I received my RX1 last week already but I've been trying to keep from using it since it's supposed to be under the Christmas tree!! Talk about torture... .

Due to a guy with crud on his sensor over on dpreview, I had to shoot with it just enough to prove it was in perfect working order so that was fun - but now it's even harder not to touch. I'm getting my wife to wrap it today while I'm at work...

Some initial impressions:

1. Heavier and more compact than I expected - in a good way.

2. Silent operation once you turn off the artificial noise - I mean VERY silent. Leica silent.

3. Using a 'bug' from MatchTechnical on the shutter release is very nice.

4. OOC JPEG give the Fuji xTrans a run for it's money. Not sure why but the color / wb / exposure is pretty darn nice (all indoor shots). Looking at photos in LR is a pleasure even up to ISO 6400.

5. The EVF is WAY, WAY better than the NEX-7's. Now I'm just mad that the NEX-7 is so crappy. - it's hard to go back to the NEX-7 EVF, especially for indoor use.

6. Focus peaking is a PITA the way it's implemented. I'm flabbergasted that they couldn't at least match what the NEX-7 has. I need a FW update for this one. It works - but it has to work without magnification to be useful for me.

7. Did I mention that the camera looks incredibly sexy? Yes - I went there.

8. The bokeh is very pleasing to my eyes. I haven't shot with FF for a while but f/2 is a lot shallower than I remembered!

9. I'm not as fussy as a lot of folks but looking corner-to-corner at f/5.6, f/8, f/11 looked pretty darn sweet to me. Of course, this is JPEG OOC but still...

10. Maybe I'll call my wife and ask her to save the wrapping 'til tomorrow now that I've got myself all worked up again...

Thanks for the impressions!

Congrats Vern! Thanks for your impressions.
Must be torture ...

Vern Dewit wrote:
2. Silent operation once you turn off the artificial noise - I mean VERY silent. Leica silent.

Leica silent?
http://slikimages.com/2012/12/everything-else/sony-rx1-first-impressions/

maiku wrote:
Do we have any word from RRS as to whether or not they'll be making a plate for the RX1? Maybe even a grip/L-bracket like for the Fuji X100 or OM-D?

If not RRS, Richard Franiec, maker of the Franiec grip for the RX100 and other small cameras, may devise something. He is an enthusiastic adopter of the RX1 for himself. Assuming he is similarly impressed as most seem to be, maybe he'll make something special for the RX1.

michaelwatkins wrote:
maiku wrote:
Do we have any word from RRS as to whether or not they'll be making a plate for the RX1? Maybe even a grip/L-bracket like for the Fuji X100 or OM-D?

If not RRS, Richard Franiec, maker of the Franiec grip for the RX100 and other small cameras, may devise something. He is an enthusiastic adopter of the RX1 for himself. Assuming he is similarly impressed as most seem to be, maybe he'll make something special for the RX1.

Cool, thanks for the info. Looking forward to seeing something soon

tulaev wrote:
Leica silent?
http://slikimages.com/2012/12/everything-else/sony-rx1-first-impressions/


Maybe Fuji X100 silent is a better comparison... My M8.2 was pretty quiet too though. It's like the reviewer says - just a simple 'click' noise.

wayne seltzer wrote:
Congrats Vern! Thanks for your impressions.
Must be torture ...

It's torture but thankfully not much going on at this time of year photography-wise for me. The weather's been crappy and not many family functions 'til Christmas so it's good timing.

I should also comment on the AF. In my limited use (indoors in daylight) I found it much quicker than the Fuji X-E1 was. It's also quieter.

Vern Dewit wrote:
I found it much quicker than the Fuji X-E1 was. It's also quieter.

What the lens?

tulaev wrote:
Vern Dewit wrote:
I found it much quicker than the Fuji X-E1 was. It's also quieter.

What the lens?


I used the 18, 35 and 60mm on the Fuji. I ended up selling the system as I simply couldn't stand the AF - and I'm a guy who doesn't require blazing fast, just usable. Without focus peaking MF wasn't an option either (for me). If Fuji adds focus peaking to the XE-1 I'd consider buying back into it.

I should note that these are just my impressions - I'm not running scientific tests!

Thank you. How do you assess the difference in picture quality between E-X1 and RX1?

tulaev wrote:
Thank you. How do you assess the difference in picture quality between E-X1 and RX1?

I only used jpeg on the Fuji and on the RX1 but I must say I was pretty impressed with the RX1 ooc jpeg files. Normally I don't love the Sony rendering and when I start using the camera 'seriously' I'll shoot RAW but I was pretty impressed.

That being said I simply love the Fuji ooc jpegs - especially portraits and shallow dof shots. The Fuji xtrans system is what I consider a jpeg system right now. And the jpeg's are wonderful - as long as you can avoid the various watercolor effects or whatever they're called. (That was the second the reason I bailed on the Fuji's for now as I shoot a lot of detailed landscapes.)

What shutter sound?

http://sonyalphanex.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-shutter-sound-sony-dsc-rx1.html

Well. The comments I received regarding af on the ex and my desire not to haul a canon 5d2 and 35l around mean my rx1 is shipping Thursday.

Which means ill sell a few things off. But also that I will have to write

I shall not buy new gear this year 1000x on the backboard for new year. Filters and other accessories excepted.

I will add the accessory price list is absurd for this camera

h00ligan wrote:
I will have to write "I shall not buy new gear this year 1000x on the backboard for new year."

Ditto, although I'm selling some pieces to the point where it is almost a wash for me.

I will add the accessory price list is absurd for this camera

Totally. I always thought hoods for Zeiss ZM lenses were stupidly priced at 80 bucks or more but double that for the Sony Zeiss hood? Highway robbery.

michaelwatkins wrote:
h00ligan wrote:
I will have to write "I shall not buy new gear this year 1000x on the backboard for new year."

Ditto, although I'm selling some pieces to the point where it is almost a wash for me.

I will add the accessory price list is absurd for this camera

Totally. I always thought hoods for Zeiss ZM lenses were stupidly priced at 80 bucks or more but double that for the Sony Zeiss hood? Highway robbery.

just get a cheap screw in one off ebay.

sebboh wrote:
just get a cheap screw in one off ebay.

+1

I realized that the simple hood for the OM 28/3.5 looks really nice on the camera.


Cyclope by Martin Hertsius, on Flickr


I also realized that the Voigtländer 35 mm viewfinder is not even close to the stated 0.68x magnification. More like 0.5x, but on the other hand it's well built, fairly cheap and optically good.

Does the Voigtländer viewfinder have framelines?

Makten wrote:
sebboh wrote:
just get a cheap screw in one off ebay.

+1

I realized that the simple hood for the OM 28/3.5 looks really nice on the camera.

I also realized that the Voigtländer 35 mm viewfinder is not even close to the stated 0.68x magnification. More like 0.5x, but on the other hand it's well built, fairly cheap and optically good.

sweet! can you let us know how you decide to configure the camera best for manual focus? if i get one i'm sure i'll use it almost exclusively in mf.

carstenw wrote:
Does the Voigtländer viewfinder have framelines?

Yes, it's one frame for 35 mm which I'd guess shows like ~85-90% of what the camera sees at 2-3 meters distance. A nice thing with having the viewfinder in the hotshoe is that parallax is only vertically, which is not the case with a Leica M camera. This will let you compose quite tricky scenes accurately regarding perspective.

sebboh wrote:
sweet! can you let us know how you decide to configure the camera best for manual focus? if i get one i'm sure i'll use it almost exclusively in mf.

Of course! But I don't understand why you would use MF if you don't have to. I'll only use it in low light, when AF is out of the question.

A really great thing is the MF ring and its functioning. If you turn it fast, focus will go from MFD to infinity with one or two quick turns (totally like 270 degrees or less), while it changes to precision if you move it slowly.