Kit Laughlin
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 Re: Sony RX1 FF Mirrorless (fixed lens) | |
While in between gigs (in Alicante, Spain, presently, and off to Vancouver Tuesday morning) I have read every page here. Like all the great FM threads, much besides the RX1 is canvassed. And while I like FF as much as the next person, I will be buying the Fuji X-E1+ 30/1.4 as soon as it\'s available and I believe it will serve my purposes better than the Sony.
Here\'s my reasoning; first the reasons against the RX1:
For me, although most people have been extolling the virtues of a tiny FF camera, the RX1 body is too small and, at the same time, not small enough: every one of the small body cameras I have owned (XZ1, GF1 and 2, and my current Panny GX1) have needed grips, and the Zeiss lens on the RX-1 means it\'s not pocketable—if not pocketable, why not go a bit larger? The RX-1 grippy body covering material seems to rule out something like the Freniac grips I have used successfully on a few bodies, too.
No EVF. This is a big one for me; I am using the GX1 with a decent add-on EVF, but even it\'s a problem ergonomically in terms of removing the camera quickly from the bag I carry it in. At least its design means that it can\'t fall off, or be pulled off, and the diopter remains set—this is a big plus if using one of these. More generally, there\'s no way I can compose (or hold steady) a body that I can\'t hold to my face. I know that I can add an EVF or OVF, of course.
50mm FOV is my preferred focal length. I note, though, the clever slightly zoomed ~17Mp option on the RX1 (this is brilliant, honestly); and 12Mp was enough for paying work for years, after all.
Now, the pluses for the X-E1:
Built-in high resolution EVF. \'Nuff said.
Compact body that will fit my hand size and probably not need any grip. For me, the X-E1\'s larger body is the smallest practical camera size for me (especially considering the built-in EVF)
Excellent button layout, and manual controls for everything I need photographically
The excellent 30mm lens, and an extra stop in speed (so, from a bokeh perspective, similar DOF control give the X-E1\'s APS-C sensor)
The interchangeable lens aspect; with the new lenses (and the wide zoom and the pancake 27/2.8, 41 EFOV, coming) make this X series look like a really viable system. I mention the 28, because that makes a really compact walk-around setup (and my current favourite focal length on the Panny GX1)
The X-trans sensor.
All of this in the context of thinking that I had settled on the GX1, the RRS bottom bracket (and the excellent range of lenses; I use the 7–14, 12/2, 20/1.7, and the 45/1.8; this does everything I need now).
I think that the APS-C sensor really makes sense on this new Fuji body, in a way that it didn\'t on all the DX bodies I owned (and where moving to the FX versions of these bodies made perfect sense, once they became available).
I agree that the RX-1 is a ground-breaker, but honestly feel that the X-E1 is likely to be the better camera in many ways, least of not in terms of usability. Time will tell, of course.
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