Ian Biggar
Member
The love affair is over!
My second breakdown (actually the camera brokedown) has ended my love affair with the RD-1. I never thought I'd see a Japanese product suffer from the the British Car Industry syndrome. I love the camera but can't live with the unreliability.
Shutter has crapped out again and I do not feel inclined to line Epson's pockets with another fixed price repair just to get another refurb'd camera that will probably fail sooner rather than later. In thirty years of photography this has turned out to be the most expensive camera I've ever used.
So probably will be a cheap - tho' broken - RD-1 coming on the market.
Still - roll on Photokina - maybe someone else will come out with a reasonably priced, reliable DRF.
Back to the M6 and X-Pans then.
My second breakdown (actually the camera brokedown) has ended my love affair with the RD-1. I never thought I'd see a Japanese product suffer from the the British Car Industry syndrome. I love the camera but can't live with the unreliability.
Shutter has crapped out again and I do not feel inclined to line Epson's pockets with another fixed price repair just to get another refurb'd camera that will probably fail sooner rather than later. In thirty years of photography this has turned out to be the most expensive camera I've ever used.
So probably will be a cheap - tho' broken - RD-1 coming on the market.
Still - roll on Photokina - maybe someone else will come out with a reasonably priced, reliable DRF.
Back to the M6 and X-Pans then.
kshapero
South Florida Man
Try Steve's Camera Repair if you want to keep it alive.
Ian Biggar
Member
Broken Heart
Broken Heart
Akiva -
Thanks - do you have a website for Steve's - unlikely I'll use it as I'm in the UK and I can't imagine it'll be cheap and I don't feel like throwing good money after bad - but, you never know.
Broken Heart
Akiva -
Thanks - do you have a website for Steve's - unlikely I'll use it as I'm in the UK and I can't imagine it'll be cheap and I don't feel like throwing good money after bad - but, you never know.
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kshapero
South Florida Man
JonasYip
Well-known
Definitely send it to Steve. I think the last person here reported $250 or so for shutter repair (don't quote me on that). More importantly, Steve knows what's *wrong* with the original shutter design, and when he fixes it it shouldn't fail that way again (he claims). Epson, as you know, just replaces it or replaces the body, so that merely resets the failure clock. Never send it Epson, I'd say. Anyway, you can search the archives for many Steve repair stories...
"British Car Industry" syndrome -- I described the RD1 that way elsewhere once... I think I was saying why I bought a second body, like owning an old British sports car and having a second one for when the first one is in the shop (or for parts).
j
"British Car Industry" syndrome -- I described the RD1 that way elsewhere once... I think I was saying why I bought a second body, like owning an old British sports car and having a second one for when the first one is in the shop (or for parts).
j
akptc
Shoot first, think later
I had my R-D1 shutter repaired profilactically by Steve and have never once had a problem with it. I'd highly recommend Steve's Camera.
tomasis
Well-known
Jaguar seems to be fun to drive anyway. So is Rd1 
I know Ford owns Jaguar. Prodrive owns Aston Martin. BMW owns Roll Royce. Leica ought buy Koyabashis company lol
I know Ford owns Jaguar. Prodrive owns Aston Martin. BMW owns Roll Royce. Leica ought buy Koyabashis company lol 
infrequent
Well-known
jag is Indian owned now. I think.
JonasYip
Well-known
tomasis
Well-known
oh it is true. now i remember it. It was close that chinese would bought volvo
Krosya
Konicaze
Doesn't Rd1 have same shutter as Bessas? If so - why dont we hear about Bessa's shutter breaking down so often? Or do they?
nanthor
Well-known
I wasn't aware there was a shutter failure problem. Is it just on the R-D1's or R-D1s's also, does anyone know the number of shutter activations these are happening near? Are there any suspected reasons such as heavy shooting, fast winding, etc.? And do we have an numbers, percentages of failed cameras available? Thanks, just like to quantify things like this, might want to consider a "profilactic" repair someday before Steve retires. Bob.
Ian Biggar
Member
Thanks People - have been in touch with Steve's so maybe won't give up yet.
Ian
Ian
ferider
Veteran
They do; if I remember right, the reason being the user trying to wind and the shutter being still open.
Roland.
jmkelly
rangefinder user
In my hazy memory I recall that there have been a number of threads here along the lines of "I'm giving up on my R-D1 - it's too unreliable". Sorry yours was a lemon. Mine is a gem (some slight RF misalignment notwithstading, same as my R3A). I use the R-D1 for probably 20x the frames of my dSLR or more, and probably 2x my digital p&s. No failures - yet. I've probably jinxed myself now.
Shot a wedding with it last month (75mm Summilux and 50/1.4 Nikkor) and just heard that when the bride and groom showed the presentation on their big screen TV to guests at their house warming party, folks had tears and wanted to know "where to hire the photographer". Hahahaha! NEVER!
Shot a wedding with it last month (75mm Summilux and 50/1.4 Nikkor) and just heard that when the bride and groom showed the presentation on their big screen TV to guests at their house warming party, folks had tears and wanted to know "where to hire the photographer". Hahahaha! NEVER!