Shutter died last night....

[jmarcus]

Not really the first time I have had shutter problems with my R-D1s. I just have to write this here because you'll understand.

I was shooting Balkan Beat Box last night at the front of the stage when my shutter refused to fire. It is cocked, and I recharged the battery last night and tried again this morning with no luck.

Haven't started saving for my M9 yet, as I'm committed to having zero debt before I buy a camera that costs $7k.

 

[sebastel]

if you cannot resurrect it, you may get mine. since i stumbled across some M4-P, the R-D1 is collecting dust.

cheers,
sebastian

 

[back alley]

bummer...did you try another sd card as well? or even removing the one in it and re-inserting it.

 

[Ezzie]

It should even fire without an SD card inserted, as is the procedure for sensor cleaning.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

You probably have checked if shutter is really cocked. I've had it happen to my R-D1 twice recently where I moved the crank but found it had not actually cocked the shutter.

 

[bennyng]

It might not be the shutter. If you have a pair of compass, try to tighten the shutter release button's retaining ring. It's the inner ring (of the shutter speed dial) around the shutter release button. It might just solve this problem.

Cheers,

 

[jmarcus]

@bennyng Thank you, I do know about this issue. I have tried everything but no luck. Looks like it is going to Steve's in LA

 

[jmarcus]

Camera is now at Steve's. Sigh. Bought a Contax G1 to hold me over but wow the lenses got really expensive!

 

[jmarcus]

Camera is still at Steve's learning to shoot with a Bessa R, not the nicest handling camera. Just rented an M9 from BorrowLenses for three days next week to shoot a fundraiser.

 

[Eyal_bin]

Not really the first time I have had shutter problems with my R-D1s. I just have to write this here because you'll understand.

I was shooting Balkan Beat Box last night at the front of the stage when my shutter refused to fire. It is cocked, and I recharged the battery last night and tried again this morning with no luck.

Haven't started saving for my M9 yet, as I'm committed to having zero debt before I buy a camera that costs $7k.

If you don't want to fix the shutter, or buy a used R-D1, I would strongly recommend you to consider buying a canon 5D, or a film RF. The M9 is not worth it, all in all it's a nice camera but no way it lives up to it's price. And if you do insist on buying the Leica, wait until the M9.2 revision to come out, it will lower the M9 price.

 

[jmarcus]

I think a film camera is out of the question as the projected costs are about $2500.00 a year if I roll my own film and that doesn't include development. Although I will say I did this calculation about two years ago. Also the I would guess that the upcoming Leica M9P is basically going to be a M9.2. The price of the M9 does put a damper on things, but it doesn't look like the other Rangefinder manufacturers are going to build a digital in the next year. But thanks for the input

 

[jmarcus]

Hi,
Just a quick update. Got an email from Steve saying no luck and I should send it to Japan.

James

 

[ramosa]

Sorry to hear. I was reading thru your posts, wondering what would happen. Have you pondered a used M8? Not as good as the M9, but about $4500 cheaper.

 

[jmarcus]

Got another email from Steve and it seems that Epson has stopped repairs on the R-D1 since the earthquake. Does anyone know differently?

Thanks,
James

 

[back alley]

email japanexposures...dirk should know for sure.

 

[back alley]

Dirk Rösler | Japan Exposures <dirk@japanexposures.com>

 

[Kevin]

I read somewhere that Sony is planning to announce/introduce a pro-level NEX which could have an electronic viewfinder. Together with that new pixel peaking feature this cam might be an acceptable R-D1 replacement? It could be for me personally, I believe.

 

[Roger Hicks]

If you don't want to fix the shutter, or buy a used R-D1, I would strongly recommend you to consider buying a canon 5D, or a film RF. The M9 is not worth it, all in all it's a nice camera but no way it lives up to it's price. And if you do insist on buying the Leica, wait until the M9.2 revision to come out, it will lower the M9 price.

Hardly a defensible statement. What you mean is that for whatever reason, you aren't prepared to pay that much.

Film RFs entail film and processing, so even an M9 pays for itself quite quickly if you shoot much; there's an enormous time saving (quite often I need just one picture, or half a dozen, which means 'wasting' the rest of the film to get it, to say nothing of the pricessing time; and for me, the advice to buy a DSLR instead of an M-series makes about as much sense as recommending that I buy a Speed Graphic instead of an M-series. I just don't want to haul around a camera that big. Indeed, there are times I don't have the space to haul around something that big: for motorcycle touring, huge cameras are a bit of a drawback.

As for the advice to wait, I've always been on the opinion that it's better to buy and shoot than to spend the rest of your life waiting, and besides, now the M9-P is out, I don't see the price of M9s plummeting.

To the OP: commiserations. I never owned an RD-1, though I did try it, and it is a delightful little camera. But there comes a point when you have to ask yourself how much more use you are going to get out of it, even after it's repaired.

Cheers,

R.

 

[back alley]

...from japanexposures website...

We specialize in handling repairs for the Epson R-D1 series digital rangefinder cameras. The Epson repair fees are capped at under ¥10.000 (excl. parts) so it will be very inexpensive.

Sorry, service is currently not available. Thank you.

 

[jmarcus]

Got an M9 yesterday. The R-D1s is still on holiday at Steve's