Digital Home Thoughts: Sony DSC-R1: Going After SLRs

"Digital SLRs are superb cameras that are very popular with professional photographers, and are now becoming accessible to a growing number of amateurs. But fundamentally, they're also the basic component of what's known as a "system," in which the camera body is only one component among others - most notably, interchangeable lenses. There are some photographers, however, who don't wish to take that system approach, preferring to limit themselves to a single lens. Even so, an SLR is often the default choice, since other products on the market don't have the quality they want. These folks are obviously the ones at whom the Sony DSC-R1 is aimed, since it's an all-in-one camera that has the one feature that accounts for most of the superiority of SLRs: a large sensor. In practical terms, the sensor is comparable in size to the so-called APS-C sensors used on many digital SLRs, including certain models from Canon, Fuji, Nikon and Pentax."



There are now a number of cameras that are these all-in-one cameras that are aimed at people that are willing to spend the extra money for all the extra features that a DSLR would give but don't want to deal with some of the hassles of a DSLR. Sometimes you just don't want to adjust the zoom manually, to mention just one of the (minor) downsides of a DSLR. Anyways, if you are looking for a powerful camera with good optics and are willing to put up with some bulkiness then this looks like a good choice.