Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 is a bridge digital camera announced by Sony in 2005 (and discontinued in 2006). It featured a 10.3 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor (21.5 × 14.4 mm), a size typically used in DSLRs and rarely used in bridge cameras (which usually use 2/3" (= 6.6 × 8.8 mm) or 1/1.8" (= 5.3 × 7.1 mm)). This was the first time such a large sensor has been incorporated into a bridge camera. Besides the APS-C sensor, R1 also featured a 24–120 mm Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens.
Advantages
Compared to a standard DSLR the Sony R1 has the following advantages:
- live preview which gives information about the image before the picture is taken
- swiveling LCD display which allows shooting in difficult positions
- since there is no mirror between the sensor and the lens, the lens can be positioned closer to the sensor, which improves the performance at wide angle
- the image in the EVF and LCD screen is bright and the light is amplified. An optical viewfinder instead does not amplify the light, so that it becomes difficult to frame and manually focus when there is not sufficient light.
- during manual focus the image is magnified in the LCD screen or EVF.
- technically no dust problems, since the R1 has a fixed lens, though dust can enter the lens itself while zooming
- silent operation, as there is no swinging mirror
- fewer movable parts, therefore greater reliability
Disadvantages
and the following disadvantages:
- no interchangeable lenses: the supplied lens only covers the 24–120 mm zoom range.
- no optical viewfinder. Furthermore there is some small time shift, i.e. the image appears with a small delay.
- the Sony R1 has slightly higher noise levels than a standard DSLR.