Hello everyone

[Eyal_bin]

Hi all,

My name is Eyal. I am from Israel and I'm new here. I want to buy an Epson RD-1 camera but first I have some questions that would like to ask, I know they sound somewhat stuiped but I am new to this rangefinder world (I come from the oh so boring DSLR...), anyway, here are my questions:

1. Will a 20mm lense is the same in SLR and rangefinder, or does it give a "wider" prespective on the rangefinder (generally speaking, not including the digital crop factor)?

2. Do I need any special adaptor in order to mount a Zeiss or leica lense on the Epson RD-1, and if I do, does it effect the quality?

3. As I understand, there is no AF in rangefinders, if so, can I use the camera for street photography (shooting from the hip, and using a wide angle lense), I know for a fact that several well known street photographers use rangefinders, I dont understand how they do this without the AF?

Thanks in advance 🙂
Eyal

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

A corollary to 2), wide lenses vignette differently on the R-D1 than you might expect them to, due to the angle of light hitting the photosites on the sensor. Luckily, this is pretty easy to correct in software when it bothers you.

and 3), the way you do it is, you preset focus distance for 5 or 6 feet (or whatever), then wait until people get in range, and snap! With the ISO set at 400 or 800, and decent light (especially if you're using a 28 or wider, which is perfectly feasable on the R-D1 because of the crop factor), you have a nice wide area in focus and will have trouble getting your shot.

 

[Eyal_bin]

Thank you guys, you really helped and insured me. Now all that is left is to go out and buy one 🙂