Deep inside of me, there’s a photographer crying. He misses the days when cameras were meant for photographers first and not for a blanket marketing term like Content Creator. My parents, toxic colleagues, and my teachers would’ve told me to scream at this inner photographer and tell him to man up. But I’m not like them. Instead, each day, I throw my arms around that photographer. Not because I need to prove a point. Nor is it because I have to be better. And it surely isn’t because I needed to heal a part of me. I hold that photographer because he was crying — and recently I’ve whispered to him that it might be too late for the Sony R1XR Mk III.
You might think that this is a stupid thing to cry about. But it’s bigger than you think it really is. It signals the idea that this camera will never come out. And that means that camera companies care less and less about photographers. Maybe that’s why the print market is supposed to really take off in the next few years.
It’s been 10 years since we reviewed the Sony RX1R Mk II — and the company has told many people that the closest thing that they’d ever get is the A7c lineup. However, at Kando Trip, engineers asked me about the RX1R and what I’d want to see in a camera like that.
But is it really too late? Would Sony really not give this camera the updates it really needs? And do you even know what I’m talking about?
- The camera would need a new lens because Sony and Zeiss don’t work so closely together anymore
- It would need a new battery to keep up with Sony’s current processors and sensors
- The camera definitely would need weather resistance that’s as good as the A1 and A9 III
- It would also need things that completely separeate it from the other cameras in the lineup that make it unique.
Let’s hit home on that one feature in particular. Sony is very big on constantly cannibalizing their product line and giving all of the features to all of their products. But for this lineup of camera, it would need things that the ILCs don’t have. For example, with various Canon cameras, I can use fun features like the Toy Camera mode if I really wish to. Everything below the EOS R8 has that, but not the higher-end cameras. This helps to add more separation for Canon.
Sony would need to adopt this philosophy to make the RX1R Mk III really stand out. Otherwise, why buy it instead of the a7c? That’s the thing that Sony needs to figure out and adapt into their mentality. I don’t need a global shutter with this camera, nor would I want it. I’m a photographer first and I want to use the RX1R Mk III the way a photographer would.
I also don’t need or want it to be able to shoot an hour of 8k video. The YouTubers and cinema people can go to a dedicated video camera for that.
I hope that Sony looks at the market and realizes that they’d need to make something unique.