Sony DSC RX100 M6

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC RX100 VI….it’s a nice camera with one big flaw for me. The menu system. Or maybe it was the lack of physical controls on the camera (despite Sony’s efforts at that . . . ring on the front). I never quite understood the menu system and I missed the controls. It was a camera I really wanted to love because it kind of did everything for a point and shoot.

It has a surprisingly good pop-up electronic viewfinder, for when you didn’t want to hold the camera out in front of you like an iPhone, a tiltable rear LCD and even a little pop-up flash. And while the LX100 II may have Leica glass, the Sony has excellent Zeiss glass.

And oh what a zoom range! Coupled with a 1” sensor that isn’t too bad, it’s a great in-your-pocket camera that really does fit in a shirt pocket. Great if you can figure out how to use it when you pick it up. And that was its problem. If you are needing or wanting to manually control things like aperture, shutter speed or ISO (and you need to with a smaller sensor like this) you better have the menu system memorized. While you can control one function with that ring on the front, changing any other function requires diving into a menu. And Sony does not get high marks for its menu systems. I felt like I had to relearn the camera every time I used it.

Dan had a similar camera he had used in Liberia. He has some lovely photographs he made with it (same glass, same 1” sensor), but he explained he gave up using it for anything other than a pure point and shoot. He would set it up in one auto mode and just leave it alone. And pray he didn’t inadvertently touch the rear screen in wrong way and accidentally change one of the camera settings. Otherwise, he’d be spending awhile menu diving trying to figure it all out. There’s a reason he went for the LX100 II when he saw all those manual controls. I now understand he wasn’t joking.

Still, this is the camera we leave in the glove box for those times you want something better than your iPhone for a camera. An emergency camera to grab if you see Bigfoot, or that alien spacecraft landing. Just don’t hit the wrong button turning it on.