Customer Reviews

Sony Cybershot DSCR1 10.3MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Many other users and serious reviewers have provided sufficient background on Sony's "top of the line" digital DSC-R1, so I'll steer clear of needless repetition and get right to my point: this is not just a great digital camera, it's a great camera by any standard. {credibility break, sorry} My background? 2,500 pictures in the R1, about the same in a Minolta A1 and another 3,000 or so in an older Sony (I forgot the model--it had a rotating lens) that spent 5 years on a boat with me in the South Pacific. Before that, over 40 years of serious photography with everything from pinhole cameras to the Hassey.

Here's the bottom line: the R1 is about the size of the 501c but less than half the weight with just the 'standard' lens. If I include all the extra lenses (I use a wide-angle and a moderate tele) plus the spare backs and film, the bag tips the scales at over 25lbs. Are the pictures as good? (trick question) Technically, no; there will be no razor sharp poster-sized prints from the R1. The truth is that many of the really great shots with the Hassey are still in my head: too much fussing with lenses, changing film, worrying about exposure and poof! The shot is gone. Of the thousands of digital images I've captured, there are many that would match the best from the medium format in terms of qualities that matter to me.

What's the best feature of the R1? Coming from the 501c, I really like the top-mounted LCD! It is much easier to use than even a tilting, back-mounted LCD (like the Minolta A1), particularly for candid shots. Plus when it's vertical, it's like a "sports" finder in that you can easily see both what's in the picture and what's not. Second best is the lens: I checked the Carl Zeiss site for info on their lens designs to compare to the 501c, but they haven't posted the specifics of the Vario-Sonnar in the R1. There are a few very good testing-oriented site on the `net that have uniformly lauded the lens design. As might be imagined, (or maybe not, judging from some uninformed whining about "features" elsewhere) designing and building lenses is not easy. To get a zoom lens that goes from 24mm to 120mm with a flat field and good color performance is nearly impossible, hence the almost unnoticeable barrel distortion at the wide end.

My third favorite feature is the CMOS sensor: it truly makes a difference in the quality of the mega-pixels not just the fact that there are over 10 million of them.

What's not to like? Well, several users have commented on the lack of interchangeable lenses, true, but to what end? To get a higher quality lens? Not likely. A larger aperture? Yes, you can, but not in a zoom. To get a really long telephoto or mirror lens? The only valid complaint, IMHO. So, there is the option of the 1.7 tele-extender that get's you something between 200mm and 400mm depending on how aggressively you manage the digital smart zoom feature. (Don't even think of complaining about the "extra" lens! This is about the lack of replacement lenses, remember.) I have one on order, so I'll save my comments for later.

There has been a lot of carping about the "noise" at high ISO (1600 and above) and it is true: if you try to hand-hold when you should use a tripod and fudge the ISO to overcome the shake, you will get noise. Mount your R1 on a tripod and shoot at 160 and the problem goes away because the built-in noise reduction kicks in. Even is you must shoot at higher speeds, using a tripod and setting exposure to take advantage of the noise-reduction program will make a big difference, from my informal testing. Photography is all about working with limitations, so consider it an advantage to own such an imperfect camera!

The only thing that I've found less than desirable is a compression of dynamic range when shooting Adobe RGB. It shows up as a right-skewed histogram, but post-processing in Aperture fixes it. The image is "muddy" but clears when the white slider is moved to the left in setting luminance. This could be due to several factors, so I'll do some testing and report back.

My summary is that this camera will not make you a better photographer, but taking lots of pictures and not showing the bad ones will help, and believe me, you will be able to take them with greater ease and enjoyment with the Sony DSC-R1 than with anything else on the market for the same price. If your excuse for not taking pictures is that there is either too much equipment or not enough, this one my dear Goldilocks, is "just right".

Got my Sony R1 just yesterday - ordered from Ritz on Tuesday and had it 48 hours later. Spent 6 hours "playing" with it and making a few test shots. Overall: love It - hence 5 stars.

The downside: oh how I wish the EVF provided about 5 times the resolution so that critical focusing (manual) was possible. And I could live without its herky-jerky display. But that pretty well wraps up what I don't like!

The few natural light indoor test pictures I made were beautiful; at ASA 400 (which I used used for this limited micro-test) resolution and color rendition were superb. Think I'm going to love this sharp, fast lens. That extra few mm at the wide angle end of the range means a lot too; "big sky", "indoor" and "close groups" will be a LOT easier to manage - and the 10MP image will take advantage of it by holding detail (those who say "MP doesn't matter" haven't thought it all the way through - as the angles grow wider it means a LOT).

Camera handling is great. Feels like a good SLR. This is certainly no heavier or bulky than my old Canon F1 - lighter in fact. The R1 exudes quality. Just plain feels good in the hand.

The controls and settings were mostly simple to figure out. What took me longest to discover was how to access playback mode - the button is unlabeled - actually had to look on the little "read me first" cheatsheet included in the box : -) Otherwise, I found myself able to "sync" with the designer's logic quite easily - everything I need for creative control is right there. I'm quite sure that with just a little practice, things like manual bracketing, selecting ISO, shutter speed etc. will be very fast in the field - I don't forsee much fumbling. Big plus!

I especially like the external LCD viewfinder. With the screen lying flat on top the camera becomes reminiscent of a medium format camera like a Yashica 2-1/4 or a mini RB67. I LIKE those machines and the R1 fills that part of my "does it all" wish list better than I expected. The R1 is even quite usable when held straight overhead by the simple expedient of holding it upside down. Not as easy to manipulate setting controls in this position of course, but that's both understandable and quite acceptable.

Shooting response speed was fine. Apparrently it's not able to take extended bursts of shots at several frames per second - bang, bang, bang, bang.... but I couldn't care less. I don't do that kind of photography. Guess it would be an issue if I were into sports photography (or weddings, which are a sport of a different kind) - anywhere one wants to shoot a huge number of shots and sift through them later for the perfect shot. But that's not my cup of tea.

Bottom line: the ability to feel like both a good SLR OR a medium format camera makes this, for me, a smash hit. I look forward to wringing the most out of technical capability - at least until a 20MB version with a hi-res viewfinder comes out a few years down the road.

Got my Sony DSC-R1 on Saturday, Nov. 19. I expected to order it from Amazon, but I was in the mall shopping and found that a local retailer had it for $948.88, so I bought it immediately. It took a couple of hours of play to figure out the controls. As mentioned in the review below, the toughest control to find was for playback (hint: it's the button with the blue arrow to the right of the viewfinder perfectly blended into the viewfinder's facia so it's hard to see). The value of the electronic view finder becomes evident when trying to compose a picture in tough lighting conditions. Seeing the image change in the viewfinder to reflect what will be captured as you select different points on the frame for the exposure level is immensely helpful in determining how the picture is going to look. I don't think you can do that with a DSLR. Having heavily cropped pictures and then printed them at 8x10, I could not see any pixelation. The amount of detail is astonishing. There doesn't appear to be any noise (albeit shooting at a low ISO setting), and there don't seem to be any artifacts typical of digital cameras. The printed colors, without any software manipulation, are spectacular. Overall, after two days of use I think this is a great camera. The only downside I've found is the flash seems underpowered, and the AF assist lamp is pretty lame. Sony should have stuck with their laser system. In response to Chris below, the image on the LCD can be zoomed for manual focus simply by pressing the zoom button (it looks like a magnifying glass).

I have owned my R1 for about a month now, have taken over 1000 photos and am delighted with the camera.
Let's get the bad news out of the way first and why I only gave it a 3 star rating.
The R1 is:
Very expensive - on the par with entry level DSLRs with lens kits but can't compete with their speed nor their versatility.
It's a large and heavy camera.
Uses proprietary battery
Does not have image stabilization!
Does not do videos.
This is a horrible mistake on the part of Sony, they price this camera with the DSLRs and then fall short on delivery.
In short, the R1 is marketed on the same plane as DSLRs but can't compete with them.

Pros:
This camera with it's swiveling LCD viewer is super for portrait work. It's ultra sharp lens will best all SLRs as far as portrait photography is concerned.
With the swiveling LCD you can go eyeball to eyeball with a toy poodle playing in the grass.
You simply can't do that with any DSLR!
The R1 is also excellent for candid photography because you can shoot at waist level instead of being conspicuous by holding the camera up to your eyes. In fact, there are many, many times when the R1 performed when other cameras stopped.
Exposure, focus and color are excellent and on the par with any DSLR.
The controls are easy to find after just taking a few pictures.
Battery life is excellent and you should not have to buy a second battery.
The 10Mpixels make cropping a breeze!
You can toss 50% of a photo and still have enough to print a 11 X 14.
The camera looks better than most DSLRs but can't outperform them except in the areas mentioned.
If you have longed for a camera that shoots from waist level like the famous 2 1/4 film cameras of days gone by then the R1 is for you.
If you photograph a lot of toddlers or pets then this camera is for you.
If you shoot a lot of fast-action sports then this camera is not for you.
If you are a birder then this camera is absolutely not for you.
If you do people shots for groups or clubs then you will love the R1.

Both Sony and Carl Zeiss deserve ample praise for producing the best high-end digital still camera currently available. Indeed, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 is the subject of a superb test report in the January/February 2006 issue of American Photo, in which the headline reads, "...combines the convenience of an electronic viewfinder camera with the image quality of a D-SLR". The magazine compared its performance with a Canon Rebel XT and two EF-S Canon zoom lenses at various ISO settings; judging from the pictures I saw, the Cyber-shot yielded images with better contrast than the Canon's (However, the American Photo article observed that the Cyber-shot images were slightly grainier at an ISO range of 160 to 400, more noticeable at 800, and especially so at 1600 and above; at 3200 the images were unusable in stark contrast to those from the Canon Rebel.). The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 has an ultra-wide Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* zoom lens (24mm to 120mm), whose optical performance I truly believe is second to none, and which American Photo recognizes as an "image-quality breakthrough".

The camera itself is quite handy and ergonomically superb, weighing less than a similar D-SLR with a corresponding zoom lens. It probably resembles more a 6 x 4.5cm medium format SLR than a 35mm D-SLR in its overall appearance. The Zeiss zoom lens has T* multicoating to reduce flare and enhance contrast of images, but perhaps more important for the user, has an easily grippable zoom ring and another for fast manual focusing. If there is indeed a major weakness in this Sony Cyber-shot, then it does not come with an optical image stabilizer, and yet, I think that photographic situations regarding such usage would be quite rare, even with this camera for the typical user. Furthermore, I suspect that those most interested in this camera will want highest image quality for most photographic situations - and would not mind the absence of this feature - and here the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 truly excels. So I agree with the American Photo reviewer that this camera truly represents a major advance in image quality for compact digital still cameras.

I'll admit up front that I'm an optics snob. Having worked with the best optics ever made in my work has helped to refine my biases. So far, I've owned three of the DSC-series Sony cameras that used Carl Zeiss optics. First up was the DSC-F707, a 5 MP camera that we still have and use. It has taken over 11,000 images and is still going strong. I also had a DSC-F714 that met an untimely demise by bouncing down a cliff in the back country. I still get upset remembering that loss. Next up was the DSC-F828, an 8 MP camera that got loads of bad press over purple fringes. We still have our 828 and it has taken over 6,000 excellent images.

I haven't actually bought the new 10MP DSCR1, but it's on the short list. I have a friend in the business and he was kind enough to loan me his demo for the last 3 weeks and I've given it a good enough workout to know I want one bad. Why? It is a step up compared to the 828 and I like having more pixels for cropping after the fact and getting maximum detail. I'm not going to regurgitate the specs and features since those are covered well by the Amazon spec sheet. What I will do is tell you what I see when comparing images taken by the 707, 828 and DSCR1 of the same subject under controlled conditions.

First off, more pixels are better. You can find plenty of professional opinion that disagrees and they will talk about optical considerations, CCD size, etc. All I can do is look at the images for myself. The 10MP images from the DSCR1 do provide more useful detail and also provide more usable image contrast. These differences are subtle if all you do is display the entire image on your home computer monitor. I see more detail in the shadows at full image size. The surface of backlit water looks wetter in the DSCR1 images than in the 828. But it's when you enlarge the images that the increased pixel density shows its advantage. Copy stand resolution tests lead me to believe that Sony has made improvements other than just increasing pixel density because images with high color saturation and sharp edge detail look better than I would have expected by just increasing the image size by 25%. Maybe Zeiss has made some lens improvements?

I'd say that the user interface is slightly improved by the new viewer. The DSCR1 sits in the hand a bit better than the 828 and especially better than the F707. I also spent a fair bit of time comparing "film speed" between the 828 and the DSCR1. At ASA400, I see a less noisy image from the DSCR1 than from the F828. At higher speeds, both cameras yield images noisier than I'd like to tolerate, but in low light, you get what you get. I'm still not ready to make comparisons on the autofocus capabilities of the DSCR1 vs. the F828. Initially, I thought the DSCR1 had problems, but after fiddling with it a while, I got decent results in most situations. Unfortunately, most consumer digital cameras have a ways to go in the action photography arena.

As an aside, I mentioned that my old F707 is still alive and ticking. A good friend that is a serious photographer bought the first Digital Rebel made by Canon. He retired it a year ago after having the CCD cleaned 3 times. The cleanings didn't work. He bought one of the new models that's not supposed to need to be cleaned. It's due for its first cleaning now. This will remain a problem for SLR digital cameras. I love the flexibility of being able to use a specific lens, but only do so in my film cameras. The CCD of a digital camera is so sensitive to dust, I'm just not willing to deal with it. Everyone I know that has used an interchangable lens digital camera has had dust problems. Until this problem is eliminated, I'll stick with cameras like the DSCR1.

I am an avid amateur photographer. This is my 5th digital camera. I currently own a Canon Pro1 and this Sony R1. I purchased the R1 after selling my dust prone Canon EOS 300D with FD 24-85mm USM lens. Yes after many years using SLRs (digital and film) I am finally fed up with dust problems on the (digital) light sensor and manufacturers who in the main (Olympus is the exception), try to pretend the problem doesn't exist. Has Canon or Nikon ever tried to clean a sensor on a desert field trip? They don't even sell cleaning kits! These have to be purchased from third parties.
OK so how does the R1 compare? Obviously more megapixels than the EOS 300D. Much better price performance from the Zeiss lens. The lens is simply superb and would cost a $1000 if you bought the equivalent SLR lens(es) from Canon or Nikon. The wide angle performance (24mm equiv) is amazing! For backpacking trips the R1 is big and weighs 1kg so I wont be selling my Pro 1 any time soon. Apart from the lens the other main advantage of the R1 over every other camera I have ever owned or used, is the live histogram. Effectively you Photoshop the levels BEFORE you take the photo rather than afterwards at home - when you then discover your out of dynamic range!
My only quibbles with the R1 are:
there's no movie mode and, as is well documented,
it has a small frame buffer and so burst mode is not up to par - it does match the (discontinued) Canon 300D however.
ISO noise is not quite as good as the Canon DSLRs but it is quite similar to, or better than, the Olympus DSLRs.
But hey! The worst noise is blobs of dust in what is supposed to be a clear blue sky! I will not buy another DSLR until the manufacturer has a fix for dusty skies.

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After 6 more months of use. Still the best digital field camera. The wide wide angle is superb. The live histogram saves lots of time with photoshop - and it reduces Photoshop induced noise on badly composed photos. The small frame buffer is of no concern to me. No regrets at all.

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Guess what? This camera is sooo good I have seen it for sale for twice the original manufacturers price! There is no competition. It is unique. And I am not selling mine for $2000(US) even though I own a Canon 40 D plus L series lenses. The R1 lens is as good as Canon L. It's that simple. And its that much cheaper.

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Now in mid 2008 this camera still sells for double it's original price. That's how good this camera is. I am happy with my Canon 40 D and 3xL series lenses. But at wide angle the R1 still bests the Canon L 17-40mm F4. The R1 is a seriously good landscape camera in bright conditions. Sensor noise is not up to Canon or Nikon's current standards. But for a camera to take into the dusty bush, the R1 cannot be bettered. Which is why it has appreciated in value by 100%!!

I bought this camera based on the reviews and on the superb Zeiss T star lens that is 24mm-120mm (35 mm equivalent)-the range I normally shoot in. The camera has all the bells and whistles and more to satisfy the advanced amateur and pro. (A friend of mine wants one to shoot weddings.) I shot photos at 3mp and the prints were like postcards! It is a little bulky, but still light enough to carry. Some reviewers didn't care for the screen display being at the top of the camera, but that was not a problem for me. The camera functions are well thought out and are numerous. Being able to use a compact flash card or memory stick is a plus. The camera even tells you how many minutes are available on the rechargeable battery.

The only quibbles I had were that you cannot delete all the pics at once that you want to get rid of; you must do them one-by-one. I ordered the HVL 32X flash unit and I don't care for the location of the hot shoe off to the side on the grip, but I plan to solve that by using it on an overhead flash bracket.

The camera arrived with Russian language characters in it and it took awhile to figure out how to change the language to English. The instruction book pretty well outlines all the functions, but it can be confusing in parts. My suggestion is that if you are going to get this camera and pay the price for it, get the training DVDs that are available so you can learn all the nifty functions.

It is a superb camera, well worth the price just for the incredible lens.

Initial reviews of this camera inspired me to believe that the new R1 camera would be less ergonomic than my old SONY F828, but I'm pleased to say that's not the case. The new R1 is better balanced, and very comfortable in the hand. The ability to use the camera with the viewing screen in a number of positions is an advantage. Buttons are positioned in more intuitive spots on this camera-- it takes less time to figure out where everything is. I was able to pick up this camera and figure out most of what I wanted to do with it within a half an hour of opening the box. Save speed to a 2GB memory stick pro was very pleasant-- with it taking just slightly over a second to write 20MB worth of raw image to disk.

And the photos, well now... those were nice. My father will inherit my F828 this XMAS (since it will be his first digital camera)... I will miss the movie feature on that camera a little-- but not nearly as much as I will enjoy the image quality this camera can deliver.

Have been into top end photography at a Home User level over thirty years, from the Cannon A-1/F-1 to the big boomer Nikon film and digital cameras. The Nikon digital cameras did a good job but had severe limitations and inside photgraphy was a night mare, if you had time to "fiddle" with it it did a good job.

Sony came out with this beauty and thought- Sony good stereos and impossible crack codes on DVD's that I can't break. But a camera? Well after I read the manual (important), and preped eveything from the first photo to the last one of my Pit Bull puppy getting beaten up by a Parrot #500+ there have been nothing but GREAT photos, if there were blown shots it was my doing. The resolution, the ease, of everything really makes this a fun camera to use.

The only recommendations I can make, is to get the Sony Flash, and make sure you get a L O T of memory when you get your memory stick or cards. A spare battery pack or two wouldn't hurt.

I can think of no other camera out there that will give you the product that the DSCR1 gives you for the amount of money you pay for it. It was the best money I have spent on a camera since the Cannon A-1. I strongly recommend this camera, if you are on the fence with the others and have this on the table, the Sony is the best choice. Above all else have fun with whatever unit you all decide on!!!