Sony DSC-R1

Reviewed December 2005

Image Quality

The Cyber-shot DSC-R1 is currently the most advanced digital camera in Sony's arsenal.

Equipped with Sony's newly developed 10.3 megapixel APS-size CMOS sensor, it also features a 5X Carl Zeiss zoom lens, a top-mounted hinged 2-inch monitor and an electronic viewfinder. All of which give it a size and weight that is quite comparable to today's digital SLR cameras.

The zoom lens offers a focal length range that starts at a very wide 24mm and extends to 140mm (35mm equivalent) and is controlled manually using a smoothly operating ring on the lens barrel.

At the wide end, barrel distortion is well-corrected and when the subject is at an average distance, effectively undetectable. But, with subjects that are closer, such as shots captured indoors, barrel distortion can sometimes become more visible, although it remains minimal.

Still, with as wide a field of view as this lens offers, it is regrettable that images captured at the widest angle of the zoom are not especially sharp, a phenomenon that is most noticeable in the corners of the frame, particularly if the photo was captured with an aperture less than f8. With wide angle shots captured with apertures of f8 or more, the sharpness improves, but nevertheless remains less than what the camera yields starting at slightly longer focal lengths. Still, if images are printed at sizes up to 8 x 10, the lesser sharpness of wide angle shots is not visible.

Zoomed in, however, and just past the widest angle, the images become crisp and sharp and free of any distortion, up to and including at the maximum telephoto setting which has no pincushion distortion.

Seen at 100% on a computer monitor, a faint chromatic aberration can sometimes be seen in the high contrast areas on the edges of wide angle shots — a phenomenon that lessens towards the centre of the frame — and which is not visible at other, longer, focal lengths.

We also observed that the multi-pattern metering is at its most reliable when it evaluates scenes that are evenly lit. And, that with strongly contrasting subjects, the centre-weighted pattern is more effective as it allows metering a zone of average brightness in the scene, locking the exposure, and then re-framing the shot prior to taking the photo.

But, regardless of the metering pattern, we noted that the camera's ability to deal with large variations in brightness within a scene is limited.

With subjects that contain a broad range of contrasts zones that are evenly lit are usually well exposed and detailed, but darker zones can turn out underexposed, while very bright ones can loose detail and appear overexposed. Therefore, with scenes exhibiting this kind of varied lighting, it is generally advisable to bracket the exposure.

The colour reproduction of the R1 is excellent. With the camera set to its default setting for saturation, colours are true-to-life and the image processing avoids making colours overly vibrant. In part this is due to the fact that the Auto white balance is reliable and, works well under varied circumstances.

Similarly, the One-Push white balance is very effective and extremely easy to use, thanks to a well-designed system to set a white point under ambient light.

Outdoors or under good light the auto focus of the R1 is quick and precise. But we did note that it becomes a bit hesitant when the light is poor, and the camera has to use its AF assist lamp.

Although the R1 does not offer an uncompressed TIFF image format, it does offer an even more valuable RAW format. The RAW format is well-supported by the software supplied with the camera (Image Data Converter SR) offering a professional level of control over the image once it is imported into a computer. And for Photoshop CS II users, the format is supported by the RAW plug-in. As always, the only drawbacks of the RAW format are that each image requires 20.1 MB of space, takes approximately 10 seconds to store, and that the Burst mode is disabled.

Starting with a sensitivity of 160 ISO, the DSC-R1 produces good images with very low noise up to 400 ISO, where it can only be detected in shadow areas. At higher ISO levels however, at 800 and 1600 ISO, noise is noticeable, while at the 3200 ISO level it is omnipresent, limiting the usefulness of that particular sensitivity level.

Used indoors with flash, the pop-up flash of the R1 turns out to be quite powerful. Not only is it well-adapted to the widest angle of the zoom, lighting a broad area evenly, it has a long reach and is able to light a big room without any trouble.

Even though it has a fully point-and shoot Auto mode and some Scene modes, the DSC-R1 is not really intended as a beginner's camera. Neither is it likely to be suitable for a professional use because of its fixed lens and minimal burst mode. It is suitable, however, for a serious photography amateur. And while the R1 is a camera that demands some effort on the part of the user to learn its strengths and weaknesses and work with them, that process will very likely be highly rewarding.