R-D1 Realiability Discussion and Poll

[anglophone1]

I know that they are much more durable than many think...............
Whilst photographing a crowded night parade in Sicily last spring, I turned and walked into a just-above-knee-height concrete trafic bollard, result I went completely over it landing on my face and one hand which was holdiing an R D1 with 15mm.
The other hand had avivitar 2500 flash on a cord, and there was an R D1 over my right shoulder with a 21mm which also hit the deck.
Damage:
to 15mm bent lensshade where it hit the deck, and stiff focus
to vivitar 2500, a write off
to my face ; a neat circular cut around my left eye where 15mm hit [see avatar]
to both R D1s no problem
I am reported as saying, when questioned about the blood streaming down my face, as saying, F*ck my face, are the cameras OK?
Mrs. Evans is not impressed with this story!
Festive winter solstice to all [PC!]
Clive

 

[Ben Z]

to my face ; a neat circular cut around my left eye where 15mm hit

I am reported as saying, when questioned about the blood streaming down my face, as saying, F*ck my face, are the cameras OK?

Were you a right-eyed shooter then too?

 

[anglophone1]

Were you a right-eyed shooter then too?

Difficult IMHO to be a left eyed RF shooter........................kinda spolis the ergonomics.
Cive

 

[Sailor Ted]

Ted:

Physics is physics, and this kind of speculation is somewhat pointless. I understand your interest, but rather than worrying about whether you will experience some mishap, go out and use the camera, otherwise, if it is misaligned and currently not usable send it to DAG. And this is just the teacher in me, "reliability" is spelled without an "a"

Jeff I understand and I'm not worried. This post is more rhetorical and in response to over stated claims by some (IMO) that you could drop the camera, fire it out of a Canon (misspelled for humor) or what not with neigh ill effect. What I want to get a handle on is weather or not people believe their R-D1's to be overly fragile or as robust as one should expect. Personally the camera seems a bit "fussy" in the RF department compared to other RF’s I’ve owned, but brilliant overall. : )

 

[Sparrow]

Since, as a moving part, the RF has to take some of the impact,
wouldn't heavier RF parts cause less acceleration and therefore
be more stable ? Therefore the ideal "drop-camera" be as light overall
as possible, with as heavy RF parts as possible ?

Can we test this ? Add some lead to the RF mirror of an RD-1 and try ?
And here comes my favorite part: compare to an M8 ?

:angel:

Roland.

The acceleration is the same for both, one g, only the mass varies, the heaver the camera the more damage it will sustain

On impact the lighter the small parts in the RF are then the less they will deform both themselves and their mountings, the more plastic used there the better. The shorter the RF baseline will also reduce the effect of any deformation.

 

[Sparrow]

OT: not what I meant. They both get accelerated at 1 g and hit the ground with a certain kinetic (spell?) energy. That energy gets transformed into (1) deformation and heat and (2) acceleretion of moving parts. The lighter the moving parts are (RF) the more they are accelerated since the transmitted kinetic energy is constant.

No it’s the opposite I think, Newton’s first law? Long time since I did Physics

 

[Didier]

...go out and use the camera, otherwise, if it is misaligned and currently not usable send it to DAG.

Thats what I did. Then it came back from DAG, and 2 weeks later it was disaligned again, just by using it normally. And so on, and so on. Actually it's at Epson UK for replacement. Let's hope Ill be able to use the new one without the need to send it to DAG or anybody else... because, as you may guess, my main interest is... shooting shooting shooting!
Didier

 

[pfogle]

I didn't vote 'cos I can't bear to think of dropping the thing. I've dropped two Nikons into seawater, so I've been there too...

I should say that I've had an R-D1 for nearly two years, have adjusted the RF a touch about 3 times over that period. Seems pretty reliable to me

 

[iml]

Mine has been dropped a couple of times, on both occasions onto quite hard ground while cliff walking, and it gets carried with me everywhere. I've had no problems with it at all, it's still spot-on. But RF alignment going out of whack is a possible problem with any RF photography, whatever camera is used.

Ian