Ken Davis
Member
have tried the Epson Digital Rangefinder camera today. I had originally thought this was a bit of a gimmick BUT having handled it I think that the camera has a great future.
1. It handles like a proper rangefinder, the controls are intuitive and the use of the winder and 'rewind' knob to drive the main functions is both clever and allows traditional camera users to move from digital to film easily.
2. The quality of build is high.
3. It's quiet to use.
4. Viewfinding - interesting - the sensor array size gives a 1.53 magnification so the inbuilt viewfinder for 28, 35 and 50 gives correspondingly smaller field size that are accurate representations of the captured image. The 35mm acts like a 50mm and you can use the camera as a 'street camera' very effectively.
Now then - other lenses - I attached a 15mm Voigtlander and used the Leica 21 viewfinder - result - pretty close and very usuable. If you attach a 21mm then use a multifinder on 28, not totally accurate but good enough, 24mm use the 35, same issue. For the 90mm I used the 135 viewfinder and it was pretty close. 135mm prime - a bit stuck I'm afraid.
5. Results - I have 3 shots (all the card would hold) and these are JPEGS not RAW (no software loaded on the desktop) - about 3.5 meg and look like 'kind' images that manipulate easily, plenty of colour. I haven't sent anything through as screen resolution isn't the best indicator but the sensor looks pretty good - I'd like to see a full test.
6. Price - £2000, an MP body - yes I think that's OK, issue is as usual with digital - will there be an R-D2 in 12 months time with a 10 megapixel image size. Let's see what the testing boys say about the quality for this should allow A3 prints from RAW files.
7. The M series lenses seem to work fine
8. Digital capture is available to us guys!
1. It handles like a proper rangefinder, the controls are intuitive and the use of the winder and 'rewind' knob to drive the main functions is both clever and allows traditional camera users to move from digital to film easily.
2. The quality of build is high.
3. It's quiet to use.
4. Viewfinding - interesting - the sensor array size gives a 1.53 magnification so the inbuilt viewfinder for 28, 35 and 50 gives correspondingly smaller field size that are accurate representations of the captured image. The 35mm acts like a 50mm and you can use the camera as a 'street camera' very effectively.
Now then - other lenses - I attached a 15mm Voigtlander and used the Leica 21 viewfinder - result - pretty close and very usuable. If you attach a 21mm then use a multifinder on 28, not totally accurate but good enough, 24mm use the 35, same issue. For the 90mm I used the 135 viewfinder and it was pretty close. 135mm prime - a bit stuck I'm afraid.
5. Results - I have 3 shots (all the card would hold) and these are JPEGS not RAW (no software loaded on the desktop) - about 3.5 meg and look like 'kind' images that manipulate easily, plenty of colour. I haven't sent anything through as screen resolution isn't the best indicator but the sensor looks pretty good - I'd like to see a full test.
6. Price - £2000, an MP body - yes I think that's OK, issue is as usual with digital - will there be an R-D2 in 12 months time with a 10 megapixel image size. Let's see what the testing boys say about the quality for this should allow A3 prints from RAW files.
7. The M series lenses seem to work fine
8. Digital capture is available to us guys!
