Epson RD-1

swilner

Does anyone here own an RD-1? Has anyone used one? Though I have been shooting with my D70 and love it, I miss shooting with the rangefinder and those great leitz lenses. I am thinking about buying the RD-1, but wanted to get some user input before taking the leap.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Steve

FramesMedia

swilner wrote:

Does anyone here own an RD-1? Has anyone used one? Though I have been shooting with my D70 and love it, I miss shooting with the rangefinder and those great leitz lenses. I am thinking about buying the RD-1, but wanted to get some user input before taking the leap.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Steve

You might want to check out the RFF.

pathfinder

swilner wrote:

Does anyone here own an RD-1? Has anyone used one? Though I have been shooting with my D70 and love it, I miss shooting with the rangefinder and those great leitz lenses. I am thinking about buying the RD-1, but wanted to get some user input before taking the leap.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Steve

There is an excellent article about the RD-1 here http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/epson-rd1.shtml

The review is pretty favorable, but the camera does not have a histogram display which is a significant omission for many of us.
And the RD-1 is not inexpensive either.
I have wondered why Canon didn't introduce a nice RangeFinder based on the innards of the 20D 0 it shhots nice B&W as well as color.

wxwax

I'm curious about the appeal of rangefinders. Anyone help me understand?

pathfinder

wxwax wrote:

I'm curious about the appeal of rangefinders. Anyone help me understand?

Small, light, very quiet, inconspicuous, focuses manually very fast ( but not AF fast ), great for close in street shooting. The realm of the Leica M.

Henri Cartier-Bresson territory. Fits in a coat pocket.

The exact opposite of the 1Series DSLRs. The RD-1 may be Andy's next camera, ya think??

wxwax

pathfinder wrote:

Small, light, very quiet, inconspicuous, focuses manually very fast ( but not AF fast ), great for close in street shooting. The realm of the Leica M.

Henri Cartier-Bresson territory. Fits in a coat pocket.

The exact opposite of the 1Series DSLRs. The RD-1 may be Andy's next camera, ya think??

Maybe so.

Reading that LL review, I noticed no specific category for image quality. I can't say the posted images looked that good, IMHO. Perhaps it's a visual style that I'm not attuned to.

3-grand sure sounds like a lot for the camera.

Think I'd be safe in saying that nostalgia is a prime mover in sales?

FramesMedia

I will defenitely get a digital rangefinder when the digital technology matures.

For me, its primarily the size. Light weight body plus the Leica optics. What more should one need?

rutt

pathfinder wrote:

Small, light, very quiet, inconspicuous, focuses manually very fast ( but not AF fast ), great for close in street shooting. The realm of the Leica M.

Henri Cartier-Bresson territory. Fits in a coat pocket.

The exact opposite of the 1Series DSLRs. The RD-1 may be Andy's next camera, ya think??

I think that what the 1Series cameras need in order to be great enter CartierBresson territory is a waist level viewer. That would make them like Roliflexes or Hasselblads which were more sneaky because they weren't at eye level.

wxwax

Nah, we just need greatcoats with large pockets to come back in style so we can manipulate with our fingers in the dark then whip it out at the last second. The camera, I mean.

pathfinder

wxwax wrote:

Maybe so.

Reading that LL review, I noticed no specific category for image quality. I can't say the posted images looked that good, IMHO. Perhaps it's a visual style that I'm not attuned to.

3-grand sure sounds like a lot for the camera.

Think I'd be safe in saying that nostalgia is a prime mover in sales?

Yes, I think that nostalgia does play a role. But also it allows one to use any Leica mount style lenses they may own. And the view through a range finder will be brighter than through a pentaprism and will be life size. And have a nice split image range finder too.

They are only really good for maybe 24 - 90 or 100mm lenses. They are not any good for long glass since you do not see through the lens. Thats why they are the tool of the street shooter or the photojournalist rather than the nature or landscape shooter.

The chip is an APS chip so I assume they should be similar in quality to the 10D or the 20D.

pathfinder

rutt wrote:

I think that what the 1Series cameras need in order to be great enter CartierBresson territory is a waist level viewer. That would make them like Roliflexes or Hasselblads which were more sneaky because they weren't at eye level.

The old Canon Pro level SLRs - the F-1 did have a removable pentaprism which could be used as a waist level finder. I agree that the waist level finder is a very useful tool on the street.

swilner

I think the attraction to these cameras is more than nostalgia though that certainly plays a part. Never understood the allure of rangefinders until I started playing with an M6 about 5 years ago. For four years, until I got my D70, that was all I used (a succession of M6 ttls and an m7). It is, as others have said, small, light weight, quiet and, most importantly, with Leica glass is unparalelled in image quality. Though I love the D70, I still miss shooting with the M7 so much so that I took it out to shoot last weekend. I live in Tokyo and the cherry blossoms are scheduled to arrive on the 27th and I think I will bring both the D70 and the M7 and see which captures the moment the best.


Someone mentioned image quality of the R-D1 earlier in this thread. To me that is the thing which has me most concerned. Build quality, feel and ergo of the camera (at least in the store) feel great. Just concerned that even mounting my leica glass will result in disappointing photos when compared to film in the Leica's.