On our recent trip from California to eastern Texas, we hugged the border much of the way across Texas. Some of it was fenced, but much of it is still amazingly wild, rugged, and beautiful. I was fortunate enough to have the new Sony RX100 Mark IV with me, which has an amazingly good Panorama mode, and able to quickly and easily capture these wide-format images that help convey the scope and grandeur of the region…

This is from the eastern portion of Big Bend National Park,
looking across the Rio Grande River into Mexico
(to see these images in larger format, use the Photo Gallery at the end of the article)

From the mountains far inside Big Bend National Park,
you can still see across the border, in a nearly 270 degree vista
(to see these images in larger format, use the Photo Gallery at the end of the article)

The border winds dramatically with the Rio Grande River, and can be deceiving.
In this image, for example, the river is right past our car,
so nearly everything you are looking at is in Mexico
A wall here would need to obliterate the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive in the Park
(to see these images in larger format, use the Photo Gallery at the end of the article)

The wild lands stretch for hundreds of miles along the Rio Grande River.
Here we are west of the National Park, as you can see verdant farmland
in the Rio Grande River Valley (that marks the border) in the center of the frame

In some places the Rio Grande River Valley is too tight for a panorama.
Here, in the Big Bend Ranch State Park, only a narrow gap separates the US and Mexico.
(not a pano)

This historic town essentially straddles the Rio Grande River
(which is low enough you can walk across)
Sites like this would be especially challenging for would-be wall builders.
(not a Pano)

About the Panorama mode on the Sony RX100 IV

I’ve used a variety of built-in panorama features over the years, and have never been that happy with any of them. They were either finicky about how you captured the images, or provided poor-quality results. This time it was different. With the panorama mode on the Sony RX100 IV you can move at just about any speed you want across the field of view (with the LCD providing a helpful arrow and progress indications), and the camera does the rest – taking advantage of its very-high frame rate. The in-camera processing runs for a bit after that, and shows you the resulting JPEG. Obviously, purists will, as always, want to shoot their own panos in Raw, but for quick captures, this is the best option I’ve seen. The Panorama mode is accessible through a dedicated setting on the mode dial, so it is also trivial to get started.

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