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5 Tips for Shooting Stunning Slow Motion on the Sony RX100 IV

September 21st, 2015 Jump to Comment Section 11
5 Tips for Shooting Stunning Slow Motion on the Sony RX100 IV

https://vimeo.com/134107105

Guest Post by Henry Shephard

henjo2Times are precious, especially when you have kids, and being a filmmaker and a recent first-time dad I’m guilty of wanting to document everything. Therein lies my obsession of looking out for the latest gear to give my films that extra edge.

Super slow-mo has been on that list for a long time! Until quite recently, if you wanted to shoot with frame rates in the region of 480fps and above, you had to have over $60,000 in hand for a Phantom camera – but in steps the Sony RX10 II and Sony RX100 IV!

Sony-RX100-IV

I ended up purchasing the Sony RX100 IV for the pocketability factor. The fact that you can leave this camera in your pocket and have it on standby for anything worth recording is incredibly useful.

With all the excitement of the slow-mo capabilities of this camera, immediately after purchase, my wife and I used it to film this video of our daughter, to remember the fun of giving her a bath! You quickly realize that water in slow motion equals absolute gold!

Here are 5 tips for Stunning Slow Motion on the Sony RX100 IV

1. 480fps max

Avoid shooting above 480fps: The loss in quality from 480fps to 960fps is not worth those extra frames. 250fps with a sensor readout of 1,824 x 1,026 effective pixels is ideal for quality shots.

2. Use ‘End Trigger’

This camera allows you to shoot the previous 2 seconds of action upon pressing the record button. This can be found within the menu options. This way, I can wait for the action to happen first and then hit record. Note it takes the camera 20 seconds to save the video file to the card when using high frame rates.

3. Use natural light (lots of it!)

Natural light will help avoid flicker that is often associated with high frame rates and different light sources. You also need a lot of light when shooting at these high frame rates. Remember when shooting at 480fps, you need your shutter speed to be 1/1000th (180 degree shutter) which takes away a lot of light.

4. Slog-2 can enhance your image

The Sony RX100 IV might look like a hobby camera and has limitations especially when it comes to shooting slow motion, but it also comes with the famous Slog-2 Gamma Mode that can enhance your image. When Picture Profile 7 (PP7) is enabled your image becomes much flatter thus increasing dynamic range, providing a better highlight rolloff and making it easier to apply Slog-2 LUTs in your editing system for great colors.

5. Use water or particles to make your shots more stunning

If you’re looking to shoot with water, dust or even produce underwater shots without the big price tag, use the Aquapac small camera case 418 (like I did). It’s $20! It will give your shots another edge.

Not only do we at henjofilms.com see the uses for this camera in our personal lives, but professionally as well. Filming that one special shot at weddings or for something unique in our corporate work, can bring the production value of the video up a few notches!

To sum up, I totally recommend this camera to anyone looking to add that extra special something to their films.

For a more in-depth look at the camera check out cinema5D’s Sony RX100 IV REVIEW

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