Sony R1 - the one thing missing?

[Herb]

Ever since I owned an Olympus C2100UZ I've considered image stabilization the most important feature feature it's possible to have.

The Sony R1 is quite mouth-watering and I was nearly ready to buy one - until I realised it doesn't have IS. Does anybody else feel the same way?

[amazingthailand]

No.

IS is useful, but it is not the be all and end all of camera features.

Declan

[rjseeney]

Considering the zoom range is not that terribly long, IS is not that big of a consideration in this camera for me.

[zygh]

I think that Sony could have included movie making capacity on their R1. IS isn't that important, especially at 5X max zoom.

R1 is impressive. Too bad it's too heavy and too pricey.

[mr_goodwrench_06]

The lack of a movie mode is the only reason I bought my H1. I would have really liked a larger zoom as well, but I could have lived with it.



I don't care that professionals might not use the movie mode, I don't mind paying top dollar for a camera if it does EVERYTHING I want.



Bill

[Lin Evans]

mr_goodwrench_06 wrote:

The lack of a movie mode is the only reason I bought my H1. I would have really liked a larger zoom as well, but I could have lived with it.



I don't care that professionals might not use the movie mode, I don't mind paying top dollar for a camera if it does EVERYTHING I want.



Bill

Unfortunately the design of the sensor ("CMOS") requires a mechanical shutter. The movie mode just isn't possible with this type technology at a price which the market could bearfor that and other reasons. It really has nothing to do with professionals using or not using such a feature. It's unlikely that you will see a movie mode on any large sensor digicam or dSLRin the forseeable future.

Best regards,

Lin

[zygh]

On the contrary, Lin Evans, Sony representatives stated that the R1 is capable of movie mode but they had not introduced this feature to the camera because of the target market that it aims for.

There was a topic on the Panasonic forum about the CES 2006 and there this exact thing was discussed about the R1.

[Lin Evans]

zygh wrote:

On the contrary, Lil Evans, Sony representatives said that the R1 is capable of movie mode but they had not introduced this feature to the camera because of the target market that it aims to.

There was a topic on the Panasonic forum about the CES 2006 and there this exact thing was discussed about the R1.

Again - CMOS sensors absolutely MUST have a mechanical shutter. The mechanical shutter must actuate between frames. This would mean a shutter design would be necessary capable of sustaining a tremendous number of actuations before failure since one would assume that the camera would require 30 frames per second at a minimum of 640x480 VGA resolution to be competitive. Typically the expectations for a shutter on most dSLR's run from 35,000 to 150,000 actuations without replacement. On the very top end dSLR's 250,000 actuations may be the extreme MTBF.

If the movie mode were offered on the R1 then the cost would be considerably higher to provide for the much greater stress on the mechanics thus taking the camera out of the "target market it aims" for. The "reason" the camera doesn't have a movie mode is primarily costs. It's simply too expensive to implement on a camera which must sell for under $1000.00.

In addition, to make the movie mode competitive the camera would require image stabilization. I have multiple digicams with movie mode. Only those with image stabilization are really useful with this feature because of camera shake. This would again drive the costs up because image stabilization is neither necessary nor desirable on a camera with focal length range of the R1.

Lin

[amazingthailand]

Lin, to the best of my knowledge, the R1 does not have a mechanical shutter. If it did, you would not be able to get flash sync at 1/2000.

I suspect Sony did not add movie mode because they were trying to reach a different audience. Just like Sony did not add a still photo mode on their FX1/Z1 HD camcorders. It is on the mass consumer oriented HC1.

It would also have probably required a different set of electronics and that, most likely, would have added to the cost. I am guessing, but I think Sony did everything they could to keep the camera under the $1000 price point, including not giving it an adequate buffer for shooting raw.

Declan

[Meryl Arbing]

The first thing I looked for was whether it has a tripod mount and, after that, I didn't worry about IS.