[Leica] RD-1 Catfight

[leowesson at charter.net (leo)]

I will admit that the RD! is not the perfect camera by any means but  
being a user of many types of dslr's, I haven't found one.  There are  
times i just prefer to grab the rd1 and a 28 cron, or maybe the 35  
cron or occasionally the nocti and just get some happy snaps.

leo

On Nov 10, 2005, at 4:45 AM, Ian Watts wrote:

>
>> David C. Mason" wrote:
>>
>> My favorite bit is learning that a "movie mode" is a "handy feature".
>> No wait, my favorite bit is the reviewer admitting that he/she just
>> doesn't "get it".
>
> I think the reviewer makes it clear that he is not a fan of the  
> rangefinder concept. That prejudice runs all the way through the  
> review. However, apart from a few factual errors, I don't think his  
> review of the RD-1 is that wide of the mark. As somebody who put  
> his money where his mouth is (about a year ago to the day) and  
> bought one of these things, I feel I can legitimately add my  
> tuppence worth to this discussion. I tried hard to like this camera  
> and persevered with it until only three or four months ago (almost  
> to the exclusion of my M cameras), but my conclusion is that the  
> RD-1 is pretty much a dog. Image quality is decent for a 6mp class  
> sensor (with some M lenses, though not all) but the camera itself  
> is quite poor. Personally, I was never bothered by the wind lever  
> nor it's notoriously small RAW buffer but the RD-1's other quirks  
> left much to be desired. The viewfinder is bright but the  
> framelines are woefully inaccurate and, on my camera at least, at  
> an angle in relation to the sensor. My camera also suffered from a  
> random problem of an unresponsive shutter release which was totally  
> unrelated to the camera's 'sleep-mode' (ideal for shooting those  
> decisive moments). I fully agree with the reviewer that the  
> exposure metering could be much better (consistent would have been  
> nice). Some have commented that Epson probably made the RD-1  
> underexpose deliberately to avoid blown out highlights but I think  
> it is probably just a piss-poor implementation by Epson. Strangely  
> enough, my camera never really suffered from the focus problems  
> many have reported (although, if I'm honest, it did front-focus  
> with my 28/2 and the rangefinder patch never quite lined up  
> properly at infinity). To use a popular American analogy, Epson hit  
> less a home run with the RD-1 and more one of those hits that goes  
> flying back into the crowd.
>
> Ian Watts.
>
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