Review after 17k photos

I own this camera now for over 1.5 years. And it still rocks. This is my second review of this camera. In my initial review (A review after 3k photos Jan 2006) i talked about focusing errors. Well i am glad to that it was not the camera, but the user. Focusing in low light is a problem for every camera and doing a test drive with several amateur and semi-pro DSLRs showed me, that they have a lot of focusing issues too. I was just expecting too much. After overcoming this learning hunch my hit rate went straight up. After improving my raw workflow and color calibrating my display all white balance issues were resolved for me. It was me, my equipment, my software, but not the camera.

17k photos in 1.5 years? Yes, in the first 10 months it saw a lot of usage (12k photos), but it has never failed. The only thing which is no longer in mint condition is the rubber on the hand grip. It's a bit loose now. But that's it.

The performance and fidelity is fantastic. Fellow photographs are still stunned by my results, large prints look superb (largest chemical 30x45cm so far, largest ink-print 1x1.5m), and its image quality is still in the same league as most DSLRs. Only professional top of the line cameras offer a real and noticeable improvement. And coming to the area of this pro equipment i noticed that the individual framing and artistic skills of photographer have a much higher influence on the picture quality than your camera budget.

The lens quality still outshines most standard lenses delivered with amateur DSLRs. It just is more versatile, sharper, cheaper and has less aberration problems. I compared it with a Canon EOS 20D and its Canon 17-85mm lens. I was shocked to see so much more optical problem with this semi-pro lens than with lens in the Sony R1.

Honestly, i currently would only trade this camera for pro equipment (league Canon 1D), pro lenses, and an assistant to carry it all. Until i can afford this, or some real progress in the photographic quality of current portable amateur and semi-pro DSLRs is made, i will defend this camera with my life. It is that good.

Everyone who wants to get into photography and don't need 3-5 frames per second, will find in this camera an inexpensive tool to improve ones technical and artistic skills.

Most used equipment:
1. external flash unit
2. linear polarizer
3. tripod

(flash unit: HVL FX-32, long recycle rate, but flash x-syncs up to 1/2000 s! try that with any other flash unit!)