Advice please - sharp focus?

[Grocklets]

What do you mean?
The lens is the analogue part that is better than a sampling sensor.
I agree there is too much attention put on how many megas of pixels a camera has instead of the quality of the optics.
NB: Around 2005 I was on holiday and a fellow guest was a pro photographer and he had a chunky Canon EOS-1D full frame jobbie. Only ~4Mega pixels but top of the range lenses

On a DSLR where you can swap the lens, you can get better images out of the camera with lenses with a large front part. I mean the "Front element" in this DSLR lens simplified exploded diagram:

So always use optical zoom and maybe think about not using or better disabling digital zoom. Digital zoom is just pixel reduction/cropping. You can do that at home with better control of the zoom/crop task - imo

Have a look at the web site DXOMark, it shows reviews of various lenses on different camera bodies. In each review you will see a score that has ‘p-mpix’ which stands for ‘perceptual megapixels’ in other words, how many mpix the lens is actually resolving. That’s why, when you watch reviews you will hear comments such as ‘it’s a little soft towards the corners of the image’. The larger front element generally means it’s a ‘faster’ lens, I.e. it will collect more light - which relates to the f number of the lens (f/2.8, f/4 etc). Hope that helps

 

[stuartholmes]

For my sins I do have a used RX100 iii - a little smaller than the Panny.
I got it for the Northern Lights in Norway as it has the 1" sensor and wider aperture.
It's very limited by the zoom and I found the menu system very complex.
But maybe I should dig it out and have a play with it in proper light.

I have an RX100 iii too & was going to suggest you try a used one off ebay so get your old one out!!!

I believe it offers the best balance between physical size & sensor size. The best camera is always the one with you & you're more likely to have this in your pocket than anything other that a phone.

Persist with the menu settings - I mostly use the automatic rather than try to get clever because the camera is so clever itself & I'd rather attend to composition & 'the moment' than fiddle around but when wanted, with a little practice, it's actually quite simple to make manual settings. So I'd say go through the menu options when you're at home with nothing better to do & just settle on the ones you think are most likely to suit your style of photograpthy & needs.

Use a tripod if you can be bothered to carry one, with a remote shutter trigger, or lean somewhere solid, hold your breath & use the two second delay setting to minimise camera shake.

Presumably you keep the lens clean but it's amazing how filthy some people's are!!

Hope that helps without sounding like a sucky-eggs lecture.

Oh and re the zoom range of the RX100, check this: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/61007481
☺

 

[stuartholmes]

Definitely worth a try. Even if it comes back into use as a camera you put in a pocket “just in case”.
I confess I didn’t spend a lot of time learning all the features of the camera. It’s probably heresy to a photography enthusiast but auto works very well most of the time

I never look down on automatic camera settings or the people who use them. I learned my photography skill on a camera that had precisely two settings - 'sunlight' & 'shadow'. At school I won prizes and praise for taking better photographs than people with what's nowadays called 'all the gear & no idea'. The non-automatic parts of the process, composition & timing, were and are the key to better photographs and this is as true with modern compact or phone cameras just as much as it was with my Kodak Brownie in the 1960s.