This is the camera I almost bought in 2025 (but didn’t)

It’s only natural for us photographers to fantasize about upgrading to that new shiny piece of camera kit, with all the latest bells and whistles, that is inevitably way out of budget.

As somebody who loves street photography, I’ve been searching for what seems like forever to find the best compact camera for those impromptu moments. Whether I’m popping out to the shops, meeting friends in town or walking around when that magical photo opportunity strikes, I’d love to have something a bit more professional than my smartphone.

Given that I'm a previous owner of the Sony RX1R II, it is perhaps no surprise that I was extremely interested to hear what the long-awaited Sony RX1R III was all about.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so conflicted with a camera as the RX1R II when I owned one. It had some really good qualities: a high-quality full-frame sensor and beautiful Zeiss Sonnar T* 35mm f/2 lens, a tilting screen for shooting from the hip along with a pop-up viewfinder, all while being small enough to fit into a large coat pocket.

However, Sony's second iteration of the RX1R line was tarnished by some equally bad features, too.

This included a lack of weather sealing (not great for those wet days shooting in rainy cities) and the fact that sensor dust couldn't easily be cleaned, as the lens is fixed in place. Autofocus and continuous shooting speeds were pretty sluggish, and the battery life was pretty dreadful (rated for 220 shots per charge, but it would often fall short of this).

A decade after the RX1R II, it seemed like all hope was lost on the next generation of RX1R cameras – Sony had seemingly given up on them. So you can imagine my giddy excitement when, out of nowhere, Sony announced its RX1R III in July 2025.

The new full-frame compact camera burst onto the scene with a 61MP Exmor R BSI CMOS sensor, 693-point phase detection with Real-Time Tracking and Eye AF, and a larger Sony NP-FW50 battery with a high capacity and plastic shell (rather than metal) – which should offer better insulation and stop the cold zapping its precious juice quite so quickly.

So why didn’t I buy one? Well, once again, for every feature I love about the Sony RX1R III, there is another feature that in my humble opinion lets it down.

The screen on the Mark III is now fixed in place. And while I see the benefits of being able to make the camera smaller and better sealed, this feels like a compromise and a downgrade from the previous version, which had the tiltable screen that made it easier to shoot from the hip, or at high or low angles when getting creative with perspective.

I've never felt cooler when using a camera than when popping up the über-overengineered pop-up EVF on my Sony RX1R II – but this has now sadly been traded for a fixed finder. We also lost the bright zingy orange anodized metal around the lens, which overall makes it feel more safe, vanilla and less characterful.

Although the RX1R II had flaws, it tried to push the envelope and was a very exciting camera that inspired me to pick it up and get out shooting with it. The RX1R III, however, takes less risks and is to me a bit boring as a result.

It feels a little too close in spec to the Leica Q3, rather than doing something really out there and different that would give a photographer a reason to spend such a large wad of cash on Sony's camera (which, after all, doesn't have that coveted red dot on the front of it). And that wad of cash really was the kicker that put the brakes on me clicking "buy".

Hitting the shelves at $5,098 / £4,200 / AU$7,999 the Mark III is significantly more expensive than the RX1R II (which retailed for $3,299 / £2,600 / AU$5,499 at launch). While I fully understand there’s been a decade of inflation, and also US tariffs pushing prices up in recent times, the price is just a little too rich for my blood.

Like many others, I would have preferred Sony not to follow the antiquated trend of trying to go for the largest number of megapixels. A lower resolution and more affordable price would have made it more obtainable, so perhaps an updated RX1 rather than an RX1R was what I was looking for personally.

And in some ways I’m glad I did hold off buying one, as in the UK its £4,199 RRP came down to £3,699 rather swiftly.

So there you have it! Those are my reasons for not buying the Sony RX1R III, even though I really wanted to love it. I imagine I'll either wait for it to come down further in price and put up with its concessions, or stump up a little more cash and go for the Leica Q3, but that's just my thoughts.

What would you do, and which camera(s) got away from you last year?

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