Sony's New RX1R II Is A 42.4MP Full Frame Camera With World’S First Optical Variable Low-Pass Filter

Sony just keeps on disturbing the camera market. today they announced their new RX1R II camera (pre order link). It is a small, palm-sized, camera packing a full frame sensor capturing 42.4-megapixel and the world’s first optical variable low-pass filter which can be turned on or off from the camera menu.

The RX1R II boasts a 42.4-megapixel back-illuminated 35 mm full-frame Exmor R® CMOS sensor complimented by an advanced BIONZ X™ image processing engine. This duo delivers data rates 3.5 times faster than the RX1R, which allows for 14-bit uncompressed raw format output.

As far as other specs, ISO ranges from 100 to 25600 (Expandable to 50-102400), has the same autofocus system as the A7RII with 399-point phase-detect Fast Hybrid AF system, and it shoots Full HD 1080p60 Video in XAVC S format. Though I doubt it will be a camera used mostly for video.

This is a fixed lens camera so you can’t change lenses, but it comes with a pretty nice glass: a Carl Zeiss Sonnar 35mm f/2 lens, which along with the fast focusing, small form factor and low light performance makes it optimal for street photography.

Maybe the most interesting feature of the camera is its world’s-first variable optical low-pass filter which allows to decide between two settings: an image with increased sharpness (low pass off) but more prone to suffer from Moire, or reduced sharpness but eliminate moire and aliasing. If you are undecided there is a medium setting as well. The good news: you can bracket the low-pass filter to get the optimized shot per condition.

This video does a pretty good job of explaining the feature

As far as display goes, the RX1R II features both an advanced pop-up 0.39″ 2.36M-dot XGA OLED Tru-Finder EVF with 0.74X magnification and some fancy glass from Zeiss and a 3.0″ 1,228.8k-dot LCD monitor that can tilt upwards 109° and down 41° for working in a variety of positions and angles.

Here are some samples courtesy of Sony’s gallery:

All this goodness will set you back $3,299 and should start shipping in Nov 5

[RX1R II , $3,299| Sony]

TByte

Three grand for a fixed 35mm camera?
Micha

Too much.
Around 1500 more realistic.
Especially for a fixed non additional zoom:(:(:(:(
!
Van

@Micha and @TByte:disqus , you should rent it when it comes out. Then you’ll understand why its $3200.00 or not as to each their own. The last gen was $2800, then you had pay $400 for the evf so essentially its the same price, but you get the better backlit sensor this time around with wider coverage of autofocus.

Plus the 35mm F2.0 paired with the last RX1R is one of the best I’ve experienced. When i had an urge to go with the A7ii and combo it with native Sony FE mounts (35mm F1.4 and 90mm macro) as well as contax g legacy zeiss lenses, the experience just wasn’t the same. I regret selling my RX1R and switching to the A7ii.