Why I am not buying Sony RX1R or Sony RX1R II?

Today’s the day where I have to return my friends RX1R to him…

Last night I was thinking to myself “Shall I buy it off of him? Shall I buy the older RX1? Shall I go all out and get the RX1R mk2?”…

Woke up this morning and thought to myself… No…

Because of the amount of kit I currently own, I can’t justify purchasing this camera. As much as I love it and do regard this camera as a legend! It’s just a bit too pricey for my pocket.

I did reflect on this past week’s usage also and it hasn’t been much, not enough to justify it’s cost. The shots I had taken with it, were all conscious and deliberate, just so that I actually did use the camera and because I brought my Sony A7R II with me for comparisons, I gravitated more towards the Sony A7R II purely for it’s AF performance despite it being a larger camera.

However, I will be keeping an eye out for the Sony RX1 MK3 to see if they do incorporate any improvements which can justify me spending the extra cash into this type of camera.

The features I am personally hoping for are

• 4K Video
• Faster AF
• WiFi

I don’t necessarily need 4K video for videography purposes, so features such as SLOG profiles aren’t vital to me, but would be useful to have as it’s a software feature which I would expect to be easily implemented into the firmware. Where I do appreciate 4K video on Sony camera’s haven’t been the best due to rolling shutter and overheating issues, it would be great to have there as an option. In fact, most have speculated the Sony RX1R II doesn’t do 4K due to overheating, I personally think it has more to do with it’s tiny battery. But if the camera were able to shoot 4K video, even for 5min clips like it’s baby brother the Sony RX100 MK4, I think that would swing it for me as I generally only record a few min clips at a time to document odd moments with my family.

The newer MK2 is supposedly 40% faster than the older RX1R and that on paper sounds great! However The Camera Store TV did review this camera and said that although the system itself is 40% faster, they didn’t feel the lens mated to the body could keep up with it so although there is an improvement over the MK1, it wasn’t exactly the snappiest AF around.

As my style of shooting is quick grabs, the faster the AF the better. Not having used the MK2, I can’t say for certain, but I do suspect I would like it to be faster. Heck! I know I’d like my Sony A7r II to be faster!

WiFi is a big feature for me as I do find myself more and more sending photos to my phone so I can send off to friends and family quickly. I would happily lose the EVF in favour of this feature. With such small cameras, using a viewfinder feels redundant to me. I think I have only ever looked through my Sony A7R II’s viewfinder twice since owning it and that’s just simply to see how it looks! So my EVF has in fact been basically switched off since owning as I am a Live View shooter.

So I am hoping Sony would consider dropping EVF in favour of a larger battery for 4K video and slip in a little WiFi module.

Then Sony would seriously have my attention on this line of camera… until then, it will remain as being the poster on the wall fantasy…