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John, if it helps, I did walk my dog down the street after I took the picture.
Please forgive my remark about the wooden base, an attempt at humour, it simply looked incongruous to me at first blush. There is no doubt the camera benefits from more hand affordance and it's not like the weight is too high ;-) I am sure it will work fine...and we are lucky to have so many aftermarket options so early in the product's life.
What will they do next?
As it is fascinating watching the full strength of the camera work its way into the collective knowledge base of (let's say) the community of serious camera users.
It's a strange thought that this might be just the start for Sony in this market niche. A high level of acceptance of such a high end camera will help their overall camera business significantly - people will know what they are capable of.
I looked a bit deeper into the lens, it's an 8/7 elements/groups with 3 asph elements featuring 5 asph surfaces on them. That's a lot of correction and it shows in the corners especially, and in the consistency across the aperture range. Zeiss produced exactly what you want in a single lens 35mm camera, which has to be all things to its diverse users. Even its flaws are tiny quibbles.
There are not too many great 35mm lenses across all FF lineups..this is one of them.
PTLens is a lens correction plugin for Aperture that has a profile for the RX1. I use it on the few occasions that really need a fix and it works well.... I shoot RAW and work usually in Aperture, so no lens correction there. As the JPEG loads from the RAW, the preview JPEG shows first. When the RAW JPEG pops in, it's always a disappointment to see that barrel distortion show up. Often not obvious, but always better gone. I realize I can process in Capture One, LightRoom, or make the correction in PhotoShop. But I do wish the barrel distortion wasn't there at all.
This is one of the reasons I have never seriously thought of Sony as a DSLR solution - no really high end 35mm lens. Yes, there is the 35/1.4G but that seems overpriced and not that great a performer. I don't know if Zeiss are limited by their contract with Sony not to release their manual glass in Sony mount but I wish they would. That way I would seriously consider an A99. As it is this is the only way to get a premium 35mm on a full frame Sony camera which seems a bit weird from a marketing point of view.I looked a bit deeper into the lens, it's an 8/7 elements/groups with 3 asph elements featuring 5 asph surfaces on them. That's a lot of correction and it shows in the corners especially, and in the consistency across the aperture range. Zeiss produced exactly what you want in a single lens 35mm camera, which has to be all things to its diverse users. Even its flaws are tiny quibbles.
There are not too many great 35mm lenses across all FF lineups..this is one of them.
+1. Curiously the barrel distortion seems much greater when shooting closer - two shots, both at f 5.6. The closer one (picture) is not good, the other one further away. Anyone have another explanation?The backroads of Bethnal Green.
My main schtick is urban landscape - especially the grittier side of London. I've been searching for the 'ultimate' urban landscape camera since selling my M8 and associated lenses back last year. That was a great piece of kit but aged and temperamental. Since then I have used a SWC and other 500CM to good effect but in turn it has taken a toll on my spine which is soon to enter its sixth decade of service. So far the results with the RX-1 have been very promissing. The lens is an absolute gem - even if somewhat prone to barrel distortion and a bit of fringing. (Actually, at f2 the lens is freakin' amazing but these pictures were all shot at f8 or thereabouts).