Some time ago I published a short post on my beloved Epson RD-1x. My idea was to start documenting every camera I own with some nice pictures, accompanied by a short write-up about them. I’m calling this the “My Collection” series now.
This time I want to talk about my Sony RX1Rii — a camera I will keep forever. Care to know why, just stay with me and read below.
To start with, this camera is a true performer: a top of the line full-frame 42MP sensor married to a Zeiss 35mm f/2 lens. All in a small and light package that sports a tiltable back screen and an EVF that pops-out of the body ingeniously. Spec-wise, the RX1Rii ticks all the boxes.
It’s not the most elegant camera. Typical Sony, the design is functional oriented and lacks the finesse of Leica or Fuji. It looks business though, with its proportionally large lens attached to a smallish body.
Image quality kicks ass big time – rightfully so even as of 2023, 7 years after its launch in 2016.
Sony doesn’t waste time with design statement BS and let the results talk instead. And they talk loud indeed. This camera punches above its weight — literally speaking — and makes other bulkier full-frame cameras look stupid. I published a detailed review here, in case you are interested. Photos coming out of this camera are truly impressive.
Yet, irrespective of all the praise above. The reason the RX1Rii will stay with me forever is because it was the camera I brought with me in our last family trip to Italy with my late father.
Travelling
Over the years, I travelled to many places with my parents and my brother. Life is a continuous learning process and, while many things can be taught at home or academically, nothing beats the eye-opening experience of a trip abroad, the interaction with a new country and people with a cultural background different from ours.
We travelled a lot and I had this privilege since early childhood.
The four of us, we’d been in Italy in the early 80’s, then again in the late 90’s. Twenty plus years later, in the summer of 2018, my father decided we should spend some time in Italy once again, though now we were a bigger crowd — both my brother and myself had expanded our family to the next generation.
I bought the RX1Rii specifically for this trip. I took hundreds of pictures with this camera. As expected, it was a solid performer. I still recall the many photos I took inside dimly lit churches. This camera would handle everything with ease. It felt effortless and I could just focus on finding interesting angles to shoot from — the camera would take care of the rest.
When I look back at the photos from this trip now, it’s like I can remember every single moment each photo was captured. Who was near me, what we were talking about at that exact moment.
We stayed in Rome, Anzio and Florence. It was excellent time spent together, especially for my father who loved having his grandchildren all together — we are normally separated by the distance between Asia and Europe.
It was a memorable trip and little did we know that it was to be our last trip together. The fact it all happened in Italy actually holds some kind of meaning for us, because our ancestor came from Palermo in the 1800’s. That’s how he started the branch of our family in China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Everything related to this trip holds a special meaning to me. The souvenirs, the hand-made silk ties I bought in Florence, the toys my kids brought back with them. This RX1Rii was my chosen camera to capture these good memoirs, it’s part of the trip and thus will stay with me forever.