Losing my memory, so to speak

[JonasYip]

Well, I just discovered inadvertently that the R-D1 is happy to keep snapping away even if you've left your memory card in your card reader at home. My D1x prevents me from shooting, which really makes no difference except that I don't end up with pictures that I've "taken" and then lost...

Not a big deal... just one of those "d'oh!" moments.

And of course I had a spare compact flash card and a spare roll of film in my bag, neither of which was of any use.

j

 

[Sean Reid]

A friend of mine who hadn't used a rangefinder before also discovered early on that the camera will also take pictures with the lens cap on. The R-D1 doesn't have much in the way of devices to protect us from ourselves - much like a traditional film camera.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[JonasYip]

Unfortunately I can't even claim the "new to rangefinder" excuse since I've been shooting Leicas for years.

I guess my real mistake was not having extra cards in my bag. But that's only because I don't have a stack of SD cards (yet) like I do with CF. I remembered to bring a spare battery though (lotta good that did)!

j

 

[pete]

sounds like something i would do! when i read your post i got my camera out to see what happens with no card. you are right, it will fire with no card; however, the shots remaining needle shows "empty", and the red light on mine keeps blinking. also if you turn on the lcd, which i rarely do, it says no card.

i mention this because i have heard about some strange behaviors with others cameras...like lcd going off when tilting the camera...so you might check if yours behaves the same as mine.

regards...

 

[JonasYip]

Yeah, mine behaves the same way. It was the needle pointing to "E" that tipped me off. The flashing red I noticed too, but it was only after I went home and checked with a card inserted that I realized that it normally doesn't flash while it's writing. So the red light in the corner of my eye as I was shooting was just indication that it was writing to the card. But now I know!

And I don't look at the LCD much either, though I would have eventually.

BTW, the LCD-turning-off-while-tilting mystery was solved. He was pressing the shutter button while tilting, which does indeed turn off the LCD (i.e. the pressing, not the tilting)...

j

 

[Tom Conte]

BTW, the LCD-turning-off-while-tilting mystery was solved. He was pressing the shutter button while tilting, which does indeed turn off the LCD (i.e. the pressing, not the tilting)...

I was that guy. Sadly, no the shutter button wasn't the real reason for the LCD turniing off while tilting. My R-D1 was defective, as confirmed by Epson Service. I've since returned it to B&H and gotten a replacement. The replacement does not have the same issues.

FYI the new R-D1 has one persistent hot pixel. The prior had three. In my book, any is too many for a $3000 camera. But I will persevere with this current camera.

Tom