In September 2005, 10 years ago
ePHOTOzine and
DPReview announced Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1.
Recently, I came across this remarkable bridge camera (secondhand, of course) and decided I "need" it. The price was something like a new cheapest pocket P&S and it came with two batteries in a surprisingly good shape (last many hundred shots each) and original recharger. Lens hood was missing though.
Here's a few my remarks on it.
1.
Lens. It's Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar (24-120 eq.) lens needs higher f-Numbers (at least f=8 to f=10 looks like an optimum) to be acceptably sharp. With f=2.8 in wide mode it's pretty soft when compared to e.g.
Sony DSC RX-10 also with a Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar lens. Its bokeh looks creamy and pleasing though. Also chromatic aberration isn't a big issue.
2.
Sensor. An almost APS-C (1.68x) 10MPix CMOS is practically noiseless at base ISO 160 and sort of acceptable up to ISO 400. I've noticed moiré isn't filtered out well - see attachment 1. It's dynamic range isn't bad.
3.
Colours and Image Quality. I love its "Vivid" creative mode with boosted colours (valid only for JPEG, of course), kind of similar to FujiFilm Velvia film. Highlights are visibly blown up in JPEGs, better to apply a modern RAW development sotware on SR2 RAWs. See attachment 2.
4.
EVF and LCD. EVF is a bit dark, even if set to max. brightness. My first shots were overexposed until I found 0 EV is fine and the only problem is with the viewfinder. Now I can use it after a few hundreds of shots. Tiltable LCD on its top is a bit small but better in terms of brightness. Btw. the flash in front of the LCD is quite powerful.
5.
Speed and Ergonomy. The camera is painfully slow in JPEG+RAW mode. If you take a second shot shortly after the first one, you need to wait a few seconds until it saves. Shooting panoramas is really slow. Controls are positioned quite practically and you don't need to study user's manual to use it. Its menu is so simple! There are a few critical options to set, not the myriad of settings like in today's cameras.
As a conclusion, it can't compete with its today's successors but it's not as bad as one might expect. I love the camera style
and the style of images taken! For me, it's refreshing to see something different. Something not so perfect, not so super-duper while not a cellphone camera or a cheapo P&S style. Your comments?
More
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 samples on DPReview.
