Reviews

EPSON R-D1

When I first learned that Epson was going to introduce a digital rangefinder camera in collaboration with Cosina I was very excited. Cosina is the company in Japan that has been building the excellent VoigtlŠnder rangefinder film cameras and lenses for some time. Iâve owned and used most of these cameras and a number of the lenses and have really come to love them. The only problem was that I was rapidly making the transition from shooting film to shooting digital, and my VoigtlŠnder cameras and lenses were spending a lot of time just sitting on the shelf and not getting much use. And, I must say that news of a rangefinder camera built by Cosina came as a real surprise. Back in 2002 I had met with Mr. Kobayashi, President of Cosina, and when I asked him if a digital camera was in Cosinaâs future he gave me a very firm no. But that was before Epson entered the picture, I suppose.

At any rate, I was really anxious to learn more about Epsonâs camera when I first learned of it, but initial information was slow in coming. The camera was released in Japan quite some time before Epson USA got their first deliveries. The most startling thing about the camera, at least to me, was the price. At right around $ 3,000 for the body, Epson was obviously aiming at a very affluent audience and not at the lower price level Cosina had always picked for their VoigtlŠnder cameras. I was also surprised that only 10,000 would be built for worldwide sale, a very small number in todayâs digital camera market. Obviously Epson wanted this camera to be exclusive and limited. Do I think the price is the right price for the camera? Well, yes and no. There are enough well off people to make initial sales go very well, and to Leica users the price wonât produce ãsticker shockä, but I was disappointed that the price put the camera out of my immediate reach. For that money I could buy two Nikon D100 bodies, and that is apropos because the Epson R-D1 is said to use the same Sony image sensor as used in the D100.

At this point some readers may be confused as to just what I am talking about. What is a rangefinder camera, anyway? Although there are a number of ways to focus a camera, the two types encountered most commonly are the single lens reflex (SLR) and rangefinder. On the SLR you are looking directly at an image projected by the cameraâs taking lens, which produces accurate focus and framing. In a rangefinder camera you are looking through a separate viewfinder window, easily seen above the lens in the photos of the Epson R-D1. Youâll note that there is a big window, a frosted window, and a little window. When you look into the eyepiece you will see directly through the big window. In your field of view you will see silver lines on the top, bottom and sides. These silver lines are the viewfinder frames and show you exactly what will be in the image. You must set the lever on top of the camera so it will display the correct viewfinder frame for the lens in use. The R-D1 has settings for 28mm, 35mm, and 50 mm lenses. In the center of the image you will see a shimmering rectangle. That is the rangefinder patch, and when you look at it you are looking out the big and small windows at the same time. By turning the lens focusing ring you can make the two images coincide, and that brings the lens to proper focus. Thatâs why this type of rangefinder is called a coincidence rangefinder. If you have never used one before it may take some practice to get used to it, but once you do it is a very accurate method of focusing.

Since the R-D1 viewfinder had frames for 50 mm, 35 mm, and 28mm, if you want to use a lens wider than 28mm you will need to use a supplementary viewfinder. Cosina makes a range of these under the VoigtlŠnder brand for use with their lenses and others of the same focal length. For use with the R-D1 they have introduced a line of special digital viewfinders to take into account the magnification factor introduced by the camera. These digital viewfinders can be distinguished from those designed for film by the large D on the top of them.

For testing I used my own 50mm, 28mm, and 15mm lenses. Since I wanted to try something super wide, I also borrowed a 12mm from the US importer/distributor CameraQuest (www.cameraquest.com). This 12mm lens is the widest-angle lens ever made for 35mm film use, and becomes about like an 18mm lens on the R-D1. In other words, very wide.

When the Epson R-D1 first arrived I couldnât wait to get it out of the box and get to work with it. The only problem was that someone had forgotten to send me the instruction manual! Luckily the manual is also on the CD that comes with the camera so I was able to open it up in Acrobat and go through the operation of the camera. Once you do this everything becomes pretty easy since it is a simple camera to operate with only a handful of unusual quirks. The first one showed itself when I tried to figure out where to put the SD memory card. There is a door on the right hand back of the camera, but there is no protrusion to indicate how to open it. You just put your fingernail in the slit where it meets the main camera body and pop it open. Iâll admit to not being much of a fan of SD cards. Theyâre just too small and too easy to lose for my tastes. Somewhere here in my office there is an errant 512MB one and I have given up looking for it after two years. I would personally have been much happier if Epson had used CompactFlash and Microdrive cards for storage. Also, most pro and advanced amateur photographers already have a collection of CF cards and if they add an Epson R-D1 theyâll have to buy more cards for it and wonât be able to swap them with their other cameras. Also, you must have a SD card reader because the R-D1 is an oddity among digital cameras with no way to connect it to your computer by cable for image downloads. I think Epson should have included a SD card reader in the package. Luckily I still had the Epson RX600 printer/scanner (see review in our last issue) and it has card slots on its front, so I pressed it into service as a card reader to get my images into my computer. But I like the camera enough that I would put up with SD cards and providing my own reader just to get the capabilities the camera offers.

My Leica M3 camera celebrated its 50th birthday in 2004, so for a kick I put my equally old Leica 50mm f/2 Summicron lens on the Epson R-D1 for my first pictures. I thought it was cool to be able to use this grand old lens on a state-of-the-art digital camera with absolutely no compatibility issues. The photos turned out just great, with excellent sharpness and color and that ãLeica lookä. Next I put the 50mm f/2 M-Hexanon from my Konica Hexar RF on the Epson. It also worked beautifully. I followed this with 50mm f/1.5 VoigtlŠnder Ultron, 50mm f/2 and 50mm f/2 Jupiter-8 lens from my Leningrad camera. I also have a few 50mm lenses on FED and Zorki cameras in my collection, and I tried a couple of them. I also tried my VoigtlŠnder 28 and 75 lenses. I was having so much fun putting all of these lenses on the Epson R-D1 that I almost forgot that I was supposed to be reviewing the camera. The old lenses are Leica thread mount, also known as M-39 mount, and to put them onto the M bayonet of the Epson I used a VoigtlŠnder thread to M mount adapter, also available from CameraQuest. If, like me, you have a lot of older Leica and similar lenses that you have accumulated, itâs great to know you can use them on the R-D1 with absolutely no hassles.

Because the Epson R-D1 is a classic rangefinder camera gone digital, it has a delightful retro look, complete with ãfilm advanceä lever. The camera uses a mechanical bladed shutter with electronic timing. Because the shutter is spring-driven, it must be cocked before each photo, and thatâs what this lever is all about. If you are used to motorized film or digital cameras youâll probably do what I did and miss some photos because you forgot to cock the shutter, but you do get used to it and after a few days I stopped missing shots.

The thing I didnât think I would like and ended up loving is the delightfully retro gauge on top of the camera that uses moving needles to indicate things that most other cameras display on a LCD panel. The big needle goes around like the hand of a clock and lets you know how many frames you have left on the memory card. The smaller needle at the bottom indicates remaining battery power. There are two more needles, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the left indicates white balance setting and the one on the right indicates whether you are shooting in RAW or either of two sizes of JPEG. I found that a quick glance at this gauge every now and then told me everything I might need to know about camera status. I think it is brilliant, and reminds me of the gauges on some classic automobiles.

Overall the Epson R-D1 is a somewhat chunky, all-metal camera that feels very solid in your hand and has good overall ergonomics. I felt like I was using a real camera when I picked this one up. I love the LCD monitor on the back which is big, bright, and can be hinged out and flipped over. You can flip it over and fold it against the camera back when shooting which protects it and conceals the fact that this is an expensive digital camera from prying eyes. I also thought the conversion scale for lens focal lengths on the back was a neat touch, going back to the similarly placed ASA dials on vintage Leica cameras. After working with this camera there is just one thing I can say, I love it.

÷Bob Shell

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