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The Sony Rx1r II was a pretty decent camera. The idea is so simple; take a small camera, give it a solid lens, a good sensor, and an EVF, and people will buy it. Of course, it’s a luxury compact camera and the price reflects that. But I believe the Sony RX1r III will be even better if it hits the market. If Sony still cares about the product line, it’s being delayed for a very good reason.
The Lens
The first reason why I think the Sony RX1r III hasn’t hit the market yet is because of the lens. Zeiss announced a camera that no one is really paying attention to called the ZX1. For all accounts and purposes, this camera is weather sealed, has lightroom built in, and is revolutionary. It’s also got a 35mm f2 lens on it. This lens is probably a special version of the one that was found on the RX1 series of cameras. The difference here is that this one is weather sealed.
It’s also no secret that Zeiss and Sony had a falling out a while back. These days, Sony is a partial owner of Tamron. If you really think about it, Sony could’ve easily made a camera like this. Better yet, they probably could’ve found a way to cram Capture One into their camera.
If the Sony RX1r III ever comes out, it’s going to need to be weather sealed. These days, we’re strong believers that everything should have weather sealing.
Weather Sealing
It’s very, very apparent now that the next Sony RX1 camera needs weather sealing. If they’re charging that much money, and all the competing products have it, Sony needs to include it. Their cameras are already built fairly well, but they can be much better. Further, they can also be redone to not feel like computers in a camera-shaped body. The RX lineup is perfect for that. There are tons of great film compacts that felt really nice: the Lomo LCA+, Canon QL17, and the Olympus Trip just a few to name. But Sony should find a way to weather seal the entire camera.
If I really just wanted one device to take with me everywhere, it could easily be the Sony RX1r III. But they need to make it as such. Even if it gets larger, I’m sure they could pull it off. True to their past, they could draw on inspiration from old Minolta rangefinders. They could probably even pull inspiration from the Konica Hexar AF or old school Minolta SLR cameras.
Finding a way to weather seal a small camera can be a challenge. And Sony will need to solve it.
Autofocus
Of course, autofocus is the biggest thing here. It’s very important for candid style photography and the documentary work folks will most likely do with this camera. So Sony will need to cram in the a9’s autofocus into here. Depending on how they do it, they might not even need a high resolution sensor the way the last camera had.
It could also just be something fun for people to play with. Afterall, not everything has to be for professional photographers. I’d like to think that we’re all passionate photographers. This means pros and hobbyists alike. There are pros who hate their job and aren’t passionate, and there are hobbyists who do this for the love of it. The middle crowd is what we think this camera needs to cater to.
In our tests, the processor from the Sony a7r IV wasn’t so great at performing with higher megapixel sensors. Sony will need to improve this even more.
