It does have a viewfinder albeit an external one; my bet is next year an interchangeable lens version will join the RX1 to become a growing family of cameras.
It\'s been suggested Sony did this as a one-off; this doesn\'t seem likely to me, although I do believe they gain some intangible value from the product launch simply by making the industry and consumers take notice.
Perhaps Sony, with their sensor producing hat on, was frustrated that manufacturers were not going after this market however niche it may be. Perhaps they looked at the X100 experience and thought the introduction of the RX1 could enjoy a similar outcome over the longer term. Fujifilm tapped into some pent up demand with the X100 and now retro high end compacts are all the rage.
The external viewfinder has never been my preference but now having owned (and sold) a NEX-5N and Ricoh GXR, both with external EVFs, I\'m more open minded about them. Tilting EVFs provide an any-angle, any-light shooting capability to a camera that a fixed EVF can not quite match even if the camera is equipped with a tilt rear LCD/OLED panel. My biggest issue with slide on EVF\'s is stowing the joined camera-EVF in my bag. Maybe I need a different bag.
As for whether the camera is merely for wealthy dilettantes or not, who can say. I\'ve seen plenty of 5D\'s and other full frame DSLRs in the hands of soccer moms and tourists shooting pedestrian stuff.
When the X100 came out there were plenty of similar discussions going on. Fixed lens? What were they thinking! It\'s a point and shoot! Who would buy this? Only the idol rich surely!
Yet here we are, the X100 got bought by serious photographers and posers alike. Seemed expensive at the time for what it was but now seems quite reasonable in comparison doesn\'t it.
To me the RX1 seems like just the first step, bound to be followed by an ILC FF camera in the same family, and therefore a group of lenses. I can hear the groans already... it\'ll be a while before they flesh them out. Hopefully (speaking for myself) they\'ll more quickly come out with a line of fixed focal length Zeiss lenses for this hypothetical but likely future camera... those ought to be easier to develop and produce at a quality level matching where this camera should be selling at.
One last thought on why Sony did this... in addition to providing them with another retail product class, perhaps they did this to wake the industry up, basically saying \"You guys better start buying our sensors and producing cameras like this or we\'ll eat the entire pie ourselves\". Kinda makes sense to me for a sensor maker wanting to produce more sensors.
Sep 13, 2012 at 01:40 PM
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