Six Senses Spas will next month open Six Senses Spa Dubai, with its six treatment suites dedicated to different senses – sight, sound, touch, taste, smell and intuition.
Located on the fourth floor of the Renaissance Downtown Hotel in Dubai, the spa boasts a design inspired by the balancing of all the senses.
Swathed in sandy tones and light naturals, the contemporary decor is enhanced by floor-to-ceiling windows that provide glorious skyline vistas.
Customers can lie back in a So-Sound Legato Healing Lounger and let the healing vibrations ease away stress. Rather than just hearing with the ears, they can listen with the whole body. Muscles will let go of any tension, circulation will improve and brainwaves and blood pressure will rebalance.
It’s like lying in your very own Tibetan chiming bowl.
There’s also a hanging chime, a steam shower and a sauna with an interactive touch panel that lets you choose the music for relaxing or re-energising.
A Sight Suite heightens the visual senses using techniques such as chromotherapy in the steam room, digital images projected overhead in the sauna, and a relaxation area with “Good Night” LED lighting originally developed for astronauts on the International Space Station.
Lamps assist the body in the production of melatonin – a natural hormone that helps regulate the body’s circadian rhythm by eliminating disruptive blue-sky light waves.
The room is complemented by Awake & Alert – a luminaire to enhance natural alertness, energy and focus, while multiple colour and spectrum settings with on-board sensors will monitor air quality to assist with improved breathing, allergy relief and mood.
A flotation pod is the place to be when in the Touch Suite. The buoyancy created within the pod by the dense Epsom-salt solution effectively removes the effects of gravity on the body, and brings you closer to an experience of total weightlessness.
The peacefulness of the pod allows your mind to drift into a deep state of relaxation and your body’s balance is reset and strengthened, enabling your brain to slow down and enter a dream-like state.
The Taste Suite offers a variety of traditional hammam therapies and alchemy bar using a buffet of tastes and ingredients to both sample and create your customised treatment products. In the Smell Suite, customers will be delighted with a workshop to blend your own bespoke products including hair masks, body scrubs and wraps.
The Beyond Suite is a perfect place to enjoy a simple yoga class, stretching and breathing techniques, singing bowl therapy and chakra balancing sessions.
The popular Dutch Music Festival returns to Amsterdam in October and the luxury Conservatorium hotel is welcoming visitors to the Dutch capital with the Ultimate Party Package.
Available from October 18 to 22 and priced at 806 Euros (Bt31,600) for a three-night stay in the I Love Amsterdam Suite, the package includes VIP passes to Amsterdam Dance Music Festival for two, daily breakfast with champagne in bed for two, a bottle of Champagne upon arrival, two Vitamin Drip therapies, private airport round trip, Recovery treatment in Akasha Holistic Wellbeing Centre for two and late checkout at 4pm.
Make a reservation by calling (+31 20) 5700 000 @conservatoriumhotel.com or visit http://www.Conservatoriumhotel.com for further details.
Australia in the spring
Western Australia’s Como the Treasury hotel sets out to attract guests with the Wildflower Experience package for any stay between September 1 and November 30.
Starting at A$1,950 (Bt51,100), the package covers two nights in a Heritage Room, a Cape Arid welcome gift, a picnic lunch hamper, a five-course tasting menu paired with wines at Wildflower and an indigenous heritage tour of King Park.
Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel draws inspiration from nature for its Garden Romance wedding fair that will take place on August 26 and 27.
From cake decoration to beautifully adorned garden displays, each stall provides advice and details to enhance your event while talented chefs prepare special treats for a wedding feast. Newlyweds can also enjoy the lavish luxury suites for their first night together.
Couples booking a package on the day will receive a two-night stay at the beachside Anantara Mui Ne Resort in Vietnam and the top spender will also get a chance to win a two-night honeymoon at Anantara Resort in Maldives.
Find out more at (02) 126 8866 or email catering.asia@anantara.com.
A feast of lobster
Pracharat Rak Samakki Phuket is delighting local gastronomes and tourists with the Phuket Lobster Festival. Running until the end of the month, the event has more than 200 restaurants on the island offering fresh grilled lobster, sushi lobster and lobster noodle.
Jetstar gears up for the high season in the tropics with the introduction of four flights a week from Singapore to Hat Yai from November 3.
Passengers can enjoy promotional fares starting at Bt899 and the 180-seat A320 flights are available on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The airline operates more than 50 direct services from Australia, Vietnam and Singapore to Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai.
Coming to Chiang Rai this October is Soul Writing, a creative writing course that takes a different approach to accessing your inner voice, getting in touch with your imagination, and releasing writer’s block.
“Soul Writing is an approach to writing from the intuition,” says Sarah Walton, who is co-facilitating the “Let Your Soul Speak with Soul Writing & Meditation Retreat” at Museflower Retreat & Spa from October 11 to 16.
“Soul Writers learn to access the imagination using meditation techniques that allow the writer to enter into the stillness required for story to flow,” she adds.
Walton holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Hull in the UK, where she taught creative writing to undergraduates. She developed an approach to writing that combines meditation and free-writing techniques that help you access intuition, and teaches this course that works for beginners as well as writers experiencing “writers’ block”.
“The state of the brain in meditation is very close to the state when a writer is “in flow.” From that still place it is easier to access the intuition and the imagination, both of which we require to write,” she explains.
This technique of using meditation and creative writing accessing the inner intuition allows Soul Writers to learn to tune into their five senses – sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste – as well as the sixth sense of the intuition to write an engaging and compelling story that taps into the imagination and comes from the inner voice.
Walton will also be facilitating two Soul Writing workshops during the Third Annual Museflower Life Festival Weekend Retreat from October 6 to 9.
Museflower Retreat & Spa Chiang Rai is located at 159/1 Moo 1, Ban Samanmit, Donsila Sub-District, Wiang Chai District,
The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) has joined up with lifestyle and travel channel TLC to remind viewers that there are plenty of adventures to enjoy in Hong Kong.
The fourth season of “A Taste of Hong Kong”, which premieres today, features Thai celeb Napian “Na” Permsombat – a new face on the international movie scene – as a guest on “City Escapes”, an episode that is hosted by singer-actress Josie Howho. Also starring is Indonesian travel writer Marishka, a free spirit with a deep respect for nature.
“This was my first trip to Hong Kong so I was really thrilled to discover it like a local. I never imagined that Hong Kong had all these pristine spots just an hour’s drive from the city,” said Napian, who had the chance to experience a mix of adventure and discovery in the great outdoors.
“Nothing can beat having insider secrets on Hong Kong’s outdoors. It was an unforgettable and surprising experience for me, and Hong Kong has many hidden places worth discovering.”
Josie took her two friends on a morning trail in Victoria Peak where they ventured along jungle trails to find the most picturesque spots. The majestic view of Hong Kong was a sight to behold. They continued on to Sai Kung, where they met Kevin, a geologist who accompanied them on a cruise of the stunning coastline on a junk boat. They reached the islands, with a preserved natural ecosystem, that make up the Hong Kong Unesco Global Geopark.
Another highlight for Napian was the chance to show off his wakeboard skills with Josie in Sai Kung. He surprised his host by performing like a pro in the water. Next was a gorging adventure with an outdoor guru who showed them the really wild side of Hong Kong.
“Truly, it was way beyond my expectations,” added Na. “I can’t wait to go back to Hong Kong to discover more.”
Catch the season premiere of “A Taste of Hong Kong Season 4” at 8.55pm. “City Escapes” airs on August 21, also at 8.55pm and “After Dark” on August 28.
The hectic urban lifestyle takes a toll on your face, and stress makes your face look tired and dull. Cool British brand, Soap & Glory, comes to the rescue with a new range of trouble-shooting face masks to add to your daily routine.
Constantly battling tired eyes? Deploy “Puffy Eye Attack” (Bt150), super-hydrating under eye- brightening hydrogel patches that soothe, refresh and de-puff. The patches work while you rest and contain a tetrapeptide to help reduce the appearance of dark circles and under-eye puffiness, liquorice root extract for skin brightening, and Cucumber Fruit Juice extract for an instant moisture infusion.
“What A Peeling” (Bt190) works as a purifying de-clog mask. Liquid gel transforms into a lift-off paper strip to smooth, purify and remove all gunk and junk in one go. The mask is power-packed with 10 ingredients including fine-clay kaolin and bentonite to help absorb excess oil, white willow bark known for its benefits for oily skin and vitamin C for tired complexions. It’s scented with exotic tropical fruit.
Shine-free skin always a chore? Then check out “The Fab Pore” (Bt150). A quick and easy facial for instant pore-fection, this refreshing skin-smoothing face mask is packed with pore-refining and problem-solving ingredients for a fresh and healthy-looking complexion.
“Bright and Beautiful” (Bt150) is a party recovery radiance-boosting mask. Packed with a cocktail of skin-boosting ingredients, this multi-tasking miracle worker is a speedy solution for dull, tired and stressed-looking complexions with vitamin C and white flowers (tiger lily, lotus, cherry blossom, chamomile, and cape jasmine), perfect for dull, lack-lustre skin “Speed Plump” (Bt150) is a treat for dry and dehydrated skin. With a delicate sweet orange peel scent, this turbo boost hydrogel mask is an instant hydration sensation. The two-piece mask contains super-nourishing moisturizers that will quench dry skin.
The Soap and Glory “Mask Force 5” collection is available exclusively at Boots from this month onwards.
Floyd Mayweather Jr and Conor McGregor go head-to-head this month in what promises to be the fight of a lifetime.
While the super-fight between the undefeated boxer and the two-weight UFC champion will be beamed to television screens, watching it with friends and fellow sports lovers can only add to the pleasure and so the Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprasong Hotel is turning its R Bar into a ringside arena on August 27 from 8am onwards.
With the live-streaming right in front of the large 150″ screen, the venue will also provide a special breakfast package with free-flow house pours and beers promising undefeated moments like no others in the heart of Bangkok.
Round up your friends and get the best seat in-house for just Bt1,100-net all in.
Deaf customers communicate through sign language at the “Sin Palabras” (Without Words) coffee bar in Bogota. /AFP
With menus with vignettes depicting sign language, the cafe seeks to impose itself in Bogota as the first one of its kind for the deaf population./AFP
In Bogota, a bar for the deaf
lifestyle August 13, 2017 01:00
By Rodrigo Almonacid
Agence France-Presse
The waiters can’t hear, the floor pulsates for dancers and sign language translates the music videos
IT’S NOT yet dark, but the two girls sitting at a table in a Bogota bar flick on the lamp on their wooden table. That’s the signal to the bartender, in Colombia’s first-ever bar for the deaf, that they want a drink.
The Sin Palabras Cafe Sordo – No Words Deaf Cafe – is the first of its kind in the country, says Maria Fernanda Vanegas, one of three owners.
It’s located in the trendy Chapinero neighbourhood of the Colombian capital, surrounded by heavy metal, gay and reggae joints.
“Its aim is for us, people who can hear, to adapt to the deaf, and not the other way round, which is always the case,” says Vanegas.
The No Words Cafe has large screens playing music videos with the lyrics in sign language, and a dance floor that pulses with music to dancers who cannot hear it.
The menus are also translated into sign language and there are games such as Jenga or dominoes for customers to play.
Vanegas and her partners, Cristian Melo and Jessica Mojica, all have good hearing, but dreamed of opening a cafe for the more than 50,000 people in Bogota who do not.
Colombia has more than 455,000 deaf or hard-of-hearing people, according to the last census carried out in 2005.
People with normal hearing also frequent the bar, which is as noisy as any other in the capital. But the difference is that here, most of the talking is done with hands.
“It’s the first time I can feel the music,” says Erin Priscila Pinto, a first-time client enjoying a drink with her old friend, Carol Aguilera.
“That makes me really happy, because it’s the first time I can dance,” says the 23-year-old photography student.
All six waiters at the bar are deaf too, and even though many of the clients do not know sign language, they manage to convey their orders with gestures or by writing them down.
The bar also features small cards showing the basics of sign language for drinkers interesting in expanding their repertoire.
“I feel much more at ease with waiters who are deaf – everything is much easier,” says Pinto.
There is no need to actually speak in the bar.
“Communicating with people with normal hearing can be a bit tricky at first because we don’t understand them,” says waiter Juan Carlos Villamil, 26. “But we get by somehow or other.”
Some new clients are surprised at first, but they end up getting the hang of sign language, he says.
The idea for the cafe came to the owners when they saw a group of deaf people having a coffee and asked them about their social lives. Now they want to open more bars like this across Colombia and elsewhere.
It’s not all plain sailing, however.
Some “odious” guests occasionally take advantage of the waiters’ deafness to slip out without paying, or they smash glasses, says Vanegas.
The bar opened on June 16, and with its exhibitions, story-telling and other cultural performances by hearing-impaired artists, it’s already well on its way to becoming one of Bogota’s more hip watering holes at weekends.
“We want to show the world that deaf people have talent,” says Vanegas, as Pinto uses her phone to record a video to show her mother the bar where people listen with their eyes and speak with their hands.
Priced at less than Bt5,000, this new smartphone from Finnish firm HMD Global is ideal for a first-timer
If you’re looking for an affordable smartphone with 4G LTE connection, the latest Android operating system, 5-inch display, and 8-megapixel camera, the new Nokia 3 could well be the answer.
Priced at slightly less than Bt5,000, Nokia 3 boasts a premium design with a frame forged out of a single piece of aluminium and a back cover made of polycarbonate.
The 5-inch IPS LCD display with 1,280×720 pixels is protected with sculpted Corning Gorilla Glass and the phone comes in Silver White, Matte Black, Tempered Blue and Copper White colour options. The Matte Black version I tested looked solemn in my hand.
To make it more affordable, Nokia 3 is powered by the cheaper MediaTek MTK 6737 quadcore processor running at 1.3 GHz, so obviously it’s not blazing fast as those fitted with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. And it has only 2 gigabytes of working memory or RAM, compared to 3GB or 4GB of other models and 16GB of storage.
That said, I found Nokia 3’s speed was acceptable. The response of the touch screen and menus as well as applications were okay, never annoyingly slow.
Surprisingly for a smartphone of this price, Nokia 3 can also play High-Resolution Audio format of FLAC 24bit/192kHz. I tested it with Sony’s MDR1ABT phones and I found that the sound quality was good with details of the musical instruments clear and the bass powerful.
The Nokia 3 has two nano SIM slots and an extra microSD slot, meaning if you use two SIMs, you can still expand its storage.
Nokia 3 runs on pure Google Android 7.0 operating system without any interface, which avoids the slowing down you might expect.
The smartphone supports LTE Cat 4 data connection. I tested it on TrueMove H’s LTE network and found that apps downloaded fast and my snapshots were backed up to my Google Photos cloud storage equally rapidly.
I used the Ookla Speedtest app to measure the speed and the Nokia 3 did well, achieving a download speed of 60.77 Mbsp and an upload speed of 31.68 Mbps.
Nokia 3 has 8-megapixel cameras at the rear and the front. Both cameras use image sensor with large pixel size and aperture to capture good quality photos for a smartphone in this price range.
Nokia 3 is a smartphone from HMD Global, a firm from Espoo, Finland that has bought the Nokia phones and tablets operation. HMD designs and markets a range of smartphones and feature phones targeted at a range of consumers and price points.
Nokia 3 is available at most retailers for Bt4,850.
The new Miss Universe Thailand has some sweet things to say on Mother’s Day
AS MOTHER’S DAY is celebrated across the Land of Smiles today, one mum is beaming with joy and pride more than most. Chanoksuang Poonlertlarb’s daughter is Maria Poonlertlarb Ehren, the newly crowned Miss Universe Thailand.
The 25-year-old beauty (whose first name is often transliterated as Mareeya, though she prefers the Western version) will represent the Kingdom in the Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas in November, and she’s already being tipped as a top contender.
Just over 1.8 metres tall in her bare feet, Maria was born in Bangkok. The family spent several years in Hanoi, but she was back in her hometown by age seven.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in international business from Erasmus University in the Netherlands and a master’s in marketing from the Stockholm Business School in Sweden. Her father is a Swedish engineer and her mother is a university lecturer. Maria is fluent in Thai, Swedish, English and Mandarin. Her twin brothers, 12 years older, live in Texas in the United States.
Maria got into show business when she was just 13 and has modelled professionally and acted occasionally ever since. She released the song “Boong” in 2010 and later had a modest hit with “Come Along”.
She saw entering the Miss Universe Thailand competition as a step towards a planned career in women’s rights, and specifically working on issues such as education and teen pregnancy.
Maria and her mum had a chat with us this week – in English, with Maria showing a decidedly American accent – about life, fun and family.
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST FONDLY ABOUT MARIA’S CHILDHOOD?
Chanoksuang: She was a very pleasant and joyful child. I was always the one who sang to her until she fell asleep on my shoulder and who put her to bed. I’d sing “Bua Khao” [“White Lotus”] or “Let It Be Me”. I read to her a lot, so she’s always been inquisitive about things.
When her brothers came home from school, if she was still awake, they’d pick her up and dance around with her. She’d always insist on being picked up again and again, tricking them by saying, “Just one last time!”
WHAT MAKES MARIA HAPPY?
Chanoksuang: Our family is very warm and loving. Her brothers contributed a lot to her development. They liked sports. By the time Maria was one she could bounce a ball, counting to more than 100 without slipping, which we thought was very unusual for a little girl.
WHAT MAKES YOU PROUDEST OF HER?
Chanoksuang: The whole family was very proud when she beat more than 200 other students around the world for a chance to attend a Nasa space camp.
Maria: It was the most amazing experience of my life. When I was young I had many dreams, and being an astronaut was one of them. When I got to eighth grade there was a competition to go to America for two weeks, to Florida for this Nasa space camp.
WHAT MAKES YOUR MOTHER HAPPY?
Maria: We’re very similar in the sense that we’re sabai sabai. She works very hard, so just relaxing makes her happy. Whatever I do for her it always makes her happy too, and that just makes me want to do more, like playing the piano for her or making her an apple pie. She loves my apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream!
The most important thing is that she loves it when all of her children are home, when my brothers come for a visit. That’s when she’s happiest.
WHAT DO YOU GUYS LIKE TO DO TOGETHER?
Maria: Watching a movie, getting a massage, going out to eat, especially at a buffet.
Chanoksuang: We love buffets! Maria is funny. She likes to start with the salad and everything, then she goes for dessert, and then she goes back for more salad, then more dessert, and so on – it’s never in sequence. She just hops here and there.
Maria: My mother’s oven dishes are very good, though – potatoes, meat, vegetables and lasagna!
HOW HAS YOUR MOTHER HELPED YOU GET THROUGH THE DIFFERENT STAGES OF LIFE?
Maria: My mom has always been very supportive. The question she likes to ask which I think is really important is ‘Is that what you really want to do?’ Both my parents do that, actually. Even though they might have different ideas, they still respect my opinion, my thoughts.
Chanoksuang: Whatever she thinks or she likes, we value her opinion.
WAS BECOMING A BEAUTY QUEEN ANOTHER OF YOUR CHILDHOOD DREAMS?
Maria: I never thought of a beauty pageant as the end goal. I realised that people listen to you because of the title you hold, so the question is what should you do with that.
I want to open a foundation or an organisation that helps the community. I think I’m really in that position now, so it’s a dream come true – and it still feels unreal!
Being a beauty queen is a dream for a lot of little girls. For me, it’s more about what comes after that, what it really stands for.
HOW IMPORTANT WAS YOUR FAMILY’S HELP IN MAKING YOU WHO YOU ARE TODAY?
Maria: Growing up with two brothers was really amazing, because you develop faster by trying to copy them. It’s human nature to mimic, and whatever they ate, I’d eat the same. They left for university when I was very young and I was so sad – I missed my brothers.
Chanoksuang: I missed them too, but luckily I still had her, and that was a big help.
Maria: So my mom got me into a lot of activities – ballet classes, piano lessons, drawing, tennis, taekwondo, even ballroom dancing with her! I’m very lucky to have had all these opportunities.
Chanoksuang: One thing I admire most about her is that everything she does, she does well. Her tennis coach wanted her in the junior league because she was so good. Taekwondo too, because she had long legs and arms and no one could match her reach. She also likes science.
Maria: My family has always been very positive and reinforcing. If I didn’t do something well, my father would say, “Let’s practise until you’re able to do it well.”
Anyone who takes lessons can do anything – not just me. It’s really about surrounding yourself with a good support team that makes you want to do the fullest.
When I was onstage in the pageant, I saw a sign that said “Texas heart Maria”, and I knew instantly it must be from my brothers – so sweet.
IT’S MOTHER’S DAY – WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SAY TO YOUR MUM?
Maria: I think it’s important to know that we’ll always be together and support each other. My mom has supported me my whole life and I want to give that back.
Ever since I was a kid I’ve always said that if I get married, my husband can stay out in the garage and my parents will be with me in the house.
Sony’s made many dazzling improvements in its latest RX10 camera
Sony’s much-acclaimed Cybershot RX10 digital camera has been much improved for its third edition, complete with a newly developed 25x super-telephoto lens with an extensive focal range.
The large-aperture, high-magnification zoom lens with 600mm equivalence lets you to get close to difficult subjects. And the 24-mm-equivalent focal length ensures excellent scenery shots.
Together these features make the RX10 III the perfect allpurpose camera for travellers.
In other improvements over the RX10 II, this one has a 24600mm lens with f/2.44 aperture (up from 24300mm with a constant f/2.8 aperture). The wide-angle 24mm focal length just adds to the resulting extra brightness.
Thanks to an improved Optical SteadyShot algorithm, the RX10 III has a better exposure compensation, with 4.5 stops compared to its predecessor’s three stops.
The RX10 III has triple rings on the side of the lens for focus, zoom and aperture, up from the single ring-plus-aperture ring previously. So it’s much smoother to operate.
There’s an extra control button, called Focus Hold, on the lens barrel so you can lock the focus distance. Alternatively, the same button can customised for other uses as, as can two other buttons up top. You can now assign up to 58 more options to the custom buttons, up from 40 previously.
Serious photographers will appreciate the improved shape of the grip. It feels more secure when the camera is held at eye level.
You can now change the first three characters of file names from the default “DSC”. This is handy, for example, when you want different photo designations for different trips.
With the ultra-telephoto zoom, choose Zoom Assist and then press and hold the C (Custom) button and the lens will automatically zoom out so you can reframe your subject and zoom back in when you release the button.
Anyone who’s ever lost track of a subject at long range will be grateful for this.
For all of these advances, there is one drawback to the RX10 III. The builtin ND filter found on the RX10 II is gone, and that was quite useful when shooting in bright sunlight.
The RX10 III is a little larger and weighs 282 grams more its predecessor – apparently because of the longer lens – but that’s not really much of a drawback.
Such quibbles weren’t enough to stop the RX10 III from winning the Red Dot Award for product design in the compact-camera category.
As for other specifications, the RX10 III has a 1.0 type stacked 20.1 MP Exmor RS CMOS sensor with a DRAM chip and advanced signal processing, along with a powerful Bionz X image processor.
These components work together to ensure high image quality throughout the entire zoom range and to capture 40x super-slow-motion video at up to 960 frames per second.
You also have an ultrafast Anti-Distortion Shutter with a maximum speed of 1/32,000 second and can take high-resolution 4K movies.
The impressive autofocus system relies on spatial object detection to predict the subject’s motion before the shutter is activated. The AF response is incredibly fast and efficient when the shutter is pressed halfway, locking onto the subject in as little as 0.09 seconds.
The stacked sensor and powerful image processor also allow the camera to achieve a readout of 20-megapixel image data, resulting in continuous shooting at up to 14fps with reduced blackout. This is wonderful for shooting sports and other fast action.
A wide sensitivity range of ISO 644 to 12800 and images with exceptionally low noise, even at higher sensitivity settings, are possible thanks to the back-illuminated CMOS sensor and Bionz X processing engine.
You have an impressive 24600mm Zeiss VarioSonnar T lens with large maximum aperture of F2.4F4.0. At the maximum 600mm focal length, the aperture is f/4.0, very good for such range, so your zoom shots will be exceptional.
The aperture unit itself has nine blades that are designed to create a near-perfect circle in the F2.4F11 range. The result if a lovely bokeh effect – the subject standing out against a soft-focus background.
Optical SteadyShot image stabilisation helps reduce camera shake and image blur, even at those longer focal lengths. It’s equivalent to shooting at a shutter speed 4.5 stops faster than your actual setting.
Builtin WiFi means you can link in a PlayMemories Mobile phone app to use your phone as a viewfinder or remote control and post photos and videos online. This applies to NFCenabled Android devices, which only need to be tapped against the camera to connect.
The RX10 III is quite easy to use. Rookies can choose Intelligent Auto or Superior Auto. The latter is better, since it has the same automatic scene-recognition as Intelligent Auto but works better in dark or backlit situations. It takes multiple shots at different exposures and churns out a nice composite.
More experienced photographers will go for Program Auto, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Manual Exposure. They’re all on the mode dial, alongside Memory Recall, Movie and Scene Selection.
In my test I mostly shot with Superior Auto. The camera recognised the conditions and selected the best mode, such as Backlight or Handheld Night Scene.
At 24-mm-equivalent focal length, the RX10 III captured beautiful landscapes with fully saturated colours and good detail.
The 600-mm-equivalent zoom pulled in faraway objects superbly. Shooting on Hua Hin Beach, I was able to get great zoom shots of Khao Takiab, which looked tiny to the naked eye.
Optical SteadyShot image stabilisation worked very effectively. At the highest zoom, I managed to capture sharp and clear shots without a tripod. And the autofocusing was really fast, pulling me into a jetski skimming across the waves for more crisp images.
The RX10 III’s backlighted sensor is terrific in low light. I got clean shots at night with great light effects in Handheld Night Scene mode, the camera snagging four shots for a superior single composite.
Sony’s Cybershot RX10 Mark III has a suggested retail price of Bt56,990.
KEY SPECS
– Sensor: 1.0-inch-type Exmor RS CMOS, aspect ratio 3:2 with 20.1 effective megapixels
– Lens: Zeiss VarioSonnar T with 24600mm equivalent focal length, f/2.44
– Focus area: Wide, centre, flexible spot
– ISO: ISO 64/80128000
– Light metering: Multi pattern, centreweighted, spot
– Exposure compensation: Plus or minus 3.0 EV, 1/3 EV step
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