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Sony RX1, A User Report
Image by kern.justin
Sony RX1 User Report.
I hesitate to write about gear. Tools are tools and the bitter truth is that a great craftsman rises above his tools to create a masterpiece whereas most of us try to improve our abominations by buying better or faster hammers to hit the same nails at the same awkward angles.
The internet is fairly flooded with reviews of this tiny marvel, and it isn’t my intention to compete with those articles. If you’re looking for a full-scale review of every feature or a down-to-Earth accounting of the RX1’s strengths and weaknesses, I recommend starting here.
Instead, I’d like to provide you with a flavor of how I’ve used the camera over the last six months. In short, this is a user report. To save yourself a few thousand words: I love the thing. As we go through this article, you’ll see this is a purpose built camera. The RX1 is not for everyone, but we will get to that and on the way, I’ll share a handful of images that I made with the camera.
It should be obvious to anyone reading this that I write this independently and have absolutely no relationship with Sony (other than having exchanged a large pile of cash for this camera at a retail outlet).
Before we get to anything else, I want to clear the air about two things: Price and Features
The Price
First things first: the price. The 00+ cost of this camera is the elephant in the room and, given I purchased the thing, you may consider me a poor critic. That in mind, I want to offer you three thoughts:
Consumer goods cost what they cost, in the absence of a competitor (the Fuji X100s being the only one worth mention) there is no comparison and you simply have to decide for yourself if you are willing to pay or not.
Normalize the price per sensor area for all 35mm f/2 lens and camera alternatives and you’ll find the RX1 is an amazing value.
You are paying for the ability to take photographs, plain and simple. Ask yourself, “what are these photographs worth to me?”
In my case, #3 is very important. I have used the RX1 to take hundreds of photographs of my family that are immensely important to me. Moreover, I have made photographs (many appearing on this page) that are moving or beautiful and only happened because I had the RX1 in my bag or my pocket. Yes, of course I could have made these or very similar photographs with another camera, but that is immaterial.
35mm by 24mm by 35mm f/2
The killer feature of this camera is simple: it is a wafer of silicon 35mm by 24mm paired to a brilliantly, ridiculously, undeniably sharp, contrasty and bokehlicious 35mm f/2 Carl Zeiss lens. Image quality is king here and all other things take a back seat. This means the following: image quality is as good or better than your DSLR, but battery life, focus speed, and responsiveness are likely not as good as your DSLR. I say likely because, if you have an entry-level DSLR, the RX1 is comparable on these dimensions. If you want to change lenses, if you want an integrated viewfinder, if you want blindingly fast phase-detect autofocus then shoot with a DSLR. If you want the absolute best image quality in the smallest size possible, you’ve got it in the RX1.
While we are on the subject of interchangeable lenses and viewfinders...
I have an interchangeable lens DSLR and I love the thing. It’s basically a medium format camera in a 35mm camera body. It’s a powerhouse and it is the first camera I reach for when the goal is photography. For a long time, however, I’ve found myself in situations where photography was not the first goal, but where I nevertheless wanted to have a camera. I’m around the table with friends or at the park with my son and the DSLR is too big, too bulky, too intimidating. It comes between you and life. In this realm, mirrorless, interchangeable lens cameras seem to be king, but they have a major flaw: they are, for all intents and purposes, just little DSLRs.
As I mentioned above, I have an interchangeable lens system, why would I want another, smaller one? Clearly, I am not alone in feeling this way, as the market has produced a number of what I would call “professional point and shoots.” Here we are talking about the Fuji X100/X100s, Sigma DPm-series and the RX100 and RX1.
Design is about making choices
When the Fuji X100 came out, I was intrigued. Here was a cheap(er), baby Leica M. Quiet, small, unobtrusive. Had I waited to buy until the X100s had come out, perhaps this would be a different report. Perhaps, but probably not. I remember thinking to myself as I was looking at the X100, “I wish there was a digital Rollei 35, something with a fixed 28mm or 35mm lens that would fit in a coat pocket or a small bag.” Now of course, there is.
So, for those of you who said, “I would buy the RX1 if it had interchangeable lenses or an integrated viewfinder or faster autofocus,” I say the following: This is a purpose built camera. You would not want it as an interchangeable system, it can’t compete with DSLR speed. A viewfinder would make the thing bigger and ruin the magic ratio of body to sensor size—further, there is a 3-inch LCD viewfinder on the back! Autofocus is super fast, you just don’t realize it because the bar has been raised impossibly high by ultra-sonic magnet focusing rings on professional DSLR lenses. There’s a fantastic balance at work here between image quality and size—great tools are about the total experience, not about one or the other specification.
In short, design is about making choices. I think Sony has made some good ones with the RX1.
In use
So I’ve just written 1,000 words of a user report without, you know, reporting on use. In many ways the images on the page are my user report. These photographs, more than my words, should give you a flavor of what the RX1 is about. But, for the sake of variety, I intend to tell you a bit about the how and the why of shooting with the RX1.
Snapshots
As a beginning enthusiast, I often sneered at the idea of a snapshot. As I’ve matured, I’ve come to appreciate what a pocket camera and a snapshot can offer. The RX1 is the ultimate photographer’s snapshot camera.
I’ll pause here to properly define snapshot as a photograph taken quickly with a handheld camera.
To quote Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So it is with photography. Beautiful photographs happen at the decisive moment—and to paraphrase Henri Cartier-Bresson further—the world is newly made and falling to pieces every instant. I think it is no coincidence that each revolution in the steady march of photography from the tortuously slow chemistry of tin-type and daguerreotype through 120 and 35mm formats to the hyper-sensitive CMOS of today has engendered new categories and concepts of photography.
Photography is a reflexive, reactionary activity. I see beautiful light or the unusual in an every day event and my reaction is a desire to make a photograph. It’s a bit like breathing and has been since I was a kid.
Rather than sneer at snapshots, nowadays I seek them out; and when I seek them out, I do so with the Sony RX1 in my hand.
How I shoot with the RX1
Despite much bluster from commenters on other reviews as to the price point and the purpose-built nature of this camera (see above), the RX1 is incredibly flexible. Have a peek at some of the linked reviews and you’ll see handheld portraits, long exposures, images taken with off-camera flash, etc.
Yet, I mentioned earlier that I reach for the D800 when photography is the primary goal and so the RX1 has become for me a handheld camera—something I use almost exclusively at f/2 (people, objects, shallow DoF) or f/8 (landscapes in abundant light, abstracts). The Auto-ISO setting allows the camera to choose in the range from ISO 50 and 6400 to reach a proper exposure at a given aperture with a 1/80 s shutter speed. I have found this shutter speed ensures a sharp image every time (although photographers with more jittery grips may wish there was the ability to select a different default shutter speed). This strategy works because the RX1 has a delightfully clicky exposure compensation dial just under your right thumb—allowing for fine adjustment to the camera’s metering decision.
So then, if you find me out with the RX1, you’re likely to see me on aperture priority, f/2 and auto ISO. Indeed, many of the photographs on this page were taken in that mode (including lots of the landscape shots!).
Working within constraints.
The RX1 is a wonderful camera to have when you have to work within constraints. When I say this, I mean it is great for photography within two different classes of constraints: 1) physical constraints of time and space and 2) intellectual/artistic constraints.
To speak to the first, as I said earlier, many of the photographs on this page were made possible by having a camera with me at a time that I otherwise would not have been lugging around a camera. For example, some of the images from the Grand Canyon you see were made in a pinch on my way to a Christmas dinner with my family. I didn’t have the larger camera with me and I just had a minute to make the image. Truth be told, these images could have been made with my cell phone, but that I could wring such great image quality out of something not much larger than my cell phone is just gravy. Be it jacket pocket, small bag, bike bag, saddle bag, even fannie pack—you have space for this camera anywhere you go.
Earlier I alluded to the obtrusiveness of a large camera. If you want to travel lightly and make photographs without announcing your presence, it’s easier to use a smaller camera. Here the RX1 excels. Moreover, the camera’s leaf shutter is virtually silent, so you can snap away without announcing your intention. In every sense, this camera is meant to work within physical constraints.
I cut my photographic teeth on film and I will always have an affection for it. There is a sense that one is playing within the rules when he uses film. That same feeling is here in the RX1. I never thought I’d say this about a camera, but I often like the JPEG images this thing produces more than I like what I can push with a RAW. Don’t get me wrong, for a landscape or a cityscape, the RAW processed carefully is FAR, FAR better than a JPEG.
But when I am taking snapshots or photos of friends and family, I find the JPEGs the camera produces (I’m shooting in RAW + JPEG) so beautiful. The camera’s computer corrects for the lens distortion and provides the perfect balance of contrast and saturation. The JPEG engine can be further tweaked to increase the amount of contrast, saturation or dynamic range optimization (shadow boost) used in writing those files. Add in the ability to rapidly compensate exposure or activate various creative modes and you’ve got this feeling you’re shooting film again. Instant, ultra-sensitive and customizable film.
Pro Tip: Focusing
Almost all cameras come shipped with what I consider to be the worst of the worst focus configurations. Even the Nikon D800 came to my hands set to focus when the shutter button was halfway depressed. This mode will ruin almost any photograph. Why? Because it requires you to perform legerdemain to place the autofocus point, depress the shutter halfway, recompose and press the shutter fully. In addition to the chance of accidentally refocusing after composing or missing the shot—this method absolutely ensures that one must focus before every single photograph. Absolutely impossible for action or portraiture.
Sensibly, most professional or prosumer cameras come with an AF-ON button near where the shooter’s right thumb rests. This separates the task of focusing and exposing, allowing the photographer to quickly focus and to capture the image even if focus is slightly off at the focus point. For portraits, kids, action, etc the camera has to have a hair-trigger. It has to be responsive. Manufacturer’s: stop shipping your cameras with this ham-fisted autofocus arrangement.
Now, the RX1 does not have an AF-ON button, but it does have an AEL button whose function can be changed to “MF/AF Control Hold” in the menu. Further, other buttons on the rear of the camera can also be programmed to toggle between AF and MF modes. What this all means is that you can work around the RX1’s buttons to make it’s focus work like a DSLR’s. (For those of you who are RX1 shooters, set the front switch to MF, the right control wheel button to MF/AF Toggle and the AEL button to MF/AF Control Hold and voila!) The end result is that, when powered on the camera is in manual focus mode, but the autofocus can be activated by pressing AEL, no matter what, however, the shutter is tripped by the shutter release. Want to switch to AF mode? Just push a button and you’re back to the standard modality.
Carrying.
I keep mine in a small, neoprene pouch with a semi-hard LCD cover and a circular polarizing filter on the front—perfect for buttoning up and throwing into a bag on my way out of the house. I have a soft release screwed into the threaded shutter release and a custom, red twill strap to replace the horrible plastic strap Sony provided. I plan to gaffer tape the top and the orange ring around the lens. Who knows, I may find an old Voigtlander optical viewfinder in future as well.
Passed Out Hodges #2
Image by rileyroxx
HAHAHAHA! Look, he's sound asleep, it's well funny. I didn't even see him drink that much either, so i have no idea how he got into this state. I only saw him with: 1 Cheeky vimto and about 3 pints. lol. Maybe Rock City took it's toll, AND he's STILL wearing his coat!! That's awesome.
Auroville: Under Construction
Image by premasagar
Auroville is an experimental city, under development in south India. It is intended to be a model township - an international and universal place for personal, spiritual growth and social advancement.
Auroville exists for nothing less than to hasten the evolution of the human species - to develop the mind from its animal instincts to sublime intuition, and to manifest the inspiration of the Divine in the material world.
Origins
The idea for the town was inspired by the teachings of Sri Aurobindo - an Indian philosopher, freedom fighter and futurist who lived from 1872 to 1950. His greatest disciple, a Frenchwoman known simply as 'The Mother', came to India to be by his side and to realise his ideas. She proposed the creation of Auroville, which was finally founded in 1968. Representatives came from all over India and the world, bringing with them a handful of soil from their native lands, to be mixed in an urn at the centre of the city.
The current population is currently around 1800 'Aurovilians'. The aim is to have a thriving city of 50,000. The largest country represented so far is India, followed by French and German citizens.
The Matrimandir Temple
The building in the photograph is the Matrimandir - the 'Temple of the Mother'. Here, 'Mother' refers to the supreme Creative Force, the energy that binds Consciousness into the myriad forms of the universe. (Compare with goddess Durga from Hindu mythology).
The Matrimandir is to be a place of concentration, for finding the source of one's consciousness in the stillness of meditation. The red brick 'lotus petals' each contain a room for meditation. Inside the golden dome is the 'Inner Chamber' - a large, white, circular hall containing a huge glass crystal - the largest in the world - which focusses a beam of white light into the centre of the building.
The gold discs are actually made of gold -- gold leaf, sandwiched in between two layers of glass and tiled like a mosaic around huge discs. This sphere of gold, around a place of great concentration upon human consciousness, is intended to have an electromagnetic influence on the state of consciousness for the rest of the planet...
In the following photographs, I use quotes from Sri Aurobindo and The Mother to illustrate the vision for Auroville.
--
External Links:
• Auroville website
• Wikipedia: Sri Aurobindo
• Wikipedia: The Mother
• Wikipedia: Auroville
Auroville, south India
• Auroville: In Quotes set
South Hall Office
Image by Stewf
Obi Bowman House, The Sea Ranch
Glorious place to work.
Only about half of the desk is in view. It becomes a bench to the left. Each UV-resistant window pane has a blind so you can work without glare on part of the workspace but still maintain the light and view. Those are Eames Aluminum Group chairs in the original wacky green.
To the right is a sunken living room with more built-in shelves.
Image by wakingphotolife:
Low on spending money for the rest of the month, John and Anne thought it’d be a good idea to find work. It would only be for a few weeks and their trip would start soon. Since the holidays were coming they anticipated a rush of seasonal jobs to be available even with the poor economy.
They stalked about it in the living room while watching TV on a Monday morning. The volume was on low. The channel was showing re-runs of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The episode where it’s revealed that Geoffrey was a shamed former marathon star in England.
“I don’t want to work in retail,” Anne said.
“That’s fine. I wasn’t considering it. How about being a barista at the campus coffee house?”
“No. I’ve been there once and I’m not going back either. I want to do something fun. Or interesting. I don’t want to slave away. What’s the point?”
“Money’s the point.”
“We’re not broke enough to be desperate yet.” She leaned all the way back into the bean bag chair until it looked as if her shoulders had disappeared. Lhasa came from around the other side and curled around her feet.
“I have an idea,” John said. He leaned forward with his forearms resting on his knees. “Do you know the studio on Q St.?”
“You mean the one by that salon, what’s the name...Sally’s?”
“Yeah,” John said. He lifted his cup of the end table and had a drink. Lately, he started adding sugar and milk to his coffee because of his upset stomach. It had been bothering him for weeks so he held back on the black coffee and drank less in the evenings.
“What about that place?” Anne said.
“I was thinking we should apply there.”
“A photography studio?” She smoothed the hemline of her dress and came back from the folds of the bean chair while scooping Lhasa into her arms in one continuous motion. She stroked the cat underneath its chin. It turned its head up and closed its eyes.
“What’s wrong with that? They’ve a ‘Now Hiring’ sign on the front window and I think we’re competent enough. It’s just pictures. We’ve taken plenty of them for Ray, Doris and most of the other people we know.”
“At parties and dinners and things like that. There’s a difference.”
“What’s the difference? Don’t be so down on ourselves. We basically live across the street from that place. Everyone thinks ours photos are nice. It’d be perfect.”
“Don’t be so naive. There’s a huge difference.”
“At least we can try hm?” He got up and opened the blinds. “What time is it?”
“It’s ten.”
“I didn’t realize we’re up so early today.”
John and Anne cobbled some prints together from Costco. They printed twenty 8x10 sized pictures on lustre paper. The pictures were from their personal collection of friends, scenes, animals, landscapes, and other ephemeral things that caught their attention in the past few months. In order to maintain some professional distance, they did not include photos of each other even though it was these photos that they valued the most, personally and aesthetically. Along with their resumes, they placed everything into a box made out of beech that had a sliding tray and brought it with them to the studio. It was like high school again when they had gone business to business, door to door, dressed in the same clothes they wore to homecoming dance and looking for summer jobs.
From the outside, the studio looked shabby. There was a sign that said “1 Hour Photo. Passports and Portraits.” Green chairs with metal legs were lined along the front of the store and the adjoining wall to form an L shape. The counter sat within the rest of the room and had a glass display filled with film boxes - Fuji Sensia, Reala, Velvia, Kodak PortaPro. The colors on the face of these boxes were faded from too much time spent in the sunlight that came in through the open door of the shop. They were only for show since John figured that it had probably been over half a decade since film was last used in here. The green on the Fuji boxes especially, were now a milky ocean gray.
The shop keeper was a middle aged Vietnamese man, who introduced himself as Vincent. He had thinning hair which was combed over the top of his head. He laid the photos on the counter and looked through them. Some of them, he rearranged. This annoyed John a bit, since he spent most of the morning finding a certain order in order to hint at a narrative. “Besides Ray, no one can read your mind. I think only you and him can see the connections that you're trying to make,” Anne said while patting her blouse down with packaging tape to remove lint. She didn’t even bother to turn around and watch him sift through the pictures. Now they were all mixed up.
After some time, Vincent put his elbows on top the counter and rested his cheeks in his hands. He sighed. John could not tell if the he was disappointed, bored, or for recalling some old sentimental memory. Maybe he was just relieved to be done with the pictures, so that he could usher them out and return to his computer screen behind the counter.
“Look at the photos along these walls,” Vincent said. He stood up and waved with his hand a large swooping motion. John and Anne turned their shoulders and heads to follow. There were portraits of all kinds. Couples. Wedding photos. Teenagers coming for wallets sized prints. Prom. Some more elaborate glamour shots. Everything was soft brushed, blemish free. Each face manipulated into a dream like focus. The colors of the background intense, yet never dominating. Wallpaper. “I enjoyed going through your photos but I don’t think this place is for you.”
“I’m sorry. Thanks for your time then,” John said.
Vincent put the photos back into the sliding tray, slid it back into the box and gave it back to John.
“No. Thanks for coming by.”
“Was there anything that you noticed in the photos that would you didn’t like? I mean with the portraits we had.” Anne said.
“Well there are some things...Hello. I’ll be right with you.” A family walked into the shop before he could finish his sentence. It was a man wearing navy suspenders, trousers and a stripped tie. next to him was woman in a gray blazer and pencil skirt. They held a set of boys, twins, who were dressed alike. John and Anne turned around and smiled at them. The woman caressed the baby underneath its chin and made soft cooing sounds. “Say hello Davey,” the woman said as she lifted the baby’s hand to wave.
“Thanks for stopping by. Please keep doing what you do,” Vincent said, bending down to go through a a file of photo envelops.
“Thank you.”
John and Anne walked home. Though it was the middle of the afternoon and the sun was shining directly overhead, around lunch time, both of them felt sleepy. “I’d rather take a nap first before eating,” Anne said.
John didn’t answer and they walked until the end of the block.
“Don’t you think that was a bit annoying?” he said.
“What?”
“He was so damn cryptic. And the way he said ‘I don’t think this place is for you’. It was weird. What does he know?”
“I suppose a lot.”
“Ah. I don’t get it. Forget it. You were right.” John laughed a little. “Let’s just go home. Maybe he’s right too. I just don’t like being told I can’t do something or don’t belong. My confidence is absolutely crushed.”
“My photos were in there too. Don’t just think about yourself.”
“You’re right. Yours aren’t good either.”
When they got home, John set the box on the coffee table and feel asleep on the sofa while watching a documentary. It was about the formation of life on Earth. Anne took Lhasa and went upstairs into her room and didn’t come out for the rest of the afternoon. The had set when she finally woke up. She walked down the stairs and turned the lights on. All of their photos had been taped to the walls in the living room, staircase and kitchen..
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