The R-D1 as a talking point

[Topdog1]

Your right but for some reason I find it easier to get street pictures with a rangefinder. After all it is a lot smaller. But at an event, people really like to look at it, especially pros and semi-pros.

Rex

Well, I'm new to the rangefinder world, shooting mostly cityscapes and landscapes for now. We shall see what happens when I hit the city streets.

/Ira

 

[ORBITALBOX]

My Top 5 typical responses (from friends and family) after seeing my R-D1:

#5- "ANOTHER ONE???? How many cameras do you have?"
#4- (Holding it and looking throught the vf)- "Hey, how do you zoom?"
#3- (Responding to my CV lenses)- "Voi-voi... VOID-LAND-DER??"
#2- "You bought a FILM camera?"

And my #1 response, drum roll please-
: "They (Epson) make cameras"?
: "Uh... Yes".
: "They don't make printer anymore"?
: "Nope, not anymore. Epson got bought out by HP around last Christmas. And they stopped tech support and printer supplies as of this year"...

 

[mwooten]

Thanks Michael - no it was my cousin (the best man). The full gallery is up on Flickr now (see my sig for a link). He's only just bought a Samsung (Pentax) DSLR, never touched a manual camera in his life before!

Terao,
I just saw the photos on Flickr, and they are great! I could almost hear folks talking with an accent You captured the wedding and reception very well. I know that Jade and Stuart will be very pleased, I know I would. In fact I may just mail you a plane ticket if I ever get married.

Take care,
Michael

 

[Terao]

Thanks Michael

I wouldn't do pro wedding photography for a million dollars - far too stressful! Its fun being a family member because you get natural reactions - I've known Stuart literally all his life, and his branch of the family are basically like second mothers/fathers/brothers/sisters to me - grew up in the same street. Was actually a bit of pressure on this one as I'd saved his sister's wedding photography a couple of years ago, they really hated the pro shots they got (extremely tricky conditions - massive contrast, low autumn sun, on a boat so tons of polarised light bouncing around). Mine turned out OK but needed a lot of post-processing...

Oh and if you heard me talk I hope you're not imaging Hugh Grant We're West Country types - lots of long vowels and rolled "R's"

 

[pfogle]

Great shots, Terao - and a bit of nostalgia: my brother's one of the captains on the Lymington-Yarmouth ferry

 

[MadMan2k]

I have to wonder at people who say Leicas/old rangefinders are inconspicuous. Maybe in the past era of film cameras but now with digital cameras being the norm, they stick out like a sore thumb.
/Ira

RF's are inconspicuous where no one else is shooting. Someone taking a picture with an SLR and a big zoom lens draws a lot more attention when they're the only person around taking pictures, than someone with what looks like some old camera they bought at a flea market and are playing around with. People tend to duck, change their path, cover their face, etc when you put an SLR up to your face, as if it was a shotgun that could go off at any second.

 

[RML]

RF's are inconspicuous where no one else is shooting. Someone taking a picture with an SLR and a big zoom lens draws a lot more attention when they're the only person around taking pictures, than someone with what looks like some old camera they bought at a flea market and are playing around with. People tend to duck, change their path, cover their face, etc when you put an SLR up to your face, as if it was a shotgun that could go off at any second.

I shot at a year' end meeting last week. I mostly shot with my Eos 300D because of the auto focus and the nice 18-55 zoom lens. But when my card was full I switched to my R-D1. All of a sudden people no longer seemed to notice my shooting, even though I had been there for several hours already, together with a more pro level photographer. The last half hour was fun shooting with the R-D1 as the candids were much easier to get, people reacted in entirely different ways to the R-D1, and I could shoot at much longer shutter times (so as not to resort to flash, which I don't use on it anyway).

The R-D1 has a much lower profile than a dSLR, even when people are more used to dSLRs and photogs walking and shooting around.