In article . com,
minnesøtti" says...
I heard many times on this newsgroup and other forums about a
"superior" Sony R1 camera, and was lusting for it for sometime because
of its good big lens, swivable LCD screen and "semi-professional"
functionalities. Only recently I learnt that there was another camera
of a similar class which had a much better specification (15x zoom vs
5x zoom), huge hi-res LCD screen, and heaps of professional-level
photographic controls. One of the reviewers said that it seemed like
the Koreans took the specifications of a "bridge" camera and
exaggeratingly improved it in every dimension. I must confess that I am
mostly impressed by the cameras with the "exaggerated" functionalities.
I wonder why nobody here talked about Samsung Pro815 ? I could've
learnt about it earlier. The only problem seems to me is that Samsung
Pro815 has a 2/3" CCD sensor, while Sony R1 has an APS-C sized sensor
(just like the dSLRs), and by the moment I realised that I am most
interested in a camera with a high dynamic range and high (low-noise)
sensitivity which comes only with a n APS-C sized sensor.
The R1 is ok, perhaps its lens is better than the one of the Pro 815.
The only issues a
1. RAW files (actually RAW+JPEG) are 23MB, so you'll need fast Memory
sticks because with CF the write time is around 8 seconds.
2. Unfortunately the R1 has a somewhat high dark noise, which means that
you should not use it at ISO 800 and 1600 (ISO 400 is still ok).
3. The AF of the R1 is most of the time (or let's say many times)
unusable in low light. The camera does not focus properly in low light,
it also focuses very slowly in low light and is unable to focus on
moving objects (people) in low light.
4. It's a heavy beast of a camera, so you have to hold it in two hands
to use it. Other cameras can be held in one hand.
But otherwise the camera is ok and the lens is good. An advantage it has
over DSLRs is that the lens is very close to the sensor, because there
is no mirror, which translates into better performance at the wide
angle.
--
Alfred Molon
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Olympus 50X0, 7070, 8080, E300, E330, E400 and E500 forum at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MyOlympus/
Olympus E330 resource -
http://myolympus.org/E330/