Upon taking the Sony RX1R Mk III out of the beautiful gray box that Sony delivered their review unit on loan to me, I stared at the camera. It’s every bit as gorgeous to behold as the GAS whispers in your mind tell you it is. The Sony RX1R Mk III is small, lightweight, and reminds me so much of what Leica should’ve done with the Leica CL but failed majorly on. After the excitement of the first announcement and while spending a weekend with the camera, I’m really not sure it was worth the wait. And more importantly, I’m not sure that it’s worth the price. But at the same time, I’d be telling you a total lie if I told you that I’m not totally infatuated with this camera.
Before I go on, I’m going to make this clear: this isn’t my review of the Sony RX1R Mk III. That’s still being worked on. However, these are just some initial emotional expressions.
After testing both the Leica Q3 and the Fujifilm GFX 100RF, I’m constantly tempted and consider buying a camera like that. In Sony’s meeting with creators and photographers, there were a few Youtubers and influencers who said that they’re not sure who’d pay $5,000 for a point and shoot. And in some ways, I have to agree. But at the same time, I’m one of those people. I don’t consider those people in the meeting to be photographers, first and foremost. They’re primarily making videos, and I’m primarily writing articles. On the side, I bring in taxable income via my photography services. And sometimes, I want a pleasure camera to bring around with me. This is that camera.
Essentially, the Sony RX1R Mk III is the Sony A7C R with a fixed lens, no weather resistance, a screen that doesn’t move, no grip, and a smaller battery. To be specific, it’s the same lens that was used with the Sony RX1 introduced back in 2013 — which was made by Zeiss. So you’re paying for a stripped down Sony a7C R with a lens that’s over a decade old.
Sign me up.
Let me illustrate this for you more: I’m 38 and in a point of my life where I’m experiencing something called mid-life renaissance. And I care immensely about certain things. I wear two watches: a practical Apple Watch Hermes Ultra 3, and a selection of either Timex, Cartier, Grand Seiko, Monblanc, etc. watches. I also use higher end Bose headphones. You see, I care about what I’m getting and I can tell you why what I have is so incredible. But at the same time, I’m not totally jaded and misled to think that something can’t be fun.
More importantly, I know what brings me joy. And I can tell you right off the bat that there are lots of photographers who would find joy in the fact that this camera doesn’t even have a video record button on it.
One of the people attending the meeting stated that they should’ve done this with the Sony a7 IV. That’s not a bad idea, and it would’ve been the Sony Rx1 Mk II. You see, Sony never continued the RX1 series. Instead, they just stuck to the higher resolution models of the camera.
But you see, those folks are probably also just using cameras for work. This, by far, is a pleasure camera. It’s meant to bring you pleasure.
Sony stated that it also doesn’t have weather resistance, but a rep said that they used it in the rain. Sony’s weather resistance is notably terrible, but my loaner camera surely survived a bit of a rain shower at the beach here in NYC.
More importantly, the Sony RX1R Mk III is the perfect camera to challenge me creatively. The other day, I asked my staff what they’d think about my only shooting square photographs for a month? Pretty universally, they all supported it.
And what better camera to do that with? In the meeting they held with the press, there was no major pixel peeping done to show off how sharp the lens is. That’s because Sony knows that it’s a lens that’s over a decade old and that it probably isn’t capable of delivering the fullest resolution that the sensor can output. In fact, Sony’s JPEG files only come out at 40MP instead of the full 61MP raw files. That’s an oddity that I found.
This camera is almost exactly what I’ve wanted from Sony for years. If they just added weather resistance, I’d say that it’s the perfect camera they’ve ever made.
The Sony RX1R Mk III has its share of issues:
- The battery life is absolute crap. I started shooting with it at 7am and it was dead by 10am. I turned off the sleep function, for what it’s worth. And I also put it in airplane mode.
- There’s no weather resistance
- It’s over $5,000
Yet at the same time, there’s a lot to love about it. It’s small, it can deliver beautiful image quality with the film looks built into it, and it doesn’t get in the way of you making good images. You have to shoot with this camera in a very old-school film-style way because there is no tilting screen. So you have to get into an odd position of some sort or do what photographers have called a, “Hail Mary” for years. That’s where you point the camera at something, shoot, and pray that you got the shot.
I took to shooting all my photos in square mode. So when shooting, Sony’s interface puts all the essential controls around the edge of the screen. But most importantly, the lens isn’t all about the resolving power. So with that said, when evaluating this camera, I’m more tuned into the experience of actually just enjoying the moment and shooting photos.
I don’t care about looking at the corners of the photos, and I never did. I just care about capturing and making photographs that please me. And so, this camera is doing it with a small overall package that I truly want to bring everywhere with me.
I’ll be telling more about it in my full review.
Still, I wonder why it took them so long to make this camera when it’s essentially the same thing as the RX1R Mk II; except that the viewfinder doesn’t pop up and a few other things.
