Just curious-How many R-D1s does this list have?

Just curious-How many R-D1s does this list have?

  • Yes I do!

    Votes: 294 66.4%

  • I am thinking or going to but one!

    Votes: 149 33.6%
  • Total voters
    443
My Epson R-D1s arrived yesterday

My Epson R-D1s arrived yesterday

It is all that I expected and more! It has serial 101242 and seems to work flawless in all respects. See my blog for the very first picture I made! (with the color skopar 35mm 2.5 PII)
Back to making photo's now!
 
RD-1s

RD-1s

As a new RFF member this is my first post. I bought one of the first 10 RD-!s in the UK, the image quality is superb, full A3 images better than anything from any film except kodachrome or very slow film. I bought my first Leica a 111b in 1955 and have had M's and R's and digilux 1 & 2 . The rangefinder alignment is not 100% but it is sufficently accurate not to cause concern, in all other respects I like the RD-1s I'm using it with Voightlander lenses but have just bought a Tri Elmar on Ebay so will report back further when I receive it. My Diilux 2 has been back with Leica for six weeks for a warranty repair they have gone very quiet about when I may expect to see it back. Would be very careful before I bought the digital M they are not the company they were. Rob Clayton
 
I take pictures for UK fashion magazines and want to know if the RD-1s can compete with recent digital slrs. I love the idea of the Epson but am a bit worried about the low spec in comparison with Canon 5D etc etc. I already have lots of Leica M Lenses from before having to go digital. Any ideas. Also thinking about the Ricoh GR Digital, but people seem to be saying the quality is low. Any ideas?
 
Happy Snapper said:
I take pictures for UK fashion magazines and want to know if the RD-1s can compete with recent digital slrs. I love the idea of the Epson but am a bit worried about the low spec in comparison with Canon 5D etc etc. I already have lots of Leica M Lenses from before having to go digital. Any ideas. Also thinking about the Ricoh GR Digital, but people seem to be saying the quality is low. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Well, its only a 6mp sensor, aren't some mags funny about file sizes?

Probably not a valid comparison for a pro photog, but FWIW the camera/lens (Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4) takes better shots than my D70 (same sensor) with a mid-range lens.

Bear in mind the 1.5x crop, might make your existing M's less useful. And if you're using classic portrait focal lengths you may have difficulty focussing fast lenses due to the relative shortness of rangefinder baseline.

I completely love mine, suits what I enjoy doing most, and gives me back control in a way that a DSLR even in manual didn't...
 
Happy Snapper said:
I take pictures for UK fashion magazines and want to know if the RD-1s can compete with recent digital slrs. I love the idea of the Epson but am a bit worried about the low spec in comparison with Canon 5D etc etc
Click to expand...

I'm a big fan of the RD1 but lets not compare apples and oranges. The Canon 5D DSLR is in a different class of camera and very well suited for fashion photography. In fact for any studio work, I would choose a full frame DSLR over the RD1 or even the more capable M8.

Sorry my fellow RFers. I may love my rangefinders but horses for courses.

Rex
 
rvaubel said:
I'm a big fan of the RD1 but lets not compare apples and oranges. The Canon 5D DSLR is in a different class of camera and very well suited for fashion photography. In fact for any studio work, I would choose a full frame DSLR over the RD1 or even the more capable M8.
Click to expand...

Me too. Rangefinder photography is a small niche for some aficionados who appreciate compactness, bright viewfinders and manual working. Most are amateurs (like me), some are pro's (like Sean Reid or Ralph Gibson). But it's definitely not the mainstream thing anymore.

It's a fact SLR cameras have had a lot of advantages over rangefinder cameras since they came up in the late 50ies, long before autofocus and digital. AF and digital have put the balance even more on the SLR side. What most people appreciate on SLR is WYSIWYG - no parallax. And needless to explain what they appreciate on autofous and autoexposure.

Of course one might shoot everything with a rangefinder camera. But I agree to Rex, and though I personally don't use (D)SLRs anymore, for pro use I would do it in 95% of the cases. Studio? DSLR, or even digital medium format. Sports, news, animals, kids, anything moving quickly: DSLR with auto-everything.

Exceptions are street and travelling. And for weddings I'd use cameras with a cloth shutter only - or the Hexar AF in stealth mode. Ever heard a klacking mirror while she said "yes"? I have, at a wedding two years ago, and the people was quite upset about the noise and flashlights the pro photog's motordriven DSLR made during the ceremony, while I could shoot as much as I wanted with a M6/Summilux/ISO400 combo without being noticed.

Didier
 
🙂

received mine today, too.
battery loaded, upgraded to firmware rel. 2.0, and off i go.

only i need to get back to the manual workflow and the other-way-round leica lens again (coming from nikon recently).

but, it's just great.
sebastian
 
OK Tron, US $1800??? for an R-D1s body?????? or am I "ASS"uming from your post.

I travel, and go through Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and sometimes Tokyo.

So what's the best deal? Warrantee is not an issue, I could always return it on one of my "expeditions" or twist the arm of my Epson rep!

-= Cß=-

ref: Message #79 dated: 07-15-2006, 09:55
 
I too have just bought an RD-1s, together with a Zeiss 35mm f/2.0 lens. It's early days yet but the camera looks promising. I like the combination of mechanical lens and rangefinder but with digital capture. I shall use the Epson when I do not want to lug a lot of heavy SLR gear around.

My only real problem is that, being a spectacle wearer, I cannot see even the 35mm frame lines without moving my eye around the eye piece. Has anyone found a solution to this problem.

Tim
 
Tim,
I'm suprised you can't see the 35mm frame lines in one with glasses. I wear glasses and although the 28mm frame and exposure info is a bit of a struggle without scanning (but usable) I don't have any problems with the 35mm frame. Perhaps a different style of glasses that push closer to your eyes would help.

It is possible to get eyepiece correction lenses of varying strengths (the Nikon FM type fit) that screw into RD-1 eyepiece and allow you see all of the frame and provide vision correction. My own take on these though is that although excellent, if you really need to wear glasses all the time, then the hassel of of pushing them up out of the way for each shot is too slow/inconvienient in the log run.

Jim
 
rvaubel said:
I'm a big fan of the RD1 but lets not compare apples and oranges. The Canon 5D DSLR is in a different class of camera and very well suited for fashion photography. In fact for any studio work, I would choose a full frame DSLR over the RD1 or even the more capable M8.

Sorry my fellow RFers. I may love my rangefinders but horses for courses.

Rex
Click to expand...

I'm a fashion shooter in NYC and I bought the rd-1 to use for personal projects, small magazine work and model's portfolio work. I rented the 5D and didn't like the feel of it so I am sticking with medium format film for bigger mags and catalogs. I basically use the rd-1 for the stuff I shot 35mm film before.
 
My R-D1s arrived this morning, with CV 35/1.7 Ultron. Seems nicely built, and Robert White very kindly offered to ensure the RF was properly aligned before shipping it, and it certainly seems about right. Really looking forward to getting a chance to shoot with this, it looks to be a very cool camera for those of us who can't or won't afford an M8. And the analogue controls are exactly what I want in a camera.

Ian
 
newbie

newbie

Hi. Another happy Epson RD-1 owner to join the community.

Having exclusively used SLRs, I was slightly concerned about getting to grips with a Rangefinder (the focusing inparticular). Happy to say I read the instruction booklet in one hour, and was out on the street within two!

And three days later I'm absolutely over the moon - the colours are amazingly vivid, the pictures sharp and precise, and the tonality of the b&w shots beats all SLRs I've owned.

Looking forward to many happy years with my new RD-1!

All the best

Bill

muddyclay.com
 
I received my Epson R-D1 last week and I truley love this camera. I feel as though it was designed for me. Even though there are some quality control issues, the designers of this camera deserve high praise. I really love the"film" advance lever, it creates a nice flow. I do need another battery though as I could only shoot about 150 shots in High Quality.
 
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Mine will be here (Hopefully) Monday, I`ve picked up the CV 15 Heliar and the CV 35mm F2.5PC (end of line) and will sort the 28mm side of things in due course but would prefer a 24/25mm lens which is RF coupled .. I also won a Zorki Jupiter-8 on E-Bay for £1.25 !! so that should be interesting 🙂
 
Just an update - the R-D1 arrived and I love it ! the 35mm F2.5 CV also but the 15 was a dud, totally blurred out on the RH side wideopen and very noticable at F8 as much as a third of the way into the frame.. I tried another which was even across the image but the Vignetting was a lot darker on the left so I gave up, exchanged it for a 90mm F3.5 APO Lanthar (do these things really have Lanthanum optics in them?) ..
I`m forgetting the 15 altogether and likely going for a ZI 21 instead..
 
Cv 15

Cv 15

Adam-T,

The CV 15 is marvelous on an M2, and I'll keep it for when the M8 arrives, but I agree that it doesn't seem to fit the R-D1. Still, givent the comparable size and cost of other distortion-free 15s, how can you not own one? 🙂

Best,

Matt
 
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