M4 - R-D1 hybrid DIY Project

C

cleo7613

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Dear fellow illuminati,
I've been considering the pros & cons of combining the best bits from an R-d1 and Leica M for a while now - eg banishing rangefinder woes..
having followed Huw Finney's homemade M2aD project for some time - no news in a while - I think it may be time to sharpen the chisels and undertake a project myself: savage an R-d1 and shoehorn its guts into an M4... or thereabouts.
Feedback welcome.
I'll be needing an affordable R-D1 for the transplant surgery, HLA permitting: under GA of course; please bombard me with your offers, suggestions...
warm regards
Carl
 
Whoa...

This would be interesting to see and take extreme technical care I would think. If you do it.. you're a brave brave man Carl!! 🙂

Dave
 
Wouldn't it be more cost effective (and less horrendous) to mutilate a common, not-too- expensive DSLR and try attaching its parts to an equally cheap FED 5B? 😀 DLSR models from the previous season or two can be had cheap, since most gearheads tend to discard their old toys once the new ones come out. And you wouldn't really think hard, or even twice to put a FED 5 under a saw. 😀 😛 Plus the FED-5 (and a host of other similar FSU RFs) have a removable back which makes retrofits easier; and lots of space under the bonnet and other places where the electronics can nestle.

Jay
 
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I'm sure this will be a feasible project in a few years. There's no doubt that the R-D1 is a great camera, but a bit shoddy at the edges too. (I'd liken it to voigtlander glass--takes a nice picture, but clunky and rough to the touch). Once the market for DRF's is more established, the old R-D1s will start getting parted out.

No doubt that the RF in the Epson is the first thing that needs replacing.

(In case you can't tell, I love my R-D1, but I've handled too many Leica's, so I'm spoiled.)
 
Some dude on photo.net - "Huw" or something attempted to make a digital M2.. he had some pics of the M2 he broke up and the sensor hooked up to a circuit board but that was about as far as he got. You might learn something from his attempt. Search thru the archives...
 
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