Sorry for the novel but some thoughts in response...
Many of us are drooling for a camera like this, even a fixed lens, fast 35mm FF. I would pay $3k for it, but its got to have a built in OVF. Step in the right direction, but wish they would have skipped this step and gone straight for the OVF.
Has Sony in recent years released *any* advanced cameras with an OVF? It seems not. EVF is their stated direction and nothing suggests they plan to change this.
I'm ok with this, for a live view compact camera, as long as their is an optional EVF. And for a good autofocus camera an external OVF for framing might really be all I need.
as rf users, many here want an internal finder...but with so many growing up with digital and maybe having never used a rf...i wonder if the finder is missed by the general 'shooting' public?
Probably not missed by many. I wonder what percentage of the photo-making public has never put their eye to an on-camera finder? Whatever the number, it gets bigger every year.
But some of us are old curmudgeons -- speaking for myself only, but feel free to add yourselves to the list. And of those, some have made a transition to using cameras in new ways. Ask me three years ago if I'd ever buy a camera without a built-in OVF and I'd have screamed NO!
Yet by 2012, I've owned two such cameras and one of them I use every day.
And, challenged by another photographer to try it, I even find using the rear LCD "finder" can have advantages, more or less like viewing a window on the world. In a way similar to an OVF but different and with its own advantages thanks to the WYSIWYG finder. Like others I've found using a camera in that way can at times be perceived as less threatening and more acceptable. In many situations the act of raising a finder to the eye is immediately a caution to those around "beware, photographer present" but holding out the camera often raises no alarms.
When I need to see beyond the frame to include action I use the rear view finder. This isn't the same as an OVF but it does work and for my needs, works really well.
In some situations I do find an external EVF invaluable. I use one about 50% of the time on the GXR, but mostly because I'm focusing manual RF lenses on that body and don't walk around with my eye glasses in my pockets.
With this camera... which finder to get (if any) is a hard decision. I'll assume the autofocus works well and as such, an OVF could work well. Or the EVF. Or none at all. Or it might be nice to have an OVF and an EVF.
🙂
But I think I'd try do to without. Or catch-and-release an EVF if I find I don't really need it.
(24MP FF, 35mm lens, very compact body, just crop a bit, you have 50mm lens too.
The camera is said to have in-body cropping (probably called smart zoom or something like that). An APS-C crop leaves you with a ~ 50mm effective field of view with approximately 10.5 megapixel in sensor area in the crop. Not quite as good as today's APS-C based cameras but given the sensor is today's state of the art I'm willing to bet this 50mm "lens" view will be very serviceable.
With a built-in 4/3 crop, you'll have fewer pixels yet but an effective 70mm lens. May yet be serviceable.
My hope is they bring out high quality converters and between those and crop (in camera or in post) a wide gamut of shooting situations can be covered by what is, potentially, the start of an ultra compact full frame "system". But even as it stands today, again potentially, a one-off technology showcase, the RX1 for some photographers will be all they could want or need.
In the meantime I've restricted my personal photography to 25mm on the GXR (an APS-C camera ~ roughly 35mm effective) to see how I get on. I did this last year for a while and one of my biggest issues through that period was the lack of depth of field control I'm used to from a 35mm lens on 35mm film. I tried to vary how I'd frame things and alter distance to subject but in the end missed that control. I use a 35mm on APS-C more than the 25mm just to gain back some DOF control even though I lose some flexibility in composition with the narrower field of view.
In short I miss "full frame" and want back in... but my darkroom is packed, forever. I need to find a good home for it in fact.
