Hmm...hello alltogehter, to introduce myself, my name is Andreas Pichler, I am from Dusselodrf, Germany, thats my first post in this forum, why not start with the ID of my camera?
I bought my R-D1 some days ago from a very gentle guy in England via a well known online garage sale something, serial number is 1600.
Camera seems to be seldom used but carefully maintained, like new, have had around 1.900 exposures when I got it.
I started to try it out with a CV 21 and a JUpiter-12. The latter one is made in 1988, not hte best year for Jupiters, but turns out as white sheep under all the black ones.
I am starting photography as a hobby in the late 70ies with a Konica Autoreflex TC ( similar body to the Epson R-D1, so a little bit back to the roots), then moved to Nikon E, then paused, the restarted in 1998 with an Epson (sic!) Photo PC 500 (640 x 480, 2 MB internal flash memory, 600 EURO when new). Great fun - really, in these times!
Then I made my way through different Kodaks, Ricohs and so on. CANON IXUS in 2001 was a real highlight (800 EURO, but a real camera, unfortunally has been stolen in 2007 - who steals antique digital cameras?). Nikon Coolpix 5000 was really cool, with a good system in the background. But when the 5400 appears a year later, forget everything about a system.
Thanks god eBay has been invented, so you can get rid off lots of the equipment quite easy - and being attracted to something new. CONTAX rangefinder cameras from the 30ies, KIEV lenses and bodies...whow, a real new universe. But not digital. Then the LEICA Digilux I. What a mess...but the Digilux II is a fine camera. Looks like a rangefinder, can be treated as a real camera, lots of fun to play with, perfect picture quality...but at the end: I dont like EVF.
But how to solve the problem? Spending all the money to a LEICA M8? Will I go out with a 3,000 bucks steal-me-tag around my neck? I remembered how luckiy I felt when I detected the first scratch on my Digilux II - finally, the camera was ready to be used 🙂
So I decided to go the Epson route. I have read lot in this forum before, tried to learn and to compare everything, all he work of you fellow EPSON enthusiasts was so helpful. And finally I have taken my heart and made the highest bid on EPSON R-D1 No. 1600.
It was a good deal. I like the pictures more than these from the Digilux II, and like much more the rangefinder feeling.
Equipment right now is the CV 4/21 and the Jupiter 12 2,8/35.
So everything is a real pleasure, right now.
Maybe something more later.
Cheers,
Andreas