Right down my alley – well I’m not talking price, but Leica and Fujifilm better listen up (forget sleeping CaNikon): Photoprice.ca leaks a head-on Leica competitor, a compact Sony mirrorless full-frame, the RX1, to be announced shortly. Beautified by a Zeiss Sonnar 35mm F2 with a copper-colored lens ring (see image further below), this camera will absolutely nail it considering the IQ of its smaller sibling, the RX100, and Sony’s rapidly advancing sensor and imaging technology.
Add build quality and the Zeiss glass, and you got a game changer. It was always a question of when, not if. Now the compact full-frame battle is launched. Kudos Sony, chapeau, my respect. I recently wrote they might, in a few years, dominate the digital imaging market. Doesn’t sound too far-fetched no more, does it…
Here’s the RX1, an RX100 on steroids. World’s most compact full-frame camera. Engraved in the copper-colored lens ring you read: “35mm Full-Frame CMOS Image Sensor.” Joy of joys.
- 24MP Full-Frame CMOS (same as in Sony A99)
- ISO 100-25,600
- 14-bit RAW Processing
- Magnesium Body
- Built-in Flash
- AVCHD 2.0 Video Processing
- 3″ LCD Screen
- Optional OVF and EVF
- 5 fps
- Zeiss Sonnar 35mm F2 Fixed Lens
- $2,799
Add the hot shoe enabling a host of proprietary accessories, not only OVF, EVF, etc. And you bet that DMF works. Focus can be manually changed after it has been once confirmed using camera’s AF system.
With its roundish sides the RX1 even looks a bit M Leicaesque… Thing is, Leica has no longer the most compact full-frame camera, and I don’t think the Germans will positively surprise us at Photokina.
Sony’s doing all the right moves… except, this new Sony (not a NEX Pro, as many expected) is no interchangeable lens camera. Can’t see a lens release button. Come on! Sony must have a real Leica and Fujifilm killer in the pipeline, a compact interchangeable lens full-framer. They’re not trying to milk us first, aren’t they?!
According to online sources the camera costs $2,8k…
Says PetaPixel:
Sony is investing heavily into making the compact camera relevant again by stuffing it with a sensor that can go toe-to-toe with the popular large-sensor cameras on the market. The RX1 will be the flagship premium camera that features a full-frame sensor, and the RX100 is a smaller camera that packs a 1-inch sensor. It seems like the stage is set for a new RX10 camera that uses an APS-C sensor, but that’s just speculation at this point.
Talking fixed lens or not, don’t forget Sony is as well launching the long-awaited full-frame Sony Alpha SLT A99. I always thought competition is a good thing. Sony might think differently. Two of the same might be a harder sell.
