[Leica] Epson RD-1

[attinasi at mac.com (Marc Attinasi)]

Terry,

Thanks a LOT for posting the pictures and writing about your 
experiences using the camera - invaluable information. I noticed 
looking at the 'original' sized images that the resolution is fairly 
poor - there are some jaggies in straight lines and micro-contrast 
areas like trees etc. are fairly fuzzy. Is this due to size reduction / 
JPG artifacts, or are the images off the camera similar? I am guessing 
that the images are reduced in size because even setting my prefs to 
'Original' size makes a small image on my screen...

Again, great stuff. I sure am tempted to try that camera out, though 
like you I find the price to be a problem.

Cheers!
- marc

On Oct 12, 2004, at 5:28 PM, Terry Cioni wrote:

> I start off thanking Tom Abrahamsson for loaning me the RD-1 for 4 
> days. It was a great opportunity, unfortunatetly it rained all of the 
> 4 days, but that made things more of a challenge and thus more 
> interesting. After all it is Vancouver.
>
> For my purposes I shot only .jpg files and did not shoot RAW. I shoot 
> primarily street scenes around Vancouver and I felt it important the 
> RD-1 be able to replace my Lecia rangefinders without any distraction 
> or complication. I shot primarily in B&W at 400 ISO in AE mode, 
> adjusting the aperture as needed. I used a variety of lenses including 
> the TRI-ELMAR (a nice fit for the RD-1) and a 21mm F4 VC lens.
>
> In practical terms the RD-1 exceeded my expectations. It is well 
> built, has an amazingly bright viewfinder, not to mention 1:1 viewing. 
> The RD-1 is intuitive without being overburdened with buttons, dials, 
> and LCD panels. Indeed once you figure-out the round dial on top of 
> the camera with it's pointers, it is in my very humble opinion better 
> than an LCD status panel found on the current crop of digital gear. 
> The battery life seemed good although I would want a second or third 
> battery in my kit - before I set out on a day of shooting. The camera 
> operated flawlessly and I suppose that is all one can ask. I did 
> notice there are a number of stuck (on) pixels. Epson might want to 
> consider some pixel mapping in-camera firmware to ensure this is not a 
> problem for shooters going forward.
>
> I shot the equivalent of 10 rolls of film mostly doing what I like 
> doing best, street photography. I did not use the LCD Monitor to check 
> images but instead choose to treat the camera no different than a 
> Leica M7, waiting until I returned home to the digital darkroom to 
> view the images. My assessment is simple, it is a digital rangefinder 
> that allows me to use my Leica and Voigtlander lens package - I think 
> it is about time for this camera and Epson deserves kudos for doing 
> it. Leica needs to get to moving if they hope to catch-up with Epson.
>
> The images appear to be almost grainless (digital noise) from ISO 200 
> to 800. I found myself thinking that I would like to add grain - out 
> of the camera they are clean, sharp and dynamic range is outstanding. 
> The images did require leveling in PhotoShop, but post processing can 
> only be described as minimal to achieve excellent results. The ability 
> to use high quality Leica lenses on the RD-1 makes it an important 
> addition to any rangefinder film photographers kit bag.
>
> In short I want one, that said I do believe the camera suffers from 
> one major problem; price. A digital body no lens, no memory card, six 
> megapixel sensor in a Bessa 3A camera body at $2900US is very hard to 
> justify in todays world of eight megapixel DSLRs with zoom lens at 
> $1500 to $1800US.
>
> I have posted some images on my website, 
> http://www.streetfusion.smugmug.com The Epson RD-1 photos are 
> indicated above the photo. Thanks for looking.
>
> Cheers. Terry Cioni
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>