R-D1 hands on?

T

Terao

Kiloran
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Is there anywhere I can get a hands-on preview of an R-D1 in the south of England? Or maybe hire one? Need to see if I get on with the viewfinder and rangefinder patch and see it with a suitably wide lens attached (either the 12 or the 15...)
 
Your best bet woulda been a few months ago when fgianni was at the RFF meet. Possibly the next meet might have someone with one. All I can say is they're nice, but I'm not sure they're for me :)
 
You may ask Robert White which is in Poole, Dorset. It's where I had my R-D1 from. I guess the R-D1 is out of stock, but they certainly have the R-D1s.
Didier
 
FWIW, I eventually got one from Calumet (not in stock now!) after returning two to Epson via Robert White.

In the Calumet showroom I was able to get my hands on 3 bodies, and only one had a straight(ish) viewfinder, so I took that one. It's not perfect, but then, this isn't a perfect world...
 
Thanks, will give Robert White a call. Normally I'd buy online but given the well-documented build issues I'd like a local bricks and mortar place to return the camera to if it goes wrong. Also need to see if I get on with the camera, we might not like each other :D
 
I was told a few months back that Jacobs in New Oxford Street had several tatty RD1 cameras on display...
 
Terao said:
Thanks, will give Robert White a call. Normally I'd buy online but given the well-documented build issues I'd like a local bricks and mortar place to return the camera to if it goes wrong. Also need to see if I get on with the camera, we might not like each other :D
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If you have the opprtunity: Check the R-D1 before you buy it. Make a infinity and a closeup test.

Take your favorite 50 lens with you, and then focus the rangefinder at infinity - choose a point at least several 100m away. The further the better. Check vertical and horizontal alignment.

Take a newspaper with you, put it on a desk or the ground, step back, use f2 at closest focus, focus the headline, shoot, then zoom into the picture on the LCD to check if the headline is sharp or not, and how far away the sharpness is. I have done this quick'n'dirty test at home, see this thread, and the result was rather not satisfying (meanwhile my R-D1 is on the way to DAG).

Didier
 
I got my RD1 at Calumet, San Francisco about 7 months ago. Because of all the hoopla about the rangefinder problem, I " interviewed " 3 different models (cameras not girls) over the course of 3 weeks. I tested then every way you could, including taking the best one out on a "date" one weekend. She was the homelist one of the lot, being the demo model, she had a little more "experience" than some of the other models straight out of the box. But her framelines were straight, and her rangefinder merged, so despite a few hot pixels, I took her home to mom. She has performed admirally over the last 7 months, keeping her alignment thru thick or thin.

Until I dropped her on her rewind, knocking her alignment completely out of kilter. I need to send her to the vet (the DAG hospital) but keep putting it off as I learn all about zone focussing.
 
Didier said:
If you have the opprtunity: Check the R-D1 before you buy it. Make a infinity and a closeup test.

Take your favorite 50 lens with you, and then focus the rangefinder at infinity - choose a point at least several 100m away. The further the better. Check vertical and horizontal alignment.

Take a newspaper with you, put it on a desk or the ground, step back, use f2 at closest focus, focus the headline, shoot, then zoom into the picture on the LCD to check if the headline is sharp or not, and how far away the sharpness is. I have done this quick'n'dirty test at home, see this thread, and the result was rather not satisfying (meanwhile my R-D1 is on the way to DAG).

Didier
Click to expand...

Cheers Didier,

Your thread about the focus issues was exactly why I wanted to get a hands-on :)
 
rvaubel said:
... but keep putting it off as I learn all about zone focussing.
Click to expand...

Nothing against zone focusing (I practise it with the 15mm Heliar very often) but doing it at close distances, with open aperture and focal lenghths from 28-50 seems rather cumbersome to me.

But it could be a suggestion for Cosina to reproduce the Bessa L with a a sensor. The Bessa DL. The best digital backcap for your superwide lenses...

Didier
 
Didier said:
Nothing against zone focusing (I practise it with the 15mm Heliar very often) but doing it at close distances, with open aperture and focal lenghths from 28-50 seems rather cumbersome to me.

Didier
Click to expand...

Didier

I quess I should of said "learning about the limitations of zone focusing". I have been holding off sending my camera in for repair as my DSLR just doesn't do it for me anymore. I was pleasently surprised how often I can get away with zone focusing alone. But your right, I like to shoot wide open and in low light and zone focusing doesn't cut it.

Rex
 
Well, I got my hands-on...

I bought one off eBay :)

*excited*

Just need to wait for my first lens (Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4) to arrive from Robert White tomorrow...

I doubt I'll sleep tonight :D

Even managed to sell my D70 and other Nikon gear already, just have the 70-180 Micro-Nikkor left...
 
Well, the first impressions are beyond my expectations.

I was concerned at my ability to use a rangefinder to get accurate focus, and also my ability to get on with a mostly manual camera after years of "P&S" with Nikon (D)SLRs.

These concerns were unfounded, the Epson felt natural in my hands and intuitive to use. Out of about 50 shots I guess I had a couple with poor focus, three lens cap shots, and just a couple more where the frame lines had caught me out.

Perhaps the greatest tribute to the design though is that my father (a rangefinder veteran from the '50s who probably hadn't used one since the early '80s) picked it up straight away and took a shot. If I hadn't told him I don't think he would have realised it was a digital camera. He's a complete luddite when it comes to technology and would never go near my SLRs through fear.

For me, the camera was a joy to use. I felt more in tune with it than I did with my SLRs, it felt part of me. I took different shots to those I did with my SLR, saw things in a different way. And the large viewfinder is like going from academy ratio to Cinemascope!

The joy extended to the 40mm f/1,4 Nokton - a very different lens to even the best Nikon AF primes (e.g. 24mm f/2.8). Lovely to have a precise focus ring to manually focus with. Lovely also to have click stops. And the simple addition of a distance scale really helped as well - a lot of hyperfocal focussing practice went on.

In my real life I'm a computer person, so I hate spending too much time in front of one during my leisure time. I've used a lot of RAW processing engines (e.g. Capture, Capture NX, Aperture) but I really liked the simplicity of PhotoRaw. Logical to pick a file from the left, apply some adjustments, and place it on the right for processing.And it ran reasonably fast on my laptop.

So, overall, I'm in love. For a long time I had been bored with photography, unhappy to lug all my bulky SLR gear around to take the same tired shots.

There are a few shots in my gallery, really just messing around with the camera rather than concentrating - hence the car and flower shots!

http://photos.kiloran.com/c1057208_1.html
 
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