Inspiration #1044 by Rob Jamieson

(From Steve: For many years now I have welcomed you, the reader, to submit some of your fave photos shot with your favorite camera to this site for publication under the name “Daily Inspiration”. While it was never really daily, sometimes once per week, sometimes every other day, it was meant for you to share your work to an audience. A while ago I stopped posting these as some complained about there being “too many”. Well, I loved those old inspiration posts, seeing your work and sharing it for all to see. It is now back, and now just called “Inspiration” as they are not daily ; ) 

I you would like to submit 3-5 of your favorite photos for this, and have them published here, just send them to me HERE via email with some text that tells us about the photos, what you shot them with and why you enjoy these shots. You can also add more text to share your passion and love for photography as well as any links back to a website, social media, etc. So send ’em in and they will be posted! If you want to send a full report on a camera, lens or essay on your work, see how to do that HERE. Thank you! Steve)

Inspiration #1044

by Rob Jamieson

A four-year love affair with the original RX1R

Hi Steve,

Thank you for your inspirational site, I wanted to let you know that when I first started checking out your site five years ago I was a diehard Canon shooter and because of your terrific reviews and articles I’ve migrated almost exclusively to Sony now and my Canon 6D is mostly gathering dust on a shelf in favor of a wonderful camera you turned me on to which is the original Sony RX1R. This camera has been with me almost every day since I picked it up four years ago and while I’ve been tempted to upgrade to the RX1R2 for the built in EVF and the faster AF I just can’t seem to let go of this little beast and it’s fantastic Zeiss lens. This camera has well documented problems that the mark II seems to have addressed but of all the cameras I’ve owned and upgraded over the years I just can’t bring myself to let this one go. I’m constantly amazed by the photographs I get out of it.

When I first started shooting with it I shot mostly in RAW and converted the files to black and white using Silver Efex Pro 2 but I took a suggestion from your review and tried shooting JPEGs in the

High Contrast Black and White preset and I found that what I was doing in post was almost identical to the camera’s in-camera profile so I’ve been shooting black and white JPEGs ever since. Mostly the files are incredible right our of camera. Does it have slow AF? Yes. Would it be better with an onboard EVF? Yes. Would a tilt screen be useful? Sure. Would I trade it for anything in the world given how much I love it? Absolutely not. Thank you, Steve for curing me of my Gear Acquisition Syndrome. The only thing I might be replacing anytime soon is the wrist strap I bought four years ago which is a bit frayed from overuse having been wrapped around my wrist pretty much 24/7/365 going on four years now! You can see more of my work with this little marvel on instagram over at https://www.instagram.com/jamrobert/ thanks again. Best, Rob.