Earlier this week, Sony surprised us with one crazy MoFo of a camera at a stoopid price…my text chat windows lit up with an array of “Dude!, whoa!, and it’s over three grand!” What has us at Sony Mirrorless Pro and Bike Hugger so excited, even at THAT PRICE, is the evolution of a compact, full-frame camera for travelers and photographers on the go. When the A7R came out we extolled its virtues, even coining the term “full-frame mobile photography” to describe what we’re doing and because it was a Pro level camera that could fit in a jersey pocket. Then the Mark II addressed stabilization and significantly improved focus and shutter speed, upping the ante for mirrorless early adopters.
The A7r family includes breakthroughs that challenge the conception of what a “professional” camera is and convinced me to never carry around a heavy DSLR again. Now Sony has redefined the compact camera too — the RX1R II has the same sensor, same AF, and same frame rate as the A7r II. It’s obviously got some drawbacks with only one focal length, but that’s a 42MP camera with a useable ISO up to at least 50,000, and an autofocus 5x as fast as the first A7R. For the street and travel photography we do, even some action, 90% of our lenses are 28MM or 35mm.
We can rattle off the specs, like the 399 phase-detection AF points for a total of 45% coverage on the sensor, the highest in the world, on the chip. Also how it works in combination with the contrast detection system, for a mirrorless that’s just as fast as an SLR. Variable optical low-pass filter, uncompressed RAW files, edge-to-edge 4K video without any pixel skipping, and OK we’re just gonna stop there and say, it’s a palm-sized pro camera.
Now we’re gonna figure out what to trade, eBay, sell, moonlight for Uber, whatever to get one, as soon as they start shipping.
…My daily shooter is Sony A1 with a vertical grip and various Sony lenses attached like the FE 20mm F1.8. Find more gear recommendations in our shop. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.