R-D1s viewfinder glass loosen!

[kross]

Hi folks, would like to check if any of u rd1s owners came across this problem. Mine is loose or "moving". It the piece of glass the your eyelashes may come into contact with.

If u have had similar problem b4, how did u fix it? DIY?
this piece of Epson equipment is starting to give me headaches. i'm slowly discovering its numerous quality issues. 1st paint starts peeling off at the on/off switch & card door, then focus patch misaligned vertically, then "moving" focus patch, then batt latch wouldn't lock the batt in place(had to close door to keep it in place!) and now the "moving" vf glass.

I would it used but in excellent condition when i got it a mth ago. Maybe I didn't check thorough enough... or maybe I should have went for the m8 instead. Oh well.... Anyway the consolation is that I like the image it produces....

Any help on fixing the vf glass would be most appreciated.

 

[LCT]

Did you try to screw it? What happens then?

 

[bennyng]

I think LCT might be right. Just turn and screw it into place. Mine get used prettly frequently, but I don't seem to get as many problems with it. Hopefully it stays that way.

Cheers,

 

[mani]

Hi folks, would like to check if any of u rd1s owners came across this problem. Mine is loose or "moving". It the piece of glass the your eyelashes may come into contact with.
If u have had similar problem b4, how did u fix it? DIY?
this piece of Epson equipment is starting to give me headaches. i'm slowly discovering its numerous quality issues. 1st paint starts peeling off at the on/off switch & card door, then focus patch misaligned vertically, then "moving" focus patch, then batt latch wouldn't lock the batt in place(had to close door to keep it in place!) and now the "moving" vf glass.
I would it used but in excellent condition when i got it a mth ago. Maybe I didn't check thorough enough... or maybe I should have went for the m8 instead. Oh well.... Anyway the consolation is that I like the image it produces....
Any help on fixing the vf glass would be most appreciated.

Hi Kross

Sorry to hear about your problems. I think you should find that simply screwing the holder tight will stop the glass shaking loose. As for the battery door - I think that part is designed intentionally to work that way, so that when you open the door the battery partially extends out for easy removal.

Paint coming off is something I haven't experienced at all so far after nine months - but I haven't had any problem whatsoever with the covering either, which I know some people have experienced.

As for wishing you'd gone for the M8 - I bought one a few weeks ago having considered it for two years, and I really really wanted to convince myself I wanted to keep it, because in terms of pure engineering beauty it is without doubt the nicest (manufactured) object I've ever held in my hands.

However, after a week of intensely testing side-by-side with the RD1s (and D90), and trying every trick that CaptureOne Pro had for improving the picture quality, I took it back to the dealer. For various reasons I feel that the Epson produces better images for my needs (I know others will disagree). When my partner gets over the shock of the outlay again, I'm gonna buy another RD1 (or maybe even two), to ensure that I have a working camera for as long as possible.

Good luck with your camera - don't forget that so long as the inside works, then the cosmetics are not so important.

 

[LCT]

...don't forget that so long as the inside works, then the cosmetics are not so important.

Fortunately! My 3 yo R-D1 looks yet more beaten than my 50 yo M3 🙄

 

[kross]

hi folks, thanks for the responses.... i've tried tightening the screws but it doesn't help. I unscrewed it and removed the cover to check, it seems there's quite some free-play for the glass to move back and forth. I suspect an O-ring or something could be missing. it's irritating when u move the camera around coz u can hear the ticking sound which is the glass hitting back and forth on the frame holder.

hi mani,

thanks... i'm curious as to what are the "various reasons" u chose the rd1s over the m8 in terms of image performance "for your own needs". i would like to hear that.... personally the rd1s' high iso performance and image produced (to my liking) won me over. if the m8 produces images that is far better than the rd1s, i would gladly pay for it. but i'm a practical shooter not so much as a brand slave(though the red dot is irresistible at times...haha). u can build a sexy cam but if the image it produces doesn't justify the cost, i wouldn't pay for it even if it's naked....

to me, the body cosmetics are secondary....coz for any digicam that i choose, i look at how its processor & sensor capture an image, whether it meets my taste or not(which is subjective). for instance, i own a fujifilm f30 compact camera, which cosmetically looks like the designers ought to be fired compared to other manufacturers'.... but imho it produces images that is unmatched in its class, even till now.

as for my problematic rd1s, it would have flown out of the window if not for the images that it is capable of producing... 😛

rgds,

 

[efkbl]

Hi kross,

about the loose eypiece: you can replace it, either with a Nikon FM2 or FE2 eyepiece replacement, or with a eyepiece for Zeiss Ikon ZM / Bessa R2 or R3 cameras.

Vertically misaligned focus patch is quite easy to fix, just follow the instructions on Rich Cutler's website:
http://www.richcutler.co.uk/r-d1/r-d1_16.htm
You just need a small screwdriver to fix it through the hotshoe.

Enjoy it, when everything is fixed, it is a joy to use!

 

[sirius]

Yes, you can buy replacement eyepieces from places that sell Ikons and Bessas. I bought some from Photovillage in NYC. They are small light and cheap. It shouldn't be an expensive mail-order item. Mine was $15 to buy as I remember. The soft plastic was wearing off mine from being in my bags.

The paint does chip off the camera. It doesn't bother me. I'm careful with the camera and it's just patina for me. It make me feel like I am using my tools and my tools are reflecting my use.

With the new firmware for the M8.2, the images I have seen from the camera are far superior to the RD-1, not to mention the larger files size. My RD-1 still suffers from magenta cast like the M8 which I find especially apparent when I work with images that are high ISO and need to be lightened. I still like the RD-1 and the way it draws images, but it really doesn't hold a candle to the M8, and for that matter the Canon 5D. The RD-1 is a beautiful machine, very fun to use, and a convenient digital alternative to my film M-cameras.

cheers

 

[mani]

With the new firmware for the M8.2, the images I have seen from the camera are far superior to the RD-1, not to mention the larger files size. My RD-1 still suffers from magenta cast like the M8 which I find especially apparent when I work with images that are high ISO and need to be lightened. I still like the RD-1 and the way it draws images, but it really doesn't hold a candle to the M8, and for that matter the Canon 5D.

Hi Sirius

Like I said above, the reason I returned the M8 was because I felt the way the RD1s drew the image was better to my eye than the M8. A great deal of this is personal preference naturally - and I'm afraid I totally dismiss talk in terms of "far superior" when identically shot situations are almost impossible to differentiate when developed.

Believe me when I say that I had sleepless nights wanting to justify keeping the M8 - I'd spent a long time convincing my partner that this was in fact a great camera when she'd heard me saying pretty much the opposite for two years - so it was not easy to look at the results and compare them not only with the RD1s but also with the D90 that I'd bought her at christmas, and clearly see that the M8 lacked both the character of the Epson, and the high-ISO performance of the Nikon (albeit with the excellent Nikkor 1,4 50mm).

The images in daylight were wonderfully sharp, and the files are indeed bigger and more defined than the Epson, but for those who buy into the fantasy that M8 owners claim that the files are film-like - well it maybe because of the higher pixel count, but the M8's files are as digital as a sharpened 5D, and nothing like the Portra-quality I get from the RD1s when developing in Epson's CameraRaw.

What's more, as soon as the light drops just a little, the M8 files become a strange mush of posterized patchiness. For an example (not mine!) of how the detail disappears take a look at this post. The photographer stressed that he wasn't comparing cameras with these images, but look at the way detail disappears in the M8 file at ISO320, compared to the Nikon file at 3200.

I was constantly trying to catch detail in my 12-week old daughter's features in the low light of Sweden at this time of year - but time and again her hair for instance would be a posterized grid (and I stress the word grid, because the pattern would be very digital), and her face would also posterize.

All of this I've seen a million times in other people's M8 photographs on the web - but the buying-bug is impossible to resist. Even after returning the M8 I was looking at this blog, and was so enchanted by the lovely images of a chrome M8 that I started thinking 'well maybe I should get one again...'

Did I also mention how unreliable auto-exposure was? Not totally off the mark, but rarely nailing an image. The D90 always does it, and the Epson pretty much always too. If the M8 had a Nikon sensor it would be a killer camera - an awful realization that the D90 at one-fifth of the price produces cleaner, more film-like (when all pre-processing is switched-off) files than the M8.

But never mind - those that are happy with the M8 should enjoy it. I'll probably buy one again foolishly in the future. A fool and his money are easily parted.

Regards, Mani

 

[sirius]

Certainly Mani, there's no way I could win an argument about quality because it is subjective and only a tool to be used for an expressive end. Some people like what the plastic holga does. From the printed enlargements I have seen from the M8 and the RD-1, I still think the M8 produces much better files and I don't care if it is film-like or not, it's a digital camera.

 

[mani]

Certainly Mani, there's no way I could win an argument about quality because it is subjective and only a tool to be used for an expressive end. Some people like what the plastic holga does. From the printed enlargements I have seen from the M8 and the RD-1, I still think the M8 produces much better files and I don't care if it is film-like or not, it's a digital camera.

Fair enough Sirius - I'm seriously not trying to spoil your enjoyment of your M8. It is indeed a digital camera, and the look of the files prove it.
If you're shooting in controlled or good light at low ISO the M8 produces files that are smoother, sharper and larger than the RD1(s), and so will definitely print better at larger sizes if you don't like to see grain.

However, if it's file quality you're after, then any of the Nikons will give you higher IQ now - take a look at the dog images that I linked above (nb: not my images) : even at lower ISOs the M8 begins to muddy detail in the shadows in a really ugly digital way. But then I guess it depends how much you need a rangefinder.

M8, RD1 or whatever - all great cameras really. I look forward to owning an M8 again sometime: next time I'll have more realistic expectations and thereby avoid disappointment.