also AS NEW!! So I handed over the cash and drove away. As soon as I got home I went to register the camera on Sony's website and was pleased to find that the previous owner had not already done the same. 

There's no shutter-count information in the RX10's exif-data, so there's no way to discover the shutter-count, but the condition of the camera and the fact that it was so young leaves me feeling happy. The previous owner was a keen wildlife photographer and used his full-frame Canon outfit most of the time. He'd bought the RX10 for his family holidays which Covid ruined.

DID I DO THE RIGHT THING?

Absolutely yes!!! I was getting too precious about the A7III and like they say, the best camera in the world is the one that you have with you. The RX10 is small enough to always take out with you but big enough in features to do almost any job.

Sure, there'll be compromises along the way, but make no mistake, this is a very special camera with fabulous abilities, allowing you to do a great job with Sports, Wild Life, Landscape, Portrait, Commercial and even Macro. It's also the world's best travel camera as far as I'm concerned.

The 24-600mm lens is a peach, being pretty damned sharp at all focal lengths bar the absolute extremities. The camera has great stabilisation and a super fast drive at 24fps. Video performance is good too. The downsides?? Well it uses the older "W" style batteries and there's only one SD CARD slot. Oh, and the LCD screen isn't fully articulated. 

To go with it, I ordered a SONY HVL-F45RM Speedlite.  I'll post separately about that.

So let the journey begin. I must remember that I am just a lowly amateur who takes good snapshots for showing on the internet and not a professional who needs a super-camera for large prints.

Here's some of my previous RX10 photos...

SONY HVL-F45RM SPEEDLITE

BEST FLASHGUN FOR SONY RX10?

Previously, I've used a METZ AF64-1 with an RX10 and although it was pretty good, I didn't find it to have a very intuitive menu system, so when it came to finding a decent flashgun for my new RX10 IV, I decided to look at the Sony range.

The flagship of the range is the HVL-F60RM but that's one hell of an expensive flashgun and is aimed at professionals. Many of its features would not work on the "lowly" RX10, so I had to look further down the product list for something that would provide a great feature-set without breaking the bank.

The Sony HVL-F45RM seemed like the perfect choice.The first consideration had to be the Guide Number. GN45 was about as low as I wished to go - nothing worse than a weak flash when you're at a wedding party with hardly any ambient light and a big group of people to capture. Sony's List Price is £400 at the time of writing, but a good online search will result in a much better price.

The  HVL-F45RM provides a range of advanced features which the RX10 can take advantage of. Needless to say, there's still some redundancy due to the limitations of the camera, but for most occasions, the 45 suits the needs of most amateurs.

The flashgun features a zoom head complete with a built-in diffuser and bounce-card. The zoom range is 24-105mm and this can be controlled automatically by the RX10 or manually from the menu on the rear of the gun.

Modes include full TTL (which I'll be using almost exclusively), MANUAL, HSS & MULTI. 

 

The HVL-F45RM can be controlled wirelessly using radio with a range of around 30M or alternatively you may use optical modes. It can be used as a Commander or a Slave or as part of a Group. It' very flexible.

The head unit will move slightly downward (-8 degrees) and will tilt upwards and almost all the way back (150 degrees) and can rotate sideways almost 360 degrees. On the lower part of the body there's an LED light for close-range video work and it's pretty bright on its full power setting. It's not going to light up a room, but it'd good enough to light up head and shoulders in a darkened room. It's also very handy as a modelling lamp when doing still life or close-up commercial stuff.

The flash takes 4 x AA batteries and that should provide you with over 200 flashes. If using the flash for leisure purposes, I'd probably use rechargeables, but if I had something more serious to do, I'd switch to a set of ENERGIZER ULTIMATE Lithiums. Recycle time from a full discharge is around 2 seconds.

Like the RX10, the HVL-F45RM is dust and water resistant. The menu screen is an attractive and clear LCD unit with dot-matrix lettering. There is a warm orange back-light and the actual menu is very easy to figure out. Options/controls are handled most of the time with the central dial which is very similar to the ones used on modern Sony cameras, so it feels very familiar and simple to operate. I've still not found the need to read the manual!

Compatibility with RX10M4.......

HVL-F45RM

Attaching
ADI flash metering	—
Burst
P-TTL flash metering
Auto Zoom
Flash Range Display
HSS (High-Speed Sync)
Optical controlled wireless remote HSS	*10
Optical controlled wireless remote flash	*10
Optical controlled wireless controller	*7
Optical controlled wireless Ratio (Controller)	*7
Optical controlled wireless Ratio (Remote)	*8
Radio controlled wireless HSS	*29
Radio controlled wireless receiver flash	*29
Radio controlled wireless commander	*30
Radio controlled wireless Ratio (commander)	*30
Radio controlled wireless Ratio (receiver)	*29
Slow sync
Modeling
Multiple flash
Manual flash
AF illuminator
Auto zoom control optimized for image sensor size
Auto WB Adjustment with Color Temperature Info
Red-Eye Reduction
Flash Compensation
FEL Lock	—
External Flash Settings	—

*7  A separate wireless remote flash is required.

*8  A separate wireless controller (either an HVL-F43AM, HVL-F58AM, HVL-F60M or HVL-F43M) is required.

*10  A separate wireless controller (either an HVL-F20AM, HVL-F43AM, HVL-F58AM, HVL-F60M, HVL-F20M, HVL-F43M, or HVL-F32M) is required.

*29  Requires Radio Control Wireless Flash(sold separately) or Wireless Radio Commander FA-WRC1M(sold separately).

*30  Requires Radio Control Wireless Flash(sold separately) or Wireless Radio Receiver FA-WRR1(sold separately).

To find out more about this speedlite, click HERE!