Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/10/29

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Subject: [Leica] Epson R-D1 vs. M8?
From: davison_m at msn.com (MARK DAVISON)
Date: Sun Oct 29 09:34:08 2006

I have used an R-D1 for about a year, and have recently used a demo M8 for a 
few hours, so the following comparison is limited by my time with the M8.

Anyway, the perceived advantages of the M8 over the R-D1 are:

1. longer rangefinder baseline, making for more secure focus with the 50 1.4 
lens.
2. larger sensor, so the multiplier is 1.33 rather than 1.5. In particular, 
a 28mm lens acts  ( e.g. has the same horizontal angle of view as) a 37mm 
lens, rather than a 42mm.  There is an internal frameline for the 90mm lens, 
whereas the R-D1 requires an external 135mm finder.
3. bigger buffer.  You can shoot about 10 RAW shots in a raw before the 
camera locks up. The R-D1 buffer for RAW files is 2.
4. quicker wake-up time, after the camera goes to sleep.
5. higher percieved resolution.  The M8 images look like scanned medium 
format color negative film to me, whereas the R-D1 files look like scanned 
35 mm film.
6. possibility of continuing support.  The R-D1 appears to be an orphan 
product, and has not been well supported by Epson.  Units are not repaired 
but swapped instead. If you send in a unit with a defective shutter, you may 
get a unit with a defective rangefinder in return.
7. Custom white balance.
8. self-timer and continuous advance modes available.

The advantages of the R-D1 over the M8 are:

1. price
2. The most important photographic controls can be set without using the 
menu. (The M8 allows you to set aperture, shutter speed and advance mode 
without menus.  The R-D1 adds ISO sensitivity, white balance, and picture 
quality (RAW, jpeg Fine, jpeg Normal).

I did not have enough time to determine if the M8 battery capacity is better 
than the R-D1.

The M8 appears to use substantially the same optical-mechanical rangefinder 
unit as the M7.  If this is true, I would expect that the rangefinder will 
be more robust than the one in the R-D1 which has caused a number of users 
problems due to poor quality control (including myself and numerous others 
as reported on www.rangefinderforum.com.)

I hope these observations help.

Mark Davison



>From: Rob McClure <rmcclure2@woh.rr.com>
>Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
>To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
>Subject: Re: [Leica] Epson R-D1 vs. M8?
>Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2006 09:37:51 -0500
>
>For those who have used both an R-D1 and M8 -- how much actual difference 
>is there in the feel and image quality?  I really like the idea of a  
>digital rangefinder capable of using Leica M glass.  However,  $6000 is 
>cost prohibitive for me and I'll bet for many other "advanced amateurs".  
>Used R-D1 are priced within my grasp.  What am I giving up for the $4000 
>difference?  I figure that the digital technology in either camera will be 
>obsolete long before the hardware wears out.
>
>Rob McClure
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Leica Users Group.
>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information



In reply to: Message from rmcclure2 at woh.rr.com (Rob McClure) ([Leica] Epson R-D1 vs. M8?)