Colin,
I own the Sony R1 now in addition to my Pentax DSLR kit. This
question will likely set off "Yet Another PDML Flame War" but,
frankly, I don't give a damn about that. I'll expand on my previous
comments from more first hand experience with the camera.
- For me, the buffer issue isn't ... I only infrequently want to
shoot more than one exposure at a time, two shots quickly in sequence
is enough for the majority of my photography. YMMV, of course ... If
you're Jens, you'll get yourself in a tizzy about write times and
responsiveness for pro sports shooting (neither of which he does) ...
but that's simply not what this camera is designed to do.
- The 10Mpixel sensor, coupled with the Zeiss lens, is indeed a good
plus on resolution for wide angle work and detailed scenes. Sony
screwed up badly with the F828 camera in terms of getting the lens
and sensor systems to work together well, evidenced by tons of
blooming and chromatic aberration. I'm happy to report that the R1
shows virtually NO blooming under the most extreme circumstances,
extremely little chromatic aberration (and what is there is easily
correctible in RAW processing with Adobe Camera Raw), and superb
corner to corner, edge to edge image quality. Belittle the speed of
the zoom as much as you want, but this is one very very fine imaging
system.
- The unusual placement of the articulated LCD on the top of the
camera is a stroke of genius ... it makes waist level shooting
extremely easy, both horizontal and vertical shots. Makes it easy to
use on a tripod for low angle work too.
- All the controls are very logically laid out, easy to learn and
use. The battery lasts 400-600 exposures per charge and its charge
state is very accurately reported in the viewfinder. All the usual
controls used by a photographer when actually making photos ... ISO
setting, EV compensation, aperture and shutter ... are immediately to
hand and operate directly. It's *better* than the DS or D in this
respect, in my opinion.
- With all the sounds turned off, the camera is also blessedly,
utterly silent except for a very quick click of the shutter. The easy
waist level framing also makes for tremendous stability in low light
hand-held shooting.
- The live viewfinder with histogram and tiger stripe highlight
warnings complement a near perfect exposure system. With Program
shift, EV compensation and these tools, exposure is so spot on as to
make bracketing virtually unnecessary, meaning that you can just
concentrate on your timing and framing.
- Sensitivity/noise is not up to the DS but it's close. With the
Sony, ISO 400 is beautiful, ISO 800 looks about like what I get from
the DS at ISO 1600. So it's one stop behind, roughly. The Pentax is
significantly better at ISO 3200, but I so rarely use that high a
setting it's mostly irrelevant.
- A lot has been said about the R1's poor AF speed in low light.
Frankly, I find these comments wrong, or I simply don't understand.
It focuses as quickly as I need, anyway, and very accurately.
Similarly, the EVF isn't as good as an optical viewfinder for manual
focusing, but I find it easy to use *IF* the camera is mounted on a
tripod. EVF delay in low light makes judging the focus point
difficult if the camera is not very very well supported and stable,
particularly for close-up work.
I'm delighted with the camera and it's caused me to re-think my
equipment mix to some degree. With such an excellent imaging system
and a zoom range that suits my photography so well, I see little
reason to have anything less than my favorite, best primes and
highest quality zooms for the Pentax that will net me an advantage
where the Pentax excels ... compactness, responsiveness and low light
sensitivity. The other areas where the Pentax has an advantage are
macro, long tele or extreme wide angle ... in other words, for those
uses that are outside of the R1's design envelope.
If what you need fits within the R1's design envelope, I see no
reason whatever to spend more than its price. To reach its specs and
capabilities would require the Pentax Dx-whatever body and the best
Pentax lenses at double to triple the money.
That said, I see my Pentax gear and the Sony as complements to each
other. I've rearranged my Pentax kit, selling off lenses I didn't use
much or don't need relative to the R1 now, and plan to buy the new
body and maybe one additional lens when they come available.
Each has its purpose, advantages and disadvantages. No one camera
does it all.
BTW: With regard to memory cards, I'm using primarily CF and SD in
the R1. I have a couple of Memory Stick PRO cards from my Sony F717
camera that I use for backup, but CF and SD with an SD->CF adapter
work better for me: I don't see much practical difference in write
speed between the three media formats, my storage tank takes both SD
and CF without an adapter. So I use my Memory Stick PRO cards as
backup in the field, and it's proven handy already since each R1 RAW
exposure is about 25Mbytes of data.
best,
Godfrey
On Feb 25, 2006, at 9:48 AM, Colin J wrote:
I use the *ist D and like it very much; my only
significant complaints about the camera are the
APS-C size sensor with "only" 6 MP. So I was
intrigued to learn about the "D2", which would
give me more pixels. Of course I accept that
Pentax will never give me a full frame sensor.
;-)
But I was also intrigued by the Sony DSC-R1 with
Carl Zeiss 24-120mm (equivalent on 35mm film)
f/2.8-4/8 zoom lens. I don't ever go wider than
24mm (*ist D: 15mm) and longer than 105mm (*ist
D: 70mm), so this focal length range would suit
me very well, and I only rarely shoot macro. The
Carl Zeiss lens of the DSC-R1 has also gained
universally very good to excellent reviews,
including one from Godfrey DiGiorgi on this list.
It seems to me that the "bridge" or ZLR camera
has finally come of age. No sensor cleaning or
dust problems. No time wasted changing lenses. A
waist-level viewfinder and enlarged view for
precise manual focusing. Live preview via the LCD
or electronic viewfinder.
So can someone tell me, why do I need to spend
more money on a 10 MP Pentax "D2" when I can sell
my Pentax *ist D and Sigma 15-30mm and 24-70mm EX
lenses on eBay and buy a 10 MP Sony DSC-R1 plus a
couple of 1 GB memory sticks with the money?
