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 p.9 #3 · Any thoughts on Sony’s new RX1R III? | |
Fred Miranda wrote:
My fastest AF camera is the Sony A7CR, so I'm used to that incredible speed and reliability. But I also own the original RX1R, and I'm perfectly fine with its AF. I've learned to work within its limits, and it's actually rare for me to get an OOF shot. Even its old-school face detection still works, tracking faces with contrast detect. I trust it enough that I often shoot with an OVF and the screen turned off, which also makes the battery last much longer. Honestly, battery life is the main reason I prefer the RX1R over the RX1R II. The Mark II just eats through batteries faster because of the higher MP, PDAF, and the built-in EVF...all of which demand more power. Since these type of cameras if more for family shoots, the internal flash is another factor I prefer this model and the fact that it syncs at 1/2000s, makes it much more useful outdoors. On top of that, I really like the tilting EVF for close-up shooting. I removed the back rubber to make this EVF much more compact.
With the RX1R, I go back to basics. I just focus at the center, recompose, and never miss. If it's a person, face detect automatically locks on, and it still does the job even without checking the EVF or LCD. There's definitely some practice involved in adapting to the framing because of parallax error, but like you said, we learn from our gear's quirks...and it's actually fun not to expect the camera to do everything perfectly for you.
Sony had to upgrade the battery for the RX1R III to keep up with its more powerful processor and added features. Without it, you would be lucky to get 150 shots before the camera died. The new battery is definitely an improvement, but it comes at a cost since it added 18mm to the camera's depth, which is a huge jump that not many people mention (see image below). The surprising part is that it only provides about 30 more shots compared to the RX1R's battery, with Sony rating it at 300 shots versus 270. That really shows how much more power-hungry the RX1R III is. For context, the RX1R II's battery (same as RX1R) is rated even lower at around 220 shots....Show more →
I'm newly returned to Sony for the RX1R III, so have been actively exploring settings. Reading the AF issues on this thread yesterday, I ran a quick "chihuahua running at me" AF test in mediocre light at f/2 with restored factory settings and can easily reproduce the missed focus shots others are experiencing. However, I didn't run into perceivable issues from my first use shooting pickleball players (https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1168684/359#16861848) so explored the settings difference outside of the obvious forgiving dof at f/5.6 since f/2 was too bright with no ND.
Setting "AF-C priority" back to factory "Balanced" shooting at 5fps in the chihuahua test has an inconsistent firing tempo compared to setting "AF-C" to "Release" that I had originally changed, which fires smoothly with no hesitation between shots. Setting "AF-C" to "AF" has very bad delay between shots, it almost feels as if the buffer is full the delay is so bad, but I think it is causing the camera to confirm AF and shots are stuttering. "Release" had far better hit rate, fwiw, and I had this set originally and matches how the display seems to be in focus and results are acceptable (at f/5.6, and mostly at f/2) vs. "AF".
AF-C area from "Wide" to "Tracking" is much better, maybe AF tracking is predicting motion, but I think it's just better tracking with AF-C release priority. As an aside, the touch screen is *awesome* and maybe necessary to choose which subject to focus on, but it defaults to a single-point location even in AF-C that needs to be canceled by a button. Changing this to "Touch to Track" was the only thing I've needed to research in the manual and it is buried deep with a super unintuitive menu.
I thought the delay and missed focus could have been AF requiring open at f/2, then the time to close down for example to f/5.6 to release, but I do not perceive any delay and the f/5.6 shot results are superior.
As Fred points out, maybe the motor burns out on the aging Sonnar build, and I can confirm the tracking setting results in an audible constant motor sound so it is definitely working hard. This plus the cheap plastic door I taped shut and lack of weather sealing probably means the camera life and cost amortizing period is short, but hopefully the compact camera segment is reviving and there is hope for a replacement from any brand before this one dies. I'll certainly try to enjoy this EDC until then!
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I trust it enough that I often shoot with an OVF and the screen turned off, which also makes the battery last much longer. Honestly, battery life is the main reason I prefer the RX1R over the RX1R II. The Mark II just eats through batteries faster because of the higher MP, PDAF, and the built-in EVF...all of which demand more power. Since these type of cameras if more for family shoots, the internal flash is another factor I prefer this model and the fact that it syncs at 1/2000s, makes it much more useful outdoors. On top of that, I really like the tilting EVF for close-up shooting. I removed the back rubber to make this EVF much more compact.
