Sony Announced Hybrid Digital Camera

Anna Merikin writes to tell us that Sony has begun shipping a new digital camera, the R1. With the R1 Sony has married the big digital SLRs' sensor with the live preview display of the compact cams. But to do so, it is not an SLR although it is about the same size as one. The new architecture also allows wider-angle optics to be used, but it does not have interchangeable lenses.

Comments

Who cares?

[Billly Gates]

Anyone going to buy their products again after the rootkit fiasco?

Stop advertising for them and its no different from slashdot running stories on Sco Openserver?

Re:Who cares?

[mikefrommcmurray]

If people buy this camera, it will just encourage Sony. If consumers punish then for the other Sony hardware with crappy DRM built in -- from MiniDisc to SACD -- diminishing profits for the entire company, parhaps that will force the suits to act. Not I'm not even addressing the Software DRM here.

There are 1,001 different digital cameras out there, including dozens of that blow the doors off this model. This is not a camera for professionals. How many non-pros need 10 megapixel resolution? If it's for a website, 5 MP is already overkill.

According to DPreview, This camera offers both Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro and Compact Flash Type I/II. Isn't Memory Stick chock full of DRM goodies? While CF is also available, isn't a DRM storage method bad? Help me out here, people!

A simple choice for you, OSTG/Slashdot

[AeroNate]

You may choose between advertising for Sony and counting on my bajillion-per-day lurker page views to make money yourselves. Another "story" like this and I'm history.

Anna Merikin?

[Anonymous Coward]

What kind of stupid foreign name is that?

SLR

[Reality Master 101]

I was just thinking about this. Is it me, or is an SLR mechanism in a digital camera totally and completely stupid? The point of the SLR was to be able to look through the lens and see exactly what the lens was seeing. With a digital viewfinder, who needs all that extra mechanical crap? The only conclusion I can come to is that the camera makers are adding the SLR to appeal to "traditional" photographers.

Are there cameras with the extra good sensors along with interchangeable lenses, but without the SLR that I actually think is a negative?

Re:No thanks.

[StikyPad]

This camera could give me free beer (as in FREE BEER! WOO!) and I still wouldn't buy it

If by "still wouldn't buy it," you mean "would buy one for sure," then I'm with you 100%.

Re:As an owner of the DSC-R1

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhh . . . So . . . . get a DSLR and get a large camera with the ability to interchange lenses, plus this nifty little thing called a 'viewfinder'. You can look at the picture as it will be. If you've got a good lense you'll even have a so called 'aperture preview' button (well, that's the idea), which will give you a better idea of what kind of depth of field you're going to get.

Or get a point and shoot with fixed lense, but plenty of preview ability. Plus all these other cool things (movies, anyone?). And it's small. And just about all new point and shoots are good enough quality (read: high megapixel count) to produce 4x6 and 8x10s without significant grain.

But Sony isn't content with those options. So they give you a camera the size of a DSLR with the features of a limited point-and-shoot. But what's so special about it? It has live preview on the lcd! Oh wait. DSLRS, unlike point-and-shoots, have good viewfinders.

Nikon D series is good, as is the Canon Digital Rebel. I think Olympus even has a pretty decent DSLR or two. Canon point and shoots are still tops.

But now Sony's going to take them all down with this now DSC-R1!