Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/11/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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. > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information