Sony Renews RX1R After 10 Years

2025.07.15

Sony Electronics made a surprise announcement today when they launched the third-generation of their fixed prime lens camera flagship series. The new Sony RX1R III comes in 10 years after its predecessor, the RX1R II. This is the longest time between successive models of a digital camera series!

The Sony RX1R III is a premium digital camera with a fast fixed prime lens. Its Zeiss Sonnar T* 35mm F/2 lens is identical to the one released 10 years ago on the RX1R II. The rest of the camera has been completely rebuilt, starting with the latest 61 Megapixels Full-Frame BSI-CMOS sensor, resulting in a 50% jump in resolution. This sensor is paired with a Bionz XR processor to optimize image quality and track moving subjects.

The same 61 MP sensor is used in the professional Sony Alpha A7R V mirrorless. The image-quality it captures is already known to be excellent with a very wide dynamic-range and low noise, given the resolution. It boasts a ISO 100-32000 sensitivity range which is expandable to cover ISO 50-102400. The sensor has a builtin 693-Point Phase-Detect AF system which is sensitive down to -4 EV and can track a variety of subjects in real-time. The new RX1R III boasts an unusual hybrid shutter that combines both a leaf and an electronic shutter to deliver a 1/8000-30s shutter-speed range with a flash-sync rate of 1/4000s! This is tremendous advantage when using a flash as it is usable with bright apertures. This fixed-lens digital camera can shoot continuous at 5 FPS for 120 JPEG or 20 RAW images. Longer buffering is possible using lossy-compression.

This fixed lens camera offers plenty of features expected from a premium compact. This includes standard full-manual controls, choice of five metering modes and custom white-balance. However, its feature-set fall short compared to mirrorless models. The most crucial features skipped by the RX1R III is image-stabilization. While it has dual control-dials as professional cameras require, this model is not weatherproof and only has a single SDXC memory-card slot. It can record 4K video at 30 FPS with 4-channel sound thanks to its Multi-Interface hot-shoe. It does not however have a stereo line out for headset monitoring though.

The ergonomics of the Sony RX1R III are based on the rangefinder design, just like its predecessor. Controls are updated yet only slightly. The new version is a little smaller and lighter despite bringing in plenty of upgrades. A 0.5" EVF with 2.4 megapixels, 100% coverage and 0.7X magnification plus an essential Eye-Start Sensor. Even though those specifications are identical to the RX1R II, the new unit is an OLED which should give it much more contrast and better color-accuracy. Battery-life has also increased to 270 shots-per-charge, a substantial jump of 30%.

Sony plans to have this camera ready later this month for $5100 USD or $6300 CAD. Those are definitively high prices for a unique and rather nice digital camera. Many of its closest competitors cost even more. Both Adorama and B&H Photo are ready to accept preorders. Given that the quality of the sensor and lens are already known, there are high-expectations for the Sony RX1R III!

• Digital Camera