How the Sony RX10.4 could be even better 30 March 2019

Warning: Dense complex post follows.

Short summary:  Sony could greatly enhance the appeal of the RX10.4 by upgrading the body and controls (the external user interface) and the Menus (the internal user interface)

May I introduce  Mockup 17, my vision for a better RX10.4. The body of the mockup is 5mm wider that the RX10.4 in order to accommodate a more anatomically shaped handle.

You can see the controls which are described in more detail later in the post.

2. Menus

In very brief summary my concept for the menus is:

* Setup > Submenus > General/Controls/Viewing/Files

* Capture> Submenus > Image/Focus/Exposure/Drive/

* Movie

* Review

* Connect

The Sony RX10.4 is one of the best   all purpose cameras that has ever been made.  It has a very high level of specifications, features, capabilities, performance and image quality.

It is almost good enough to replace a high quality interchangeable lens camera body and a selection of very good lenses.

So what’s the catch ?  Why are more enthusiast photographers not rushing to buy this wunderkamera ?

In two words : User Interface

I have been using my RX10.4 for over a year and have been thinking at length about how usability could be improved.

Most of my conclusions are in this long,  detailed post which I have kept in one document for ease of dissemination.

I will preface the details with some basic ergonomic concepts which I have developed over the last 8 years. These have allowed me to develop a user-centric conceptual framework on which the detailed architecture of the user interface can be constructed.  

Concepts:

1. The essence of camera ergonomics is the number and complexity of actions required to operate the device.

2. There are four phases of camera use

* Setup Phase    This is getting the camera ready to use mainly by working through menus with the instructions to hand. This is done at leisure. We do not want to be delving into menus while out and about using the camera.

The best access points for this phase are button(s) on C- level locations. 

Navigation can be by a D-Pad, Thumb Stick or touch screen.  Each can work well if configured properly.

* Prepare Phase   This is the period of a minute or few just before a photo session begins.

In this Phase we want access to and/or adjustments to the various modes such as drive, focus, autofocus, metering,  video and so forth.

We do not want selections in this Phase cluttered up with  Setup Phase Menu items.

The best access points for this Phase are user interface modules (UIM) on B-Level locations.

What is the best kind of UIM for Prepare Phase adjustments ?

I have been thinking and revising my ideas about this for several years.

For several years I favoured  Prescribed Purpose Modules [PPM].

These are buttons, dials, levers and the like which have a prescribed purpose allocated by the maker, usually signified by inscriptions on or adjacent to the module.  Examples of this include the Drive Mode dial on many Panasonic and other cameras and  a Focus Mode lever or rotary switch or similar. One of these  appears on the RX10.4 tucked in where I can’t see it and always forget it,  lower left (as viewed by the user) on the front of the body.

But I have come to appreciate that there are several problems with PPMs.

1. The opportunity cost. Put a PPM anywhere and you cannot have anything else there. But if you put  say, a Function or Quick menu button in the same place you can access many functions from the same piece of camera real estate.

If you want the ability to access several modes (and you do)  such as  focus mode, autofocus mode, drive mode…etc  the process actually requires fewer actions each less complex when they are all accessible via the same portal. 

2. Settings made via PPM cannot be saved onto a Custom Mode generated by the user. So, for example I am doing general photography. I see a bird overhead and want to switch into BIF Mode real fast. So I turn the Mode Dial to the pre-set custom position but if  Drive Mode is on a PPM then I have to remember to also turn the Drive Mode dial to the correct position.  More actions, more complex.

I should observe here that in some combinations of settings the RX10.4 actually does allow the user to over-ride the PPM settings while an allocated button is held pressed. But I don’t really want to talk about this because it is one of those capabilities on the RX10.4 which are totally confusing, difficult to set up and of dubious value.

About the Mode Dial   Mode Dials started appearing on cameras about 20 years ago.  

I see the Mode Dial as a kind of concièrge to the photographic experience.

What would you like today ? Still photos ? Video ? A quick panorama maybe ? Let the camera do the thinking or take control yourself ? Perhaps a spot of BIF or a night scene…?….. you get the idea.

The Mode Dial is the entry portal and primary pathway selector.

Because of this key role it is the only PPM which I like to see on a camera.

I have to laugh at many  reviewers’ responses to the Canon EOS RP. Almost without exception they express relief that Canon  brought back the Mode Dial having dropped it from the EOS-R.

Why ?  Because it is extremely useful and ergonomically efficient.

* Capture Phase. This is further divided into Holding, Viewing and Operating.

The best access points for this Phase are buttons, dials and similar on A-Level locations.

What about touch screens ?   I have used cameras with and without touchscreen functions over many years and many different models. My position is that I find touchscreens most useful as an alternative to hard controls in Setup,  Prepare  and Review Phases of use. 

The touchscreen can be useful in Capture Phase on small compact cameras which allow the right thumb to swing across to reach the screen without greatly disrupting grip on the device. 

But on larger models and bridge cameras there is usually a substantial control panel (the part of the rear of the body to the right of the monitor screen). This prevents the right thumb from reaching across to the monitor screen unless the secure grip on the handle is released.

* Review. I won’t refer to this Phase in this post.

I want to concentrate on Operating. My criterion for optimal usability in the Operating Phase is that: 

 The physical controls which work best in this Phase are the shutter button, a control dial just in front of or behind the shutter button, a function button or buttons close to the shutter button  easily accessible by the right index finger, a second control dial top/rear on the camera body, some means of changing AF area position and size without disrupting grip, good haptic design for each of these modules and a functional design which allows them to work together in harmony.

My studies lead me to the view that Prescribed Purpose Modules are not optimal for Capture Phase controls.  Such modules include:  Aperture ring on lens, inscribed [+/-] dial, Shutter Speed dial, ISO dial (or worse, the silly lift-up-and-turn ISO setting on a shutter speed dial, a throwback to the 1964 Pentax Spotmatic but bizarrely seen on some recent release Fuji models) ) 

In capture Phase, controls with Mode Dependent function are much more useful and versatile and permit a more streamlined operation minimising the number and complexity of actions.

The RX10.4  is functionally serviceable but with some changes to the physical layout and software could become excellent.  The body is large enough to support a “best practice” control layout with a modest makeover.

I have done a lot of work over the years on the optimal size and shape to best match the hands which hold the device and the optimal size, shape and detail design of the handle and thumb rest for secure holding and operating without strain.  My conclusion from all this is that the basic concept and shape of the RX10.4 is fine but usability could be considerably improved with some changes.

I have discussed the reasoning for these here

So in this post I will just summarise the changes I think are required.

* Remove the top plate LCD panel.  It is not useful.  Yes I know some people say they like it but that is quite different from assessing whether it is useful. People likeall kinds of things often without considering the opportunity cost of so doing.

* Bring the Mode Dial back to the right side of the EVF hump.

* Raise the shoulders of the body to give more height to the handle.

* Locate a front control dial just behind the shutter button, Canon style.

* Make the Monitor fully articulating (so-called “free angle”)

* Replace the [+/-] dial with a generic rear control dial.

* Make the body 8mm wider on the handle side with  the extra width being used to make the handle fatter and shaped in the inverted L style.

* Remove the aperture ring from the lens. Aperture is much more readily adjusted with the front or rear control dials.  Fewer actions, each less complex.

* Locate an 8-way Thumb Stick to the right of the EVF housing.

* Remove the D-Pad and crosskeys. Directional movements can be performed using the Thumb stick.

* Remove the upper control dial .

* Rework all buttons for better location and haptics.

I have gathered together these ideas into Mockup 17 which you see pictured below.  This is the 17^thcamera mockup which I have hand shaped in wood. This one serves to demonstrate how I would re-design the shape and controls of the RX10.4 for greater simplicity and usability.

You can see how the A, B, C level locations are disposed according to the ease with which controls on each location can be accessed and whether the grip needs to be disrupted.

Controls on A-Level locations can be reached easily with the right index finger or thumb without having to release grip. So I put controls for Operationin Capture Phase on these locations.

In the front A-Level area I put the shutter button, front control dial and three buttons each with user designated function for Operation in Capture Phase.

The selected functions could include ISO, WB, Video ….and so forth.

In the rear A-Level area I have the rear control dial.  In P, A, S modes this controls  [+/-] while the front dial changes Program shift, Aperture or Shutter speed [functions can be reversed if desired].  This is the usual operation on Canon/Nikon/Lumix twin dial models.

Next comes the AF-ON button which I had to move a bit to get in exactly the right location. 

This button has to be located so:

a) it will not be pressed accidentally but

b) can be located by feel and pressed easily when required.

For an example of an incorrectly positioned AF-On button check out the Canon EOS-RP. I find with this camera that I frequently press the button accidentally when picking up the camera but when I want to use it the button is not quite in the right place. So I had to switch it Off. 

Note that the AF-On button is in a different (better) location on EOS 5 series models. Why did they change it ??

Moving further to the left we come to the Thumb Stick  a.k.a. joystick, JOG lever.  As conceived by me this has 8 way and press operation. It becomes the primary hard control for moving and re-centering the active AF area, scrolling through menus, scrolling around zoomed pictures in review and similar. If well designed and implemented it makes the traditional D-Pad redundant.

Just below the thumb stick in a B-Level location we have the Q-Menu button.   As conceived by me this works like a Sony Fn button providing quick access to up to 12 user selectable functions which might be required in Prepare Phase of use. This in my view is faster and more useful in practice than having some of those functions on PPMs and others on the Fn button.  

It means that

a) The brain and fingers learn where to go and do so without having to stop and think about it and

b) Custom modes are easily set up and allocated to a C position on the Mode dial.

The C-Level buttons are self explanatory I think.  They are for Menu, Display, Delete and Play. Menu as shown on the mockup could change places with one of the others.

I am strongly of the view that lens controls should be circumferential. The reason is that the left hand can bear on the camera in any of four ways:

Landscape LH under, Landscape LH over, Portrait LH under, Portrait LH over.

It makes no difference where any button or lever type control is located on a lens barrel it is guaranteed to be in the wrong place in at least three of those positions.

However fully circumferential rings are easily located by feel and operated by the left hand in any of the four positions.

The most useful functions for these rings are focus and zoom.

The screen can be touch capable for those who prefer.

The photo at the top of this post was made fifty years ago with the camera shown in the photo below. This is my 1964 (or thereabouts)  Pentax Spotmatic, which still works by the way.

You can see ALL the camera’s controls in the photo of the camera. There are no menus, no modes, no decisions to be made about anything else except manual focus and manual exposure.

Having used this type of camera for many years, I totally understand the appeal of the simplicity of the thing.

I was conversing with a friend recently who bought a very expensive Sony A7 something last year and has yet to figure out the menus. As a result it sits on the shelf .This friend is a very experienced and capable photographer. 

Some people think the answer to Sony and Olympus’ incomprehensible user interface is a camera with controls just like those you see on the old Spotmatic. But they are wrong.

You see, the genie will not go back in the bottle.

All those modes and menu items and focus and exposure  options and all the other features made possible by modern electronics will not be un-invented.

After studying these issues for ten years I have come to the view that the worst possible arrangement of controls for a modern camera is that offered by many of the Fuji models ( for instance X-T_, X-E_) with “traditional” and “modern” controls cluttered together and stacked on top of each other in a muddled kludge of confused concepts and means.

I am intrigued that some reviewers describe these cameras as having “good ergonomics”. 

Presumably what they mean by “ergonomics” is different to what I mean. 

The difference is that I describe clearly what I mean and publish this in a public place, like, here.

The menu system and button function allocations are an improvement on previous models but are still overloaded with redundant items.

The menus need to become more user friendly with subcategories which are meaningful to photographers and more streamlined by reducing the number of items, further separating out stills and video items and thinking more clearly about which items are appropriate for which user access points using my Setup, Prepare, Capture, Review paradigm outlined above.

To contain the size of this post I will only look at the [Camera Settings 1] and [Camera Settings 2] and [Setup] menus.

The process which I will use  is in two parts.

Part 1 is to delete items which are not necessary in order to bring the total number of options to a more manageable level.  I will delete the “somebody-might-use-this-someday” and “we-put-it in-there-because-we-could” items.

Part 2 is to re-allocate all the remaining items to my suggested photographer friendly submenus.

These are

Setup> Submenus > General/Controls/Viewing/Files.

Capture> Submenus > Image/focus/Exposure/Drive/

Movie > appropriate submenus (not discussed in this post)

Here we go, starting with

Many of these [Camera Settings] items would be placed in my suggested Capture  Major subheading

* Image size > Image

* Aspect ratio > Image

* Panorama size and Panorama direction > Remove. Have these items pop up on the screen when [Panorama] is selected on the Mode Dial: that is, when they are required.

* Long exposure Noise reduction > Image

* High ISO NR > Image

* Color space > Image

* Auto Mode >   Remove. These options should pop up on the screen when the Mode dial is turned to Auto from another setting. They can be dismissed with a half press of the shutter button or press on another button.

* Scene selection >   Remove.     These items can pop up when the Mode Dial is turned to Scene.

* Drive Mode > Drive.

The whole Drive Mode section needs to be clarified and simplified. For instance timer, bracketing and frame rate need to be untangled from each other.

* Bracket settings > Drive . This is a drive mode item to be managed as above.

The RX10.4 has some bits of bracketing in Drive Mode and some bits in Bracket settings.  It is very confusing.

* C1, C2 Recall and  C1, C2 Memory. > Remove these entirely. The RX10.4 has two completely different systems for saving and recalling groups of settings. These items refer to the second of the two, which is un-necessary and confusing and should be deleted entirely.

* Reg Cust Shoot set > Remove altogether. This is part of the system referred to above.

* Focus Area > Focus

* [Stills] Swt.V/H AF Area. > Remove.   I experimented with this. I think it’s an attempt to keep the AF area in approximately the same section of the frame when the camera is rotated from landscape to portrait format.  Anyway it didn’t seem to work very well.  An alternative would be to fix the function so it works reliably and rename it to something which users can understand.

* AF Illuminator. > Setup.

* Center Lock-on AF > Focus

* AF W/ shutter  >Focus

* Pre-AF > Remove, not useful

* AF Area Regist > Remove  Un-necessary, not useful

* Del. Reg. AF Area > Remove

* AF Area auto clear > Remove

* Disp.cont.AF area > Remove   The camera should always display the continuous AF area when in use.

* Phase Detect area > Remove.  Not useful or even visible most of the time.

*  Exposure Comp > Remove   This is Capture Phase parameter which needs to be adjusted on a frame-to-frame basis. A menu is not the place for this.

* Reset EV Comp > Remove

* ISO  > Exposure.  

* ISO Auto Min SS. > Exposure

* Metering Mode > Exposure

* Spot metering point > Exposure

* AEL W/shutter > Exposure

* Exposure Std. Adjust > Remove.  Redundant

* Flash Mode > submenu in Exposure

* Flash Comp> a/a

* Exp Comp set> a/a

* Red eye Reduction > Setup

* White balance > Exposure

* Priority set in AWB >Remove

* DRO / Auto HDR > Unpack these and include them in submenus of Exposure.

* Creative Style > Image

* Picture Effect > Remove from main menu . Will pop up when the Mode Dial is turned to the relevant setting.

* Picture Profile > Remove. Un-necessary

* Soft skin effect. > Remove. This should come up in one of the effects modes.

* Focus magnifier  I played around with this for ages and failed to figure out what this is supposed to do.

* Focus Magnif time > Focus

* Initial Focus Mag > Focus

* MF Assist > Focus

* Peaking level > Focus

* Peaking color > Focus

* Focus ring rotate > Setup/Controls

* Smile/face detect > Focus

* Face registration > Remove.

* Auto Obj Framing > Remove or rework for real world usefulness.

I will not deal with movie settings in this post.

* Shutter type > Exposure

* Release W/O card > Setup

* Steady shot > Exposure. SS is not technically exposure but can affect the shutter speed which can be used and therefore affect exposure indirectly. It has to go somewhere.

* Rng. of Zoom Assist  > Setup/Controls

* Zoom setting > Setup/Controls

* Zoom Speed > Setup/Controls

* Zoom ring rotate > Setup/Controls

* Zoom Func on Ring > Setup/Controls

* Disp button > Setup/Controls

* Finder/Monitor > Setup/viewing

* Zebra > Exposure

* Grid line > Setup/viewing

* Exposure Set guide > Setup/viewing

* Live view display setting effect > Setup/viewing

* Auto review > Review

Custom Operation  All items in this section need to be evaluated for relevance. Many can be removed. The remainder need to be re-grouped in a photographically meaningful way, with movie items separated from stills items and presented with greater clarity.

All the items  below should be in a [Controls] Submenu of the Setup menu, together with zoom ring rotate and zoom func on ring :

Custom Key (Shoot), Custom Key (Playback), Function Menu Set, Lens ring setup, Movie button, Dial/Wheel lock.

Other makers put  up a picture of the camera on screen with  the controls highlighted  making it really easy to select which functions the user wants to assign to each control module.

*Audio signals (called beeps by other makers, what the heck does “audio signals “ mean ?) > Setup after clarification of the actual options available.

* Write Date > Setup

Monitor brightness, Viewfinder brightness, Viewfinder color temp and Tile Menu  go into a subheading > viewing.

Gamma Disp Assist > Movie

Mode dial Guide > redundant, remove.

Delete Confirm > redundant, remove.

Display quality > Setup >viewing

Pwr Save Start time> Setup > General

NTSC/PAL > Movie

Touch Operation  > Setup > general

Touch Pad settings > Include under Touch operation above.

Demo Mode > Redundant, remove.

TC/UB Settings, HDMI Settings and 4K Output Sel. > Movie

USB Connection  > Setup > General

USB LUN Setting, USB Power Supply and PC Remove Settings > Simplify and clarify.

Language, Date/Time, Area > Setup > General

Copyright Info, File number, Set file name, Select REC folder, New Folder, Folder Name  > aggregate these into Setup > Files

Format > Setup > general

Recover Image DB > redundant ?

Display media Info > redundant ?

Version >Setup > General

Setting Reset > Setup > General.