Sony Showcase RX1 Images

Puddle Ice - EXCELLENT!

I might have been half willing to pony up for this camera if it was 28mm and they'd put a reasonably useful distance scale SOMEWHERE on or in the damn thing. Lens, electronic in the LCD - I don't care. But I'm not gonna buy something with both slow AF and no easy way to use zone focus. Sure makes some pretty files though!

-Ray
 
Ray, I used zone focusing for just about all of these (but not Puddle Ice)--I set the focus point with AF (you just activate the AF with the C-button right next to the shutter release. It is really fast and a lot faster than setting object distance with a lens scale.
 
Ray, I used zone focusing for just about all of these (but not Puddle Ice)--I set the focus point with AF (you just activate the AF with the C-button right next to the shutter release. It is really fast and a lot faster than setting object distance with a lens scale.

I've tried that with other cameras - just doesn't work for me. I need a scale so I can know the zones that are gonna work at a given aperture and be able to set them quickly as conditions change. I keep sort of a cheat sheet of settings in my head (and iphone if I forget) for any camera lens combination I use that way. The way you do it is too much like AF for my taste. You're getting great results, its working for you. But I've used that method and it doesn't work for me. But I'm really glad Sony has this out there even if I won't buy it - always good to have someone pushing the envelope...

-Ray
 
Ecuador

Some snaps from over the new year (w/an RX1).

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Gary, I am in love. OK, maybe I am not in love, but I am having a blast with the RX-1. I have not really used it for anything serious--I am still kicking the tires. But it a really great second camera. What the E-P1 should have been. You can carry it everywhere and is a really nice P&S, but also can make some amazing pictures if you you want to get serious. It is really well thought out for photographers.

That is the beauty of Maine in winter--not much rain. Unfortunately, not much sun either.
 
mmmmhhh ... I recently purchased an X-Pro, which is taking my photography back from reactionary photography to anticipatory photography ... just a lot more thought process into the image equation. I hate to further dilute and extend my learning curve with the OM-D and X-Pro by picking up a third system, but that camera does sound like a lot of fun.

Gary
 
I am not sure it is much of a "system." One (really fine) lens, some flash units that are too big for it, and a snappy looking microphone--that is about it. Oh, unless you need a viewfinder.

I am not sure if I had an X-Pro, if I would also have an RX-1. (What you need is a medium-format digital system to go with the X-Pro.) I got the RX-1 to go with my Pentax 645D--couldn't fit anything else in the bag, really. I was looking for something small with very good image quality that would give me a way of working differently from the 645D--my Macro Four Thirds. I loved my E-P1, but on a trip to Tokyo, I found out just how far behind that camera was to my 645D. I was looking for a camera that I felt I could mix and match work with my bigger camera. I was actually thinking about the X-Pro until Sony released a camera that started to haunt my dreams--that is rare for a camera to do that.
 
I am not sure it is much of a "system." One (really fine) lens, some flash units that are too big for it, and a snappy looking microphone--that is about it. Oh, unless you need a viewfinder.

I am not sure if I had an X-Pro, if I would also have an RX-1. (What you need is a medium-format digital system to go with the X-Pro.) I got the RX-1 to go with my Pentax 645D--couldn't fit anything else in the bag, really. I was looking for something small with very good image quality that would give me a way of working differently from the 645D--my Macro Four Thirds. I loved my E-P1, but on a trip to Tokyo, I found out just how far behind that camera was to my 645D. I was looking for a camera that I felt I could mix and match work with my bigger camera. I was actually thinking about the X-Pro until Sony released a camera that started to haunt my dreams--that is rare for a camera to do that.

The RX1 would haunt my dreams if it was a 28mm instead of 35. Instead, I think about it at times when I'm awake because I'm really impressed with the pop of the images I'm seeing from it. There's an appeal to a fixed 35 that I get intellectually, but when I've actually HAD a fixed 35, I always wanted it to be wider. I also wouldn't buy a camera that didn't include some strong zone focussing tools. I've now come to understand that the RX1 DOES have a distance scale that comes up in MF when turning the focus ring, which is way better than I thought it had. But its not a particularly detailed or precise scale and the camera forgets your manual focus distance when you turn the camera off or anytime you switch to and use AF. I won't quote much from Sean Reid's reviews, as he requests, but in his recent review of the RX1, he made a comment along the lines of 'Sony shows about as much interest in zone or scale focussing as they do in window finders - ie, not very much'. Which, sadly, has been my finding too. It was a fatal flaw of the RX100 for me and its one of the reasons I haven't gotten far more into the Nex system than I have. Unless I was prepared to use legacy glass (and there's not a lot in the 16-18mm range I don't think. the Nex cams just wouldn't work for my way of shooting... It was a problem with m43 too until Olympus came out with the 12 and new 17mm, with clutch focus rings with distance scales on the barrels. And, to a lesser extent, the body cap...

Yet I STILL think about the RX1 - its that impressive. And if I get the chance to shoot with one for a while, I reserve the right to change my mind!

-Ray
 
Easy there Gary,
I'm still waiting for more fantastic pictures from your X-Pro!
" One needs to learn,understand,become one with the equipment before adding more."
The RX1 does look like one cool camera though.Of course, your learning curve and my learning curve live in seperate universes!
 
Lighthouse images risk being cliche, but that second shot with the fence line leading the eye to the lighthouse, with the subtle colors and gradations, is just absolutely wonderful. And that's a shot that seems to really take full advantage of the camera's wonderful image quality. Nicely done!

-Ray
 
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