My new Sony DSC-R1

published on Feb 02nd, 2005 // 1 Comment

Finally bit the bullet and upgraded my Sony 717 to the new R1 model. Boy am I pleased I did. This camera is awesome! The value of the body and lens themselves outweigh the cost of the camera itself.

This camera feels great and looks great. No surprise there as Sony do that well. My 717 gave me the same goosebumps when I held it first. Off to a good start.
This is the first in a new wave of cameras made up of a fixed lense to feature a massive imaging chip, offering 10.3 Megapixels of resolution

The R1 has a unique top-mounted LCD screen. It swivels and turns, pushes forward and back. You will either love it or hate it. The controls for the camera are quite similar to a DLSR. The weight of the camera is slightly heavier than the 717 but nicely balanced. The swivel lense on the 717 left me for cold sometimes the odd time it took a nose dive towards the ground.

You do lose out on some features that previous models have like laser, infrared, nightshot and video. AF is a little laggy also and it wouldn’t be the best camera for sport but is a great camera for architecture, portrait and good general all-in-one camera. It is very reasonable in cost coming in at €999 at time of purchase. It suits my style of photography down to the ground.