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Sony released this in 2005, but, do yourself a favour, and don't let its age put you off buying one. It has a 10.3 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor behind a fixed Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens, providing for an angle of view equivalent to 24–120 mm on a full frame camera. But its biggest secret is that it has no limit to flash sync speed, as there is no mirror or physical shutter system. Many reviewers complained about it being unusable above 800 ISO or not being very good for action shots. But stick a manual flash with adjustable power levels on this thing, then select shutter speed priority, and leave it at 160 ISO. I guarantee it will surprise you with what it can do. IMO there is still nothing like this out there on the market, even today, for the money.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I had one of these way back, and decided to get one for testing. Yes, it’s heavy, doesn’t have the slickness of modern cameras, but the lens is wonderful. I took some shots with my Fuji XT-1 fitted with the 35mm F1.4 (50mm equivalent) and then the same shots with the Sony set at the same focal length. I preferred the Sony shots: should tell you all you need to know!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Being 14 year old still takes amazing quality images due to its high spec Carl Zeiss lens and its large aps size cmos sensor. Can be used as a point and shoot camera or has all the settings of more sophisticated high end DSLR.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I often looked at this camera over the years, wondering if it really lived up to the hype. So it's 2019 and I spotted one, in apparently mint condition for the princely sum of £85. My curiosity got the better of me and I bought it. I'd just like to caveat my opinion with the fact that slow operating cameras don't bother me, I shoot with the Sigma foveon cameras and nothing is slower than those, low-fi operation with hifi resutls. I was really more interested in whether the lens on this camera is as good as they say it is. So when it arrived, in excellent condition, I fired it up and yes, the lens is truly excellent throughout its range, it only took a few test shots to confirm that. The colour rendition of this camera is also excellent, accurate and punchy. In terms of operation it was much better than I expected, focusing is snappy in reasonable to good light, the evf and LCD are lo-fi by todays standards but perfectly adequate for my purposes. The controls are all pretty logical and no menu diving is required once you've initially set it up. I actually like the positioning of the LCD, and the fact it can face in all directions. There really is no reason to complain about it even to this day, if you're after consistently sharp and punchy results. £85 for a lens of this quality and range is an absolute steal, and the battery life on this camera is also superb.If you need a camera to shoot sports or fast moving subjects this camera isn't going to be for you. However, if you want a camera for travel, portraits, landscapes and general leisurely shooting the R1 will still outperform many modern cameras at low ISO's. You simply won't find a lens like this, with this range and quality, on anything else. Don't let 10mp put you off, you can produce large prints off this camera no problem. It's biggest weakness is focusing in low contrast lowlight situations, where it will struggle. It's not especially svelte either, but lenses of this quality are never small, that's just part of the deal. I'm really glad i bought this camera, it ticks a lot of boxes for me, I can see me using it a lot. Who cares if it's 14 years old? It's that good it can still hold its own, and for the price it can be bought for it's ridiculously capable, just buy one and see for yourself. I'm giving it 5 stars, because for £85 it really is an amazing deal, especially when you consider you had to drop 1k for it when it was released, and even then that was considered good value because of the lens on it.Read full review
Verified purchase: No
I used one of these when they first hit the market many years ago. The APSC sensor and 10.3 megapixels are complimeneted by the incredible Carl Zeiss lens. The results are images that many of todays cameras quite frankly, still can't match. If you can grab a good second-hand one; do..!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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