With a weekend trip to Washington, D.C., I finally had the opportunity to take the tour of the White House. The White House Tour bans interchangeable lens cameras. Only recently, they started allowing smart phones and compact cameras for photography. With that in mind, I borrowed a Sony RX100v (I couldn’t get my hands on a Sony RX100vi in time), so that I could have the best possible compact camera for the occasion. In this post, I’ll discuss the White House tour as well as the capabilities of the Sony RX100v for the occasion.
Booking the Tour
There is no single central website or phone number to sign up for the White House Tour. Instead, if you reside in the USA, you must go through your local member of Congress. (Find your Representative with this link). You can call or email the office of your Representative, but many will have forms on their webpages allowing you to request assistance with planning a Washington, D.C. visit. My Congresswoman had a simple form allowing me to request assistance with various tours including the White House.
You need to request the White House Tour about three months before your planned visit. Shortly after submitting my request through my Congresswoman, I received an e-mail from a “White House Tours” e-mail instructing me to click another webpage and register my guests. Full names, birth dates, etc, were required for each guest. The e-mail further indicated that if approved for the tour, I would get another e-mail two to three weeks before my visit.
I didn’t hear anything further until about 10 days before my planned trip, when I received a confirmation e-mail with a tour time and instructions. The instructions were rather strict:
- Print the “Boarding Pass” and bring on the tour
- All adults must bring ID that matches the registered information (children did not require ID but were quizzed on their birth date when going through security)
- No bags, purses, etc, would be allowed. No locker facilities would be provided. If you brought any such items, you simply could not take the tour.
- No video. No cameras except for phones and small compacts.
Given my passion for photography, I was horrified at the thought of taking a tour like this and not having a “real” camera…
Why I Brought the Sony RX100v
Back in 2012, I was an early adopter of the original Sony RX100. Only 6 years ago, I was in a bit of a photography rut. I was still using a 6-year-old aps-c dSLR. I was intrigued by the original RX100’s promise to deliver dSLR quality in a compact form.
Of course, back in 2012, smart phone cameras were still fairly basic. They were starting to compete with cheap economy point and shoot cameras, but they couldn’t touch the image quality one could achieve with the 20mp 1″ sensor found in the RX100, especially with the 1.8 aperture lens.
The RX100 successfully re-sparked my interest in photography, motivating me to hone my skills and eventually upgrade my gear. By 2014, I was shooting full frame. I kept the RX100 as a backup for a while, but by around 2016, I found I simply wasn’t using it. I was using a Sony A6300 when I wanted to keep things reasonably compact. The Sony RX100 was sold.
With the White House tour approaching, I thought it was a good opportunity to test out the newer RX100 models. Especially as I dreaded the idea of touring someplace special like the White House without a real camera.
My first thought was the newest Sony RX100vi but I couldn’t get it in time. That probably worked to my benefit as the Sony RX100v has a faster lens, better for flash-less photography inside the White House. (I discuss the differences between models here).
After not having used a Sony RX100 for a couple of years, and now with the second newest model in my hands, I was quickly struck with a few thoughts. The camera is even smaller than I remembered and certainly can fit in a pants pocket. (Though not jeans or a tight pocket). The EVF on the RX100v is good enough quality and quite usable, but it is small and lacks a comfortable eye cup, making the LCD preferable for most shooting situations.
Prior to taking the camera on the trip, I tested the autofocus and burst shooting just by having my kids running towards the camera. In a few quick bursts, I suddenly had 300 images. Silently shooting 24 frames per second with face detect is indeed impressive. I can’t say the autofocus was perfect, but the smallish sensor of the RX100 causes a wide enough depth of field that the sharpness and focus were acceptable in over 95% of the images.
On the downside, I’ve grown accustomed to a camera with comfortable buttons and controls. Navigating the tiny buttons and controls on the Sony RX100 felt a bit frustrating. The selfie LCD screen that rotates up 180 degrees is a nice feature — just because I don’t practice much iphone photography doesn’t mean I’ll oppose the occasional selfie!
Arriving for the Tour
The security arrangements were strict but well organized and less cumbersome than I imagined they would be. You have to circle around South of the White House and you enter the property behind the Treasury Department, to the Southeast of the White House. Go through a first check of your paperwork and IDs. Next security screen is a room where you stand in a designated spot, while dogs can sniff from the other side of a fence. (I presume sniffing for chemical explosives etc). Another line into another room where you go through a more traditional metal detector.
In total, the security line took about 30 to 40 minutes before heading up the driveway to the East Wing (as pictured above).
The Tour Begins
The White House tour is entirely self-guided. You’re set free to explore the areas open to the public. Of course, there are plenty of Secret Service officers around to keep you from straying from the public areas. If you want a virtual tour guide, there is an app (WHExperience) that can give you information on each area you get to visit.
The White House famously has a West Wing, which houses the Oval Office and senior Executive office staff. Unfortunately, the tour doesn’t take you anyplace close to the West Wing. The West Wing was actually built in the early 20th Century. The East Wing was built and re-built at different points, with the current East Wing built in the 1940’s and now housing the offices of the First Lady.
As shown in the photo above, you enter the East Wing, into essentially a foyer. There are many First Lady portraits in this rather simple room. You pass through the East Colonnade, a long white hallway with glass windows, to get into the White House proper.
Apparently, the doors on the right enter into a family movie theater but it was not open for our visit. Though I neglected to take a photograph, a soccer goal set up outside was a reminder that people actually live in this house. I suspect President Trump’s son practices soccer outside.
As you reach the end of the East Colonnade, you enter the East Garden room, which acts as a gift shot and features this bust of Abraham Lincoln. (There is no shortage of homages to President Lincoln in the White House).
Note that the photo of the Lincoln bust is a bit soft. Shooting in aperture priority mode at wide angle, the camera automatically set a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in the stabilization system of the Sony RX100v, as the default shutter speed led to many images softened by a bit of camera shake. Later on in the tour, I increased the shutter speed, requiring higher ISO but eliminating camera shake softness.
The Ground Floor
The Ground floor of the White House feels a bit like a basement. The central hallway is blocked off. If unblocked, it would lead directly to the West Wing.
I found it interesting that the portrait of First Lady Hillary Clinton was closest to the panels blocking off the West Wing hallway..
This was one of the few shots where I used the telephoto end of the Sony RX100v lens. With the low light, the camera bumped the ISO up to 6400. At this high ISO, I can rate the image quality was fair. If you click and look at the image in full size, you notice significant noise but the image still looks quite acceptable at smaller sizes.
Along the sides of the hall, you can peek into the Library, Vermeil Room and China Room. You can’t actually enter the rooms, which I photographed from each doorway:
Note that I was still shooting at 1/30th of a second for the Vermeil room, which left the image less than tack sharp. In the indoor lighting, I personally found the AWB to be much too warm. On the right side, see the RAW file white balance corrected in lightroom.
In the Library, let’s compare the in-camera JPEG with processed RAW. At ISO 2500, if you enlarge the image, you will note that the camera smears a lot of detail for the sake of noise reduction. The RAW file allows for better balance of detail and noise. Bumping the shutter speed up to 1/125, I was able to consistently get shake-free sharp images.
Bringing us to the China Room…
Proceeding up the stairs to the true first floor, or the State Floor:
The State Floor
The rooms on The State Floor were immediately recognizable from press conferences and other news events. While the centers of these rooms were roped off, you could at least enter these rooms and walk along the edge.
The East Room,the site of many Presidential press conferences and formal events…. the in-camera panorama worked fairly well:
Portraits of a couple of our greatest Presidents, Washington and Theodore Roosevelt adorning the East Room:
A bit more detail of the East Room:
Unfortunately, it is a crowded tour and therefore very difficult to get any photo without bystanders inside the image.
We move into the Green Room, used as a sitting room and featuring some of the best of American Artwork. Though not pictured in these images, First Lady Laura Bush had added some modern art to the walls…
Passing through the Green Room, brought us to the oval shaped Blue Room. This room felt the most “Presidential” and may be familiar as the location of the annual White House Christmas Tree.
While “good for a compact,” note the limited dynamic range of the Sony RX100. It was about noon, it was cloudy outside but bright light behind the clouds. The cloud detail is entirely lost. Totally blown out in jpegs, and difficult to recover much even in the raw files.
The Southern view was the highlight from the Blue Room, looking South at the White House southern lawn, out to the mall with clear views of the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial beyond..
After a stop in the Red Room (sorry, no photos to share), the final regular room was the impressive State Dining Room. Though set with a single large dining table at the present time, the room can be set for up to 140 guests and is used for formal state dinners. It is rather inspiring thinking of the world leaders that have dined in this room:
Finally, we enter the Cross Hall, which leads us out the “front door”, the North Entrance of the White House. The Cross Hall includes a very famous portrait of JFK. Right in the center of the Cross Hall, there is a Presidential Seal, with a long line of people who want photos in front of the Seal:
Of course, I needed a photo of my kids under the Presidential seal. The harsh backlighting was not handled particularly well by the RX100v:
After exiting the White House, you can wander down the winding North driveway to the gate to exit the property..
Returning to the RX100 review section of this post, compare the jpeg and raw file above, specifically look at the architectural details around the windows. There was plenty of light for these images so they were shot at low ISO. Yet, highlights are so blown in the jpeg that architectural details were lost. Fortunately, the raw file did have enough latitude to capture these details.
Beyond the White House with the Sony RX100v
Just to show some more photos of the capabilities of the Sony RX100v around Washington, DC. Even with my original RX100, street photography was one of my favorite uses of this small discreet camera:
Shooting good light landscapes, the Sony RX100 can absolutely deliver crisp sharp detailed images:
Concluding Thoughts on the White House Tour
After getting through security, spent about 45 minutes to an hour actually touring the White House. While you don’t see everything, you certainly see enough to feel awed by the historical significance. Personally, I preferred visiting the Supreme Court and being in the Courtroom where Roe v Wade, Brown vs Board of Ed, were actually argued. Unfortunately, absolutely no photography was allowed in the Courtroom.
I’ve been to Washington, D.C., at least a half dozen times but this was my first opportunity to tour the White House. I’d highly recommend it to all visitors, well worth the slight hassle of having to plan it far in advance. Of course, there is no fee for the tour, making it an especially great “free” activity.
Concluding Thoughts on the Sony RX100v
Some of the pros and cons are littered through the review, but let me put them all in one place.
The basic pros:
- Fast autofocus, potential for incredible performance of 24 fps. (But how often do you need to shoot 24fps with a compact camera? I didn’t use it at all on my trip).
- Capable of extremely sharp detailed landscapes and images at low ISO
- Capable of decent medium sized images at high ISO. The fast lens on the RX100v further helps the low light capability but beware that the RX100vi has a slower lens.
- The 24mm-70mm range on the Sony RX100v is a useful range, 24mm being noticeably wider than smart phones, and the 70mm giving you just a bit of extra reach that is helpful on occasion.
- RAW files have a fair amount of range for recovery of highlights and shadows. Can’t compare to a top ILC, but certainly can produce improved images.
- Consumer friendly features like a selfie screen, in-camera panorama, etc.
- EVF provides usefulness when glare hinders the LCD
- The metering system produces bright images
The cons:
- My family members shot with smart phones. I’m going to post a phone vs camera comparison in the future. But for now, I’ll say that the SOOC (straight out of the camera) jpegs were no better than iPhone images. It shows you how much phones have improved in recent years.
- The ergonomics of the camera are not comfortable, small buttons and controls are hard to manipulate.
- The EVF can be uncomfortable to actually use. Also, maybe I was doing something wrong, but any time I retracted the EVF, the entire camera shut down. Thus, I couldn’t use the EVF for just one shot and then put it away without shutting down the entire camera.
- Battery life was poor. After about an hour of shooting, I was down to under 30% and the camera felt warm.
- The bright metering of the camera tends to blow out highlights, especially when shooting jpeg.
So can I recommend the Sony RX100v or RX100vi?
For those simply looking to take SOOC jpeg snapshots, you may be better off with a good smart phone. While it’s nice to have a bit of zoom with the RX100 models, most of my photos were shot at the wide end, where the 28mm of an iPhone may be adequate.
The RX100 models are good as portable backup cameras for more serious shooters. Shooters who may want a “take everywhere” camera that can fit in a pocket, and shooters who are willing to get into the manual settings and raw files.
As a sole or main camera, it can still be a good investment for shooters who are want to be more serious than a phone but still want a camera that can fit into your pocket. I wouldn’t purchase a RX100 model to use as a pure point and shoot.
The RX100vi, with 24-200 lens, is a good camera for those shooting primarily outdoors in good light. The 200mm focal length, fast autofocus and 24 fps range even allow using the camera for a little bit of sports and wildlife. Purchase the Sony RX100vi from Amazon here.
If you anticipate doing a lot of shooting indoors and don’t really need the longer telephoto, then the RX100v is a better investment with its faster lens. Purchase the Sony RX100v from Amazon here.
Of course, if you don’t absolutely need the camera to fit in your pocket, for cheaper than the newest RX100 cameras, you can get a rather complete Sony A6000 kit (see here). If you don’t need the camera to fit in your pocket but a small carrying bag will do, then go with the larger sensor aps-c Sony A6000.
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