That makes this pretty expensive for what it is (RX-100 retails for about $450?). It might be better quality than your typical phone camera, but, purely on specs, this is competing in the compact point and shoot space, not the DSLR space. will allow, for instance panoramas, HDRs and other computational photography that has become common in mobile devices?ĭxo hypes DSLR quality in a tiny package.Ĭlaiming "DSLR quality" seems somewhat disingenuous, considering that the sensor's about half the size (measured by diagonal or width) of a standard DSLR APS-C sensor (it's the same size sensor used in the Sony RX-100, RX-10, and Nikon's CX format cameras looks like it might even be the same sensor as in the RX-100), and the lens is comparable to that of a decent point and shoot (fixed lens, no zoom, really short 12mm focal length). Steep price at $600 but high end 1-inch sensor and optics. Just learned about DxoOne, the latest attempt at an enhanced camera for mobile devices (supports both iPhones and iPads). Other stable tabletop tripods I've liked or seen are the $40 Giottos QU 305B U-Pod and the $26 Vanguard VS-34 (which utilizes a similar design to the $120ish Leica & Kirk designs: awesome but too expensive given the competition). He now uses a $45 Joby Ballhead X as a "pseudo-panning head", and he added a larger tripod too, one of the Benro Travel Flat Tripods.)įor easier on-off I eventually added a small $40 Kirk QRC-1 Quick Release Clamp for Arca-Swiss-Type Plates. (For what it's worth, it appears that after many years with the above system Wells has added new gear as he does more video. He shows himself using this setup in Bangalore in this 8-min video, and has lots of demo photos in this article for B&H Wells has an 8-minute video showing tabletop tripod technique here.
I made this choice years ago after reading this 2008 blog post (which I think you need to create a free registration to read) by pro photographer/teacher David Wells: When traveling I've come to hate dealing with the weight of tripods so with mirrorless cameras and small DSLRs I've been able to make do traveling with a tabletop tripod (Manfrotto 209, $25) with decent small ballhead ( Manfrotto 494, $70). What are people using for travel tripods? The first unit I tried, the pen kept drawing even a quarter of an inch above the screen, on the next unit the pen would jump downward until the pen was restarted (battery compartment opened and closed), straight lines were heavily jittery, etc. I just went to a Microsoft store to try the Surface 3, and see if its stylus is any better than the Surface Pro 3. Still interested, but not enough to order one sight unseen. The Wacom style would be a huge advantage, but 3.75 pounds! (And 4-hour battery life.) Ugh. I've never used one, and they are slightly more expensive than the Surface 3 pro, but not unreasonably so given the top end Companion is better equipped than the S3P. Adobe's stylus support was developed with Wacom in mind, so Wacom will work everywhere you'd want to use a stylus (off the top of my head, I'm not sure which apps have and haven't been updated to support non-Wacom tablets, but I'm pretty sure there are still a few even in the latest CC release). Some reports of failures, the stylus needs a battery, and inconsistent support across the Adobe suite (or none, if you're on an older CS version). Unlike previous generations, Surface 3/Surface 3 Pro use a digitizer from Ntrig (which, IIRC, recently was purchased by Microsoft), and I'm still hearing mixed reviews of the new system. What could be a pretty major deciding factor (especially if you're in the Adobe ecosystem) is that the Cintiq Companion has a Wacom digitizer. I wouldn't make the processor a deciding factor between the two the 5557U is faster, but only marginally so (enough to measure, but likely not enough to make a difference for most workflows). Not sure they are even available in NZ to have a look at. Lots of downsides but more grunt and memory. Since you've looked at surfaces, have you looked at the Wacom Cintiq Companion 2?Ĭompared to a Surface 3 pro you get a slightly bigger screen (13.3 instead of 12"), potentially more RAM (up to 16GB instead of 8GB), and a faster processor (i7-5557U in the Wacom v. I need something to demo processing with on the go, afraid a 12" surface would be too small, but not sure I want to carry round a 15" notebook (XPS 15 or something)