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The Sony RX1
Photo taken from www.reviews.cnet.com
by Lori Grunin
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Sony’s new addition to its camera family has cleverly included
a full-frame sensor in a Cyber-shot-branded camera. They’ve named it the RX1, a
"compressed" digital camera for professionals that provides the exact
same 24.3MP Exmor CMOS sensor released today along with the A99. Labelling the
rangefinder-esque one-pound shooter “little” may appear off-base, particularly
contemplating the Zeiss Sonnar T* 35mm f/2.0 fixed prime lens sticking out from
its front, however it's not really very big (3-inches tall by 4.5-inches wide)
up against its small cousin, the RX100 - looking at how much bigger the RX1's
sensor is, well, that's when some might fall in to a subdued shock.
Whilst it's
not a "pro-NEX" as quite a few die hard photographers had wanted,
Sony mentioned that it selected a set lens to prevent the size of a lens-mount.
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Looking at the quality of the Sony RX1's photo's taken from www.engadget.com |
Movie shooters will be pleased to know that the camera
shoots 720p AVCHD 2.0 footage at 24 and 60p, with 30p assigned to the
web-friendly MP4 file format.
Even though the connected lens is the only choice for
optics, it's custom-built to exclusively flatter the sensor. In the camera,
it's packing a 9-bladed aperture ring, which Sony claims ought to assist in
producing Bokeh. Better yet, the lens offers manual aperture, focus rings and a
macro switch that mechanically modifies the optics for close-up shots.
The 24.3MP sensor is powered through Sony's most recent
Bionz processor, so a person can certainly assume pictures of practically
equivalent quality and 14-bit RAW files stored onto your SD card. That said,
the autofocus onboard is contrast-based like the NEX-7 (not precisely best if a
photographers in a severe low-light scenario), whilst it's burst rate tops out
at 5FPS; these 2 factors in specific are downgrade's from the A99's
phase-discovery AF and 6FPS burst chops. Native ISO range will go from 100 to
25,600, which may be lengthened as minimal as 50, and as huge as 102,400 thanks
to a function named Multi Frame Noise Reduction (basically put, several photos
are put together to create 1 fresh picture in {dim conditions).
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Pop up flash of the RX1 taken from www.digitalcamerainfo.com |
For ergonomics, the camera seems very much like a chunkier
RX100, however it has the support of a hand grip this time. On the camera's top
right you'll get committed mode and exposure compensation knobs and a threaded
shutter button. Whilst the left side possesses a pop-up flash which may be
shifted backwards à la the NEX-6 and 7 (See image to the left)..
Going along towards the back, towards
the screen's right you will see 4-buttons along with a control wheel, manual
control dial, dedicated movie button, and programmable function button, amongst
others such as the AE-lock.
As I described before, the RX1 is specifically focused at
professionals and should be offered in the UK in November, the price is still
to be confirmed.