Sony Cybershot DSC-R1

Many other users and serious reviewers have provided sufficient background on Sony's "top of the line" digital DSC-R1, so I'll steer clear of needless repetition and get right to my point: this is not just a great digital camera, it's a great camera by any standard. {credibility break, sorry} My background? 2,500 pictures in the R1, about the same in a Minolta A1 and another 3,000 or so in an older Sony (I forgot the model--it had a rotating lens) that spent 5 years on a boat with me in the South Pacific. Before that, over 40 years of serious photography with everything from pinhole cameras to the Hassey.

Here's the bottom line: the R1 is about the size of the 501c but less than half the weight with just the 'standard' lens. If I include all the extra lenses (I use a wide-angle and a moderate tele) plus the spare backs and film, the bag tips the scales at over 25lbs. Are the pictures as good? (trick question) Technically, no; there will be no razor sharp poster-sized prints from the R1. The truth is that many of the really great shots with the Hassey are still in my head: too much fussing with lenses, changing film, worrying about exposure and poof! The shot is gone. Of the thousands of digital images I've captured, there are many that would match the best from the medium format in terms of qualities that matter to me.

What's the best feature of the R1? Coming from the 501c, I really like the top-mounted LCD! It is much easier to use than even a tilting, back-mounted LCD (like the Minolta A1), particularly for candid shots. Plus when it's vertical, it's like a "sports" finder in that you can easily see both what's in the picture and what's not. Second best is the lens: I checked the Carl Zeiss site for info on their lens designs to compare to the 501c, but they haven't posted the specifics of the Vario-Sonnar in the R1. There are a few very good testing-oriented site on the `net that have uniformly lauded the lens design. As might be imagined, (or maybe not, judging from some uninformed whining about "features" elsewhere) designing and building lenses is not easy. To get a zoom lens that goes from 24mm to 120mm with a flat field and good color performance is nearly impossible, hence the almost unnoticeable barrel distortion at the wide end.

My third favorite feature is the CMOS sensor: it truly makes a difference in the quality of the mega-pixels not just the fact that there are over 10 million of them.

What's not to like? Well, several users have commented on the lack of interchangeable lenses, true, but to what end? To get a higher quality lens? Not likely. A larger aperture? Yes, you can, but not in a zoom. To get a really long telephoto or mirror lens? The only valid complaint, IMHO. So, there is the option of the 1.7 tele-extender that get's you something between 200mm and 400mm depending on how aggressively you manage the digital smart zoom feature. (Don't even think of complaining about the "extra" lens! This is about the lack of replacement lenses, remember.) I have one on order, so I'll save my comments for later.

There has been a lot of carping about the "noise" at high ISO (1600 and above) and it is true: if you try to hand-hold when you should use a tripod and fudge the ISO to overcome the shake, you will get noise. Mount your R1 on a tripod and shoot at 160 and the problem goes away because the built-in noise reduction kicks in. Even is you must shoot at higher speeds, using a tripod and setting exposure to take advantage of the noise-reduction program will make a big difference, from my informal testing. Photography is all about working with limitations, so consider it an advantage to own such an imperfect camera!

The only thing that I've found less than desirable is a compression of dynamic range when shooting Adobe RGB. It shows up as a right-skewed histogram, but post-processing in Aperture fixes it. The image is "muddy" but clears when the white slider is moved to the left in setting luminance. This could be due to several factors, so I'll do some testing and report back.

My summary is that this camera will not make you a better photographer, but taking lots of pictures and not showing the bad ones will help, and believe me, you will be able to take them with greater ease and enjoyment with the Sony DSC-R1 than with anything else on the market for the same price. If your excuse for not taking pictures is that there is either too much equipment or not enough, this one my dear Goldilocks, is "just right".

Got my Sony R1 just yesterday - ordered from Ritz on Tuesday and had it 48 hours later. Spent 6 hours "playing" with it and making a few test shots. Overall: love It - hence 5 stars.

The downside: oh how I wish the EVF provided about 5 times the resolution so that critical focusing (manual) was possible. And I could live without its herky-jerky display. But that pretty well wraps up what I don't like!

The few natural light indoor test pictures I made were beautiful; at ASA 400 (which I used used for this limited micro-test) resolution and color rendition were superb. Think I'm going to love this sharp, fast lens. That extra few mm at the wide angle end of the range means a lot too; "big sky", "indoor" and "close groups" will be a LOT easier to manage - and the 10MP image will take advantage of it by holding detail (those who say "MP doesn't matter" haven't thought it all the way through - as the angles grow wider it means a LOT).

Camera handling is great. Feels like a good SLR. This is certainly no heavier or bulky than my old Canon F1 - lighter in fact. The R1 exudes quality. Just plain feels good in the hand.

The controls and settings were mostly simple to figure out. What took me longest to discover was how to access playback mode - the button is unlabeled - actually had to look on the little "read me first" cheatsheet included in the box : -) Otherwise, I found myself able to "sync" with the designer's logic quite easily - everything I need for creative control is right there. I'm quite sure that with just a little practice, things like manual bracketing, selecting ISO, shutter speed etc. will be very fast in the field - I don't forsee much fumbling. Big plus!

I especially like the external LCD viewfinder. With the screen lying flat on top the camera becomes reminiscent of a medium format camera like a Yashica 2-1/4 or a mini RB67. I LIKE those machines and the R1 fills that part of my "does it all" wish list better than I expected. The R1 is even quite usable when held straight overhead by the simple expedient of holding it upside down. Not as easy to manipulate setting controls in this position of course, but that's both understandable and quite acceptable.

Shooting response speed was fine. Apparrently it's not able to take extended bursts of shots at several frames per second - bang, bang, bang, bang.... but I couldn't care less. I don't do that kind of photography. Guess it would be an issue if I were into sports photography (or weddings, which are a sport of a different kind) - anywhere one wants to shoot a huge number of shots and sift through them later for the perfect shot. But that's not my cup of tea.

Bottom line: the ability to feel like both a good SLR OR a medium format camera makes this, for me, a smash hit. I look forward to wringing the most out of technical capability - at least until a 20MB version with a hi-res viewfinder comes out a few years down the road.

Got my Sony DSC-R1 on Saturday, Nov. 19. I expected to order it from Amazon, but I was in the mall shopping and found that a local retailer had it for $948.88, so I bought it immediately. It took a couple of hours of play to figure out the controls. As mentioned in the review below, the toughest control to find was for playback (hint: it's the button with the blue arrow to the right of the viewfinder perfectly blended into the viewfinder's facia so it's hard to see). The value of the electronic view finder becomes evident when trying to compose a picture in tough lighting conditions. Seeing the image change in the viewfinder to reflect what will be captured as you select different points on the frame for the exposure level is immensely helpful in determining how the picture is going to look. I don't think you can do that with a DSLR. Having heavily cropped pictures and then printed them at 8x10, I could not see any pixelation. The amount of detail is astonishing. There doesn't appear to be any noise (albeit shooting at a low ISO setting), and there don't seem to be any artifacts typical of digital cameras. The printed colors, without any software manipulation, are spectacular. Overall, after two days of use I think this is a great camera. The only downside I've found is the flash seems underpowered, and the AF assist lamp is pretty lame. Sony should have stuck with their laser system. In response to Chris below, the image on the LCD can be zoomed for manual focus simply by pressing the zoom button (it looks like a magnifying glass).

I have owned my R1 for about a month now, have taken over 1000 photos and am delighted with the camera.
Let's get the bad news out of the way first and why I only gave it a 3 star rating.
The R1 is:
Very expensive - on the par with entry level DSLRs with lens kits but can't compete with their speed nor their versatility.
It's a large and heavy camera.
Uses proprietary battery
Does not have image stabilization!
Does not do videos.
This is a horrible mistake on the part of Sony, they price this camera with the DSLRs and then fall short on delivery.
In short, the R1 is marketed on the same plane as DSLRs but can't compete with them.

Pros:
This camera with it's swiveling LCD viewer is super for portrait work. It's ultra sharp lens will best all SLRs as far as portrait photography is concerned.
With the swiveling LCD you can go eyeball to eyeball with a toy poodle playing in the grass.
You simply can't do that with any DSLR!
The R1 is also excellent for candid photography because you can shoot at waist level instead of being conspicuous by holding the camera up to your eyes. In fact, there are many, many times when the R1 performed when other cameras stopped.
Exposure, focus and color are excellent and on the par with any DSLR.
The controls are easy to find after just taking a few pictures.
Battery life is excellent and you should not have to buy a second battery.
The 10Mpixels make cropping a breeze!
You can toss 50% of a photo and still have enough to print a 11 X 14.
The camera looks better than most DSLRs but can't outperform them except in the areas mentioned.
If you have longed for a camera that shoots from waist level like the famous 2 1/4 film cameras of days gone by then the R1 is for you.
If you photograph a lot of toddlers or pets then this camera is for you.
If you shoot a lot of fast-action sports then this camera is not for you.
If you are a birder then this camera is absolutely not for you.
If you do people shots for groups or clubs then you will love the R1.

Both Sony and Carl Zeiss deserve ample praise for producing the best high-end digital still camera currently available. Indeed, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 is the subject of a superb test report in the January/February 2006 issue of American Photo, in which the headline reads, "...combines the convenience of an electronic viewfinder camera with the image quality of a D-SLR". The magazine compared its performance with a Canon Rebel XT and two EF-S Canon zoom lenses at various ISO settings; judging from the pictures I saw, the Cyber-shot yielded images with better contrast than the Canon's (However, the American Photo article observed that the Cyber-shot images were slightly grainier at an ISO range of 160 to 400, more noticeable at 800, and especially so at 1600 and above; at 3200 the images were unusable in stark contrast to those from the Canon Rebel.). The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 has an ultra-wide Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* zoom lens (24mm to 120mm), whose optical performance I truly believe is second to none, and which American Photo recognizes as an "image-quality breakthrough".

The camera itself is quite handy and ergonomically superb, weighing less than a similar D-SLR with a corresponding zoom lens. It probably resembles more a 6 x 4.5cm medium format SLR than a 35mm D-SLR in its overall appearance. The Zeiss zoom lens has T* multicoating to reduce flare and enhance contrast of images, but perhaps more important for the user, has an easily grippable zoom ring and another for fast manual focusing. If there is indeed a major weakness in this Sony Cyber-shot, then it does not come with an optical image stabilizer, and yet, I think that photographic situations regarding such usage would be quite rare, even with this camera for the typical user. Furthermore, I suspect that those most interested in this camera will want highest image quality for most photographic situations - and would not mind the absence of this feature - and here the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 truly excels. So I agree with the American Photo reviewer that this camera truly represents a major advance in image quality for compact digital still cameras.