The Sony R1 is an almost frightening camera. When first encountered at a thrift store, its size and initially relatively high price was a downer. Paying $20 for a 10 M, 5x zoom camera that requires either memory sticks or CF cards seemed a bridge too far. On the plus side it came with a Vivitar Series-1 dedicated flash and a reasonable gadget bag. It also came with a tattered 134-page instruction book.
A week later I was back in the thrift store and the R1 was still there. I asked to see it again. Passing my time ideally, I searched through the pockets of the gadget bag and found a Memory Stick. Problem one solved! Playing with the camera I found the zoom action of the Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* was very stiff. The lens zoomed, but it didn’t want to.
Weeks earlier I had been through this same dilemma in this store—wanting a camera but not wanting to pay so much—with a Pentax K-500 I wanted more than life itself, but less than the $100 they wanted for it. They had even offered that camera for $75, and I had turned them down.
So I gathered my nerve and asked the elderly sales clerk if I could speak to the “camera pricing” expert. She asked, “ Why?”. I said I had noticed the camera in my hands had a stiff zoom action that made me think the camera was overpriced. The clerk asked, “What would you feel was a fair price?” I said, “$10” and she said, “Sold!”.
So now I had the camera, flash, memory stick, bag and instructions. I took them all home, marveling again at the heft of this camera.
I had met the design earlier with Minolta “Dimage” style cameras. Those cameras have a roughly tubular main body with a hand grip attached to the right side (from the shooter’s view) with a bridge between the two forming the space for your fingers. In this Sony version the camera is at least twice the size and weight of the Dimage cameras. (As an aside: Even earlier the Olympus IS-1 line of cameras were very similar to how the R1 is styled.)
And there isn’t a screen anywhere to be seen on the back of the camera! Of course there is one, but it is tucked away on the top of the electronic eye-point viewing screen housing where you’d expect to see a pop-up flash. The pop-up flash is still there in front of the twist-up exterior viewing screen.
Another thing you notice is the multitude of buttons and dials that literally cover most of the camera’s exterior. Believe me when I say all the controls are necessary to allow this camera to sail above the ordinary digital point-and-shoot. Because there is a different principal contained in this unique camera. The principal is to get the most out of a reasonably “fast” top quality zoom without any compromise.
Sure other digital cameras have interchangeable lenses and offer the amateur and professional many, many possibilities to exceed the reach of this one lens. But all of those cameras suffer from that lens interchangeability. There is the constant chance some dust or other stuff will reach the sensor and as a consequence ruin some image that would not be salvageable after the fact.
This camera believed in putting all its eggs in one basket—with that Zeiss T* lens, much like Hasselblads—and then giving you no way to ruin that. Being able to design the lens /sensor spacing—they are 2 mm apart at their closest point— to being best for both lens and sensor gives you the best tool possible. Of course that was back in 2005, and the world has managed to improve everything many, many orders of magnitude since. But at the time, if you wanted the best results for many common professional tasks—imagine a wedding professional—this camera was all you needed.
That “eggs in one basket” isn’t totally correct, because the RI had the first APS size CMOS full time sensor in an all-in-one camera. The size of the APS sensor is much larger being 2.4x wider and 2.2x taller than previous sensors (21.5 x 14.4 mm as opposed to 8.8 by 6.6 mm). This means the R1’s individual pixels are 5.49 μm compared to the older, smaller sensors 2.7μm. At the time this allowed a generous speed range of from ISO 160-3200. Testing back in 2006 indicated noise levels rose quickly ruling out anything over ISO 400 for really outstanding quality. On the other side you could expose for as long as three minutes!
You get to view your subjects on either a Electronic Viewfinder or the 2-inch LCD monitor. There are no mirror or shutter sounds when you take an image. Previous CMOS sensors chewed up a lot of battery power. The R1’s CMOS sensor requires 70 per cent less energy than previous sensors. One battery charge was supposed to allow up to 500 images!
The Vivitar Series 1 600N that came with the R1 is a bit of a puzzle. I can’t seem to find exactly how suited to the R1 this flash is. The R1’s instructions suggests you consult the instructions that came with any other manufacturer’s flash. They follow that with a passing mention of the two flash Sony made for the R1: the HVL-F1000 and the HVL-F32X (equipped with automatic flash level adjustment and AF fill light shooting functions).
The scary thing is the first of the two Sony flash is supposed to be plugged into the ACC jack as well as being attached to the advanced accessory shoe (the HVL-F32X doesn’t need to be plugged in to the ACC jack). Then the Sony R1‘s advanced accessory shoe has one more contact than the Vivitar Series 1’s foot. Obviously some testing will be required!
Update: Having tried the Series 1 600 N flash on the R! it became obvious the TTL metering was not functioning. The camera will work with the flash—it fires the flash—but the two are independent of each other. I strongly suspect the “N” in the 600’s name refers to Nikon as the pin arrangements are the same on a Nikon F60 as the 600 N flash.
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