Replacement from Epson

[atufte1@mac.com]

Hi

I just wonder what prosedure you guys had to go trought
to get a replacement R-D1 from Epson, so far i been
talking to 7 people by phone , and used hours explaning
what's wrong, and it seems that no one at Epson Europe
knows anything about service or the R-D1 for that matter...!!
I think i read somewhere in this forum that Epson was humble
about this and easily gave you a replacement, if the one you got
was a "lemon", with 50+ deadpixels it should be easy to do the
math, but not for Epson europe, and my camera is brand new,
or 40 days old to be exact...what going on....any tips...!!

Frustrated R-D1 user.....

Best Regards

Alexander Tufte :bang: :bang:

 

[atufte1@mac.com]

No one?

It should be at least 10 people having a replacement R-D1
from the thread: How many of you have had problems with your Epson R-D1?
Hope some of you are still out there...

Alex

 

[LCT]

If you've bought your R-D1 in Europe, you should get a one year warranty including a free replacement camera with your membership card (i received mine 2 months after the purchase...).
Did you try to contact Epson Europe at Amsterdam?
Best,
LCT

Epson Europe B.V.
Entrada 701, 1096 EJ Amsterdam
Postbus 94440, 1090 GK Amsterdam
Netherlands

 

[jlw]

In the US we would normally do this via the authorized retailer from whom we had bought the camera. Usually they make no fuss as long as you have your original receipt and all packaging. It is much easier for them to handle this than for you, because they have a normal channel with the distributor for returning defective merchandise.

If you bought from an unauthorized (gray-market) retailer then your first recourse still would be through the retailer.

If neither of these cases applies to you, then you are going to have a more difficult time because you are asking the manufacturer to go outside standard channels. Different Epson divisions may have different policies, as you are discovering, so Epson UK or Epson Japan might be very compliant about replacements while Epson Europe (apparently) is more stubborn.

I can't tell you what to do specifically in your case, but one procedure that often works, at least in the US, is to call the distributor's headquarters and ask to speak to the R-D 1 product manager; if you can reach this person, tell him/her simply that you bought an R-D 1 that is defective, and Epson Europe has not been able to put you in touch with the proper department to resolve this and what should you do? A product manager's job is to know everything about the marketing of that specific product, so while this person may be difficult to reach, at least s/he should know the right answers once you DO reach him or her...

 

[sgy1962]

How many folks have had problems with the R-D1 new out of the box? I've seen to have read more then a couple of posts. It is stuff like this which makes me hesistant to go this route, even though I'm considering.

 

[RML]

How many folks have had problems with the R-D1 new out of the box? I've seen to have read more then a couple of posts. It is stuff like this which makes me hesistant to go this route, even though I'm considering.

I, too, was hesitant BUT I'm also cheap. So I went looking around for the best price. I found it with Dr Yao in Hong Kong. For me it was the best price, though not the lowest price out there, because he inspected my specimen fully. And a good job he did. I don't have any of the defects or faults that seem to occur the most. I do have one little nag with the shutter button but I'm trying to work out what the deal is with that.

 

[SteveRD1]

Just got mine today and have 2 dead/stuck pixels at all ISO, even 200. Hapen to be ig fat red ones, so no, im not happy with that for a $3k camera. I could send it back to B&H for an exchange, but I may end up with one that is worse so Ill live with it and clone them out in PS. If it gets worse before my 7 day return is up I will return, but so far, I love it. No other problems that I have yet noticed but I have only used it for a few shots today.

 

[Jim Watts]

Hi

...and it seems that no one at Epson Europe
knows anything about service or the R-D1 for that matter...!!
QUOTE]


Alex,
In the U.K. dealers are returning them to Sangers the distributers but they are then passing them on to Epson Europe, not Epson U.K. You could try Greg Barfoot [greg.barfoot@orc.co.uk] who seems to be the person handling R-D1 issues at Epson Europe.

 

[atufte1@mac.com]

Hi again

Just got a call from Epson, i get a loan replacement camera, while my camera is going to the epson workshop service for a repair....hmmmm, do they really repair this faults, framlines that are off, and + 50 deadpixels...? I suspect they have stopped producing the R-D1 because they said maybe it would be hard to get me a new one...?

But am all happy if i get a the one i got fixed, that's after all my "baby" hehe...

Alex

 

[jlw]

How many folks have had problems with the R-D1 new out of the box? I've seen to have read more then a couple of posts. It is stuff like this which makes me hesistant to go this route, even though I'm considering.

As we've discussed before, mine had a few hot pixels that show up at high ISOs and are especially apparent in JPEG-compressed images.

But, it's no worse in that respect than my Nikon D100 or the various consumer digital cameras I've owned.

IMHO, people who say, "I expect a $3,000 camera to be perfect" aren't taking into account the cost factors in building a rangefinder camera vs. an SLR, or a digital camera vs. a film camera.

I am not criticizing those people for wanting to work with their distributor to get the best R-D 1 they can get; all I'm saying is that if you look along the price spectrum of high-end digital cameras, the R-D 1 is toward the middle, rather than the top (once you figure in the price premium for an RF rather than an SLR) and at that price point it's not realistic to expect the kind of rejection rate that would be required to assure every camera to be "perfect."

(If the manufacturer threw out every CCD that had one or two dead pixels, the yield would be so low that the camera would be impossibly expensive. For comparison, imagine how much a Leica M would cost if the manufacturer threw away every unit whose shutter speeds differed by more than +/- 1% from the marked values...)

 

[atufte1@mac.com]

Sorry, but your way ut on this one, of course you can expect better than this from a high end RF digital, you say this camera is in the middle pricerange, but that's compared to DSLR not DRF, and since this is the only DRF on the marked to day, and they were "only" going to produce 10.000 units, you should expect that they could make this units proper....after all this is a niche product, isn't it...?

Dont get me wrong i love this camera but with such a small production line you would think they could provide better quality control, im not saying they should throw away the units that are "off" just make sure they work properly before they reach the users/us...
After all it seems like its better quality control on cellphone cameras, than the R-D1....

It's very sad with such a good product to let so many units go to waste just to "spare" a nickel or two...?

Best Regards

Alexander Tufte

 

[Dr. Chippendale]

Epson Europe were very helpful in adjusting the rangefinder in my R-D1 that was off from the start. I got a replacement camera by courier. Interestingly, that replacement seemed to have a different firmware than my own R-D1, e.g. no need to set date/time after every battery change. The replacement was exchanged back to my own (same serial #) again by courier. The finder is spot on now.

 

[SteveRD1]

How do you know if the rangefinder is off? Im new to these, and am clueless. Thanks

 

[Dr. Chippendale]

Rangefinder check

Rangefinder check

How do you know if the rangefinder is off? Im new to these, and am clueless. Thanks

This is best explained as I did to Epson service on the following, cobbled together web page. Warning, it contains large image files!
http://homepage.mac.com/chammann/epson/R-D1_Messucherfehler.html
Sorry, I lack the time to do a full translation. Basically you put your camera on a tripod an focus carefully on a scale (I used a ruler) and see if the maximum sharpness lands were you focussed. For far objects, you use closely stacked objects.

 

[Jim Watts]

How do you know if the rangefinder is off? Im new to these, and am clueless. Thanks

Hi Steve,
First just check that at infinity (on a distant building etc.) that the image in the rangefinder spot co-insides both horizontally & vertically, which indicates the rangefinder should be correctly adjusted in the camera. Take a picture at full aperture and check that results are sharp on sensor. Then further check at other distances as Dr. Chppendale, but there are front/rear focus issues with certain lenses at closer distances reported here that are not due to rangefinder error as such.

There are plenty of posts in this forum about rangfinder accuracy, front focus problems, rangefinder testing and rangefinder adjustment for the R-D1. Try a search using some of those terms or just look back through the threads if you want further info.

Cheers
Jim