120 minutes with the Epson RD-1
by Josh Root; created 2004
Editors note: Since the photos in this article are essentially just
snapshots, they are just provided at screen resolution, and not at full
resolution.
Recently I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon in Vancouver, BC with
Rapidwinder (www.rapidwinder.com) creator Tom Abrahamsson and his wonderful wife
Tuulikki. As usual, they were kind hosts, great conversationalists, and I had a
very nice time. But I have a confession, I made the 90 minute drive up to
Vancouver for more than just our typical sharing of stories and photos. I knew
that Tom had an Epson RD-1 on loan from Epson Japan. And ever since it’s
announcement last spring, I have been itching to try one out. RD-1 review models
are hard to come by, so when Tom told me I should come up and bring an SD card so
I could take my images back home, I jumped at the chance.
Though Epson has their name on the camera, the RD-1 is really a partnership
between Epson and Cosina/Voigtlander. Cosina/Voigtlander has been on the
forefront of the rangefinder market for over 5 years now. They have released so
many excellent products that the king of rangefinders, Leica (a company that
moves like molasses on a good day), appears to be moving backwards in comparison.
To my mind, are responsible for creating a rangefinder renascence unseen since
the RF heyday in the 1960’s. And while the rangefinder world has been hit
by digital just like every facet of the photo industry, many recent RF
photographers got their start with one of Voigtlander’s well made budget
Bessa models. So it is unsurprising to see Cosina/Voigtlander in the middle of a
project to create the first digital rangefinder camera.
For those who aren’t familiar with the RD-1, here is some information
from Epson’s press releases:
“The EPSON R-D1 links the future with the past -- a new digital
camera with a classic rangefinder feel. The EPSON R-D1 is comprised of a
magnesium alloy exterior and an aluminum die cast body, combining digital
technology with the traditional feel of a finely tuned instrument. The camera
features a 6.1 megapixel APS C-size CCD sensor with a 1.53 magnification factor
for an image resolution up to 3008 x 2000 pixels, easily producing output of 16"
x 20" and beyond. The Epson R-D1 supports a RAW mode as well as two JPEG
modes.
- Lens Mount: Features an EM mount which is directly compatible with M-mount
lenses and compatible with LTM-mount lenses through an optional third party
adapter. There are currently over 200 lenses available.
- 1.x Viewfinder: Enables photographers to view scenes, including panorama
settings, as if looking without magnification through the naked eye. The bright,
natural view provides photographers with the feel of a conventional rangefinder,
and auto parallax correction enables users to capture what they see.
- 6.1 Megapixel APS C-Size CCD Sensor: The CCD sensor's effective image area
(23.7 x 15.6 mm) delivers 6.1 million effective pixels, easily producing 16"x 20"
prints or larger.
- LCD Monitor: Large two-inch color LCD monitor enables stored photos to be
viewed after exposure and can be concealed; the screen rotates 180 degrees to be
stored face-in.
- Exposure Control: Features manual and aperture-priority AE exposure
modes.
- Memory: Supports Secure Digital(TM) memory cards up to 1 GB.
- File Format: Supports Epson RAW or JPEG (normal/high).
As this isn’t a full “review” I’m not going to go over
each one of the features here. But rather I’m going to give a user opinion
of my short afternoon shooting and fiddling with the camera. Then I will add on a
few statements and opinions from photographers who have used the camera for a
longer period of time.
Epson RD-1, f4 1/34 400 iso 21/4
Voigtlander
First off, don’t ask me about the long lens focusing accuracy. I only
used a few lenses while shooting the RD1, and most were quite wide (Voigtlander
12mm, 21mm & a few shots with a Phenix 50/1.9). Secondly, I am not the most
proficient at rangefinder focusing. Before my 1999 switch to digital for the
majority of my professional and personal work, I was a big rangefinder fan. But
since then, the lure of the digital world has relegated my RF use to occasional
use of my old Leica IIIf with some scale focused wide angle lenses. So I’m
a bit out of practice. Not to mention the fact that any sort of quantitative
testing (if you care about that sort of thing) of a camera or lens needs to be
done on a test bench and not in a café or while walking around Kitsilano
beach.
What I think:
The camera itself felt good in my hands. It’s a bit taller than the
standard Leica “M” rangefinder camera size. But it is not even close
to being as bulky as a medium format RF camera. Which is unsurprising considering
that, like many of Cosina’s cameras, it is built off of the same base as
their low end SLR’s (Nikon FM-10, Vivitar 2000 etc). Though it would be
more correct to say that this camera was built off of the Bessa R2, the
R2’s design “lineage” goes directly back to the previously
mentioned low end SLR’s. This has advantages and disadvantages, price being
foremost of the advantages. But some feel that using a significant amount of
plastic in the construction gives their cameras a cheaper feel, others
don’t mind at all. And indeed, the RD-1 feels quite sturdy to me. I’m
sure the “magnesium alloy exterior and an aluminum die cast
body” helps a lot in this regard.
Unlike the Canon EOS digital SLR’s that I am used to using, the RD1 was
comfortable for my smaller-size hands to hold for long periods of time. As far as
the manual controls are concerned, everything is where you would expect it to be.
The digital buttons were placed well enough. Though I was a little disappointed
at how many button presses it took in order to do some things. Zoom-in during
image playback for example, or switching from the B&W shooting mode back to
color. There was one “user” button that apparently could be assigned
various functions. But as it wasn’t my camera, I didn’t explore the
possibility. Much has been made, both pro and con, of the analog needle-gauges on
that show camera information on the RD-1’s top plate. They are for white
balance, battery level, shots remaining on the SD card, and image quality. All in
all, I think they look quite cool. They jump to life when the camera is turned on
just as if you had started a sports car. And I found them easy to read EXCEPT for
the white balance dial, which for some reason uses a cryptic series of symbols to
indicate the different settings. Letters or more standard symbols would have been
a better idea. And then there is the added cost of the needle gauges, but more on
that later.
For the last time: YES, you have to wind the camera after every shot to reset
the shutter. That is what the “film advance” lever is for. But doing
this came back easily and felt as comfortable as it ever had. I think there were
only one or two times where I said “Doh! I forgot to wind” when
trying to take a shot. Winding itself is quick and fast. Since the shutter is
just being cocked and no film is being advanced, the action is smoother, quieter,
and lighter. While it is an actual metal bladed shutter, when firing it makes
very little noise at all. I suppose in a test lab, the cloth shutter of a Leica
M6 would be even quieter. But in the real world, the difference is
negligible.
The finder is quite bright and feels uncluttered. The shutter speed does show
up in red at the bottom of the finder. But unlike some of the finders in new
cameras, the light is not glaring enough to distract you from taking the photo. I
suppose that you could argue that Leica still has an edge on RF finder design.
But for someone like me, who is admittedly NOT a perfectionist in this area, the
RD-1 finder is very well done. Given the option, I would like to see the RF patch
itself be a bit bigger. But that is a somewhat minor issue (though an easily
fixable one).
Aside from the fact that it is a digital camera, the amount of automation on
the RD-1 is on par with a 1970’s Nikon SLR. That is to say, “There is
very little automation”. The internal meter appears to be a basic
center-weighted style. And as long as you understand what a center weighted meter
is trying to tell you, it works very well. With the same caveat, the same can be
said for the simple aperture-priority (AE) exposure mode. If you know how to get
a correct reflected meter reading for a given scene, you can get wonderful
results. If you don’t know how, I suggest that you go pick up a
“basic photography” book from the 1970’s or 80’s.
One thing that I found a little tricky was getting the exposure to lock in AE
mode. As with most every AE camera since AE’s invention, giving the shutter
button a half-press will lock the shutter speed in. The usual use for this would
be to meter off a neutral color (for a correct exposure) and then recompose to
take the shot. However, even with one of Tom’s wonderful Mini Sofr-releases
screwed into the standard cable release shutter button (another advantage of
using a low end “frame” for the camera), I had a hard time feeling
where that halfway point was and often shot a photo before I wanted to. But I do
think that this is the sort of thing that you would get used to after using the
camera for a longer period of time. Aside from the fact that the white balance
needle gauge uses weird symbols to indicate the settings, the white balance seems
to work well. At least on par with other dSLR’s in it’s class.
Though, keep in mind as this was just a short “outing” that I
didn’t get to test it in every lighting condition.
One of the coolest features
of the RD-1, in my opinion, is to be able to shoot in black & white. This is
a feature that is usually only found on low end digital cameras. And while it is
true that using the B&W mode on a digital camera causes you to be locked into
whatever your camera wants to do as far as color-B&W conversion, I find that
being able to review the image in black & white is a great advantage for me
when trying to shoot digital images that I specifically INTEND to be black &
white. Even now I can hear the serious digital photographers reading this yelling
“What are you talking about! Digital black & white should ALWAYS be
done in Photoshop!” And that is true, Photoshop gives you many more B&W
options than any camera could. But stay with me for a minute. With the RD-1, you
can set the camera to “Raw” quality, and then turn on the
“black & white” mode. The photos on the review screen will show
up as black and white images, but when you run the files through the raw
converter, you have to option of going back to color again. Because, since you
are shooting in the Raw mode, no information is actually thrown away. If you
decide that you don’t like the way that the RD-1’s B&W conversion
turned out, you can start over and just do it as you normally would in
Photoshop.
There are now over 70 years of Leica thread-mount and Leica M mount lenses
that can be used on this camera. But perhaps unsurprisingly, I predict that many
of the lenses that will be used on RD-1’s will be from Cosina’s
Voigtlander line. For one thing, with it’s APS-C size CCD sensor giving a
1.5x field of view, wide angle lenses (20-35mm equiv) are hard to come by. Your
choices boil down to spending over $2000 for a Leica lens, or spending around
$300 for a slower but very sharp Voigtlander. And while some RD-1 users may have
a bag full of that wonderful Leica glass, I know not all of us do. But speaking
of the sensor size and lenses brings me to one of my biggest gripes about the
RD-1.
Not to ignore the classic 50mm focal length, but the 35/2 or 35/1.4 has become
the “mainstay lens” of available light rangefinder photography (for
many people). Lots of Canon SLR shooters have become used to having a 20-24/2.8
in our bags as well. But there is no option for me to use a fast/wide 35mm with
the RD-1, to say nothing of the 20/2.8. The widest fast lens around is the
Voigtlander 28/1.9 Ultron, which only gives you a 44mm lens equivalent. And the
fastest wide lens is either the very expensive Leica 21/2.8 Aspherical or the
cheap but slow Voigtlander 21/4 Color-Skopar, though these lenses do at least get
you in the range of “wide” at 31.5mm equivalent. Finally, the
Voigtlander 15/4.5 Heliar is a great value in a lens, and it does give you a nice
wide 22.5mm equivalent, but it can hardly be called “fast”.
Please, please, PLEASE, Epson and Cosina, if you have any sort of commitment
to the idea of a digital rangefinder, make a 15/2.8 and a 24/2 (or 24/1.4). To
keep the size down, design them specifically to only cover the APS-C sensor of
the RD-1. Or maybe for an RD-2, which could have a longer effective rangefinder
base for better focusing accuracy with narrow depths of field. They
wouldn’t be usable on a normal RF camera, but I can’t imagine any
RD-1 user complaining. After all, for the 50-90mm focal lengths, There are more
than enough great lenses to choose from. It’s just that there aren’t
any on the wide/fast end. And available light candid/journalistic photography is
where the rangefinder camera made it’s mark. It would be a shame to give
that up just to pay the entry fee into the digital world.
Finally, there is the price, $3000 US. And with the limited 10,000 unit
production, I don’t expect that price to drop much, if at all. I have also
been told that the needle gauge assembly makes up a full $500-1000 of that price.
Now the dials are very cool, but I’m not sure they are worth $500 of cool,
and they are absolutely not $1000 cool.
So is $3000 too much for an interchangeable lens digital camera in 2005? Well,
I spent $3000 on my first digital SLR in 1999, and I spent $3500 on my second one
in 2002. But now that you can get a 6MP Canon or Nikon dSLR for $1000, can $3000
for the same electronics wrapped in a different body be justified? Well
yes….and no. Yes, because it is the ONLY digital rangefinder on the
market. If you want a digital RF, you have no other choice. Leica is
“supposed” to be coming out with a digital M, but the earliest
predictions for that are for sometime in 2006 (and I wouldn’t bet the milk
money on that). So in that respect, yes, it’s worth every penny of the
price. I’ve been waiting since 1999 for someone to make this camera, and
using it made me fall in love with the rangefinder way of photography all over
again. Even in the 2 hours I got to shoot with it.
But on the other hand, if you are looking for a digital version of your
low-light M6, 35/1.4, 50/1.4, etc kit, you are going to be sorely disappointed.
You would be better off with a Digital Rebel and some fixed length Canon lenses.
Conversely, if you are the kind of person who is looking to get the most out of
your Leica lenses and their theoretical advantage in sharpness/color/depth, a 6MP
camera probably isn’t going to make you that happy.
Epson RD-1, f4 1/30 400 iso 21/4
Voigtlander
Overall:
Liked:
- Finally a digital RF!
- Handles nicely
- Quiet shutter
- Bright viewfinder
- Accurate meter (for the type that it is)
- Seemingly accurate “auto” white balance
- Ability to shoot in B&W while still retaining the possibility of
color
- 85% of useful functions don’t require the LCD screen or button/menu
combos
Disliked:
- High Price
- Limited availability
- A few very important functions had too many buttons/menus to go through
- Lack of fast/wide lenses
- Weird symbols for white balance gauge
- RF patch was a little small
All in all, I’m not sure I’ll be buying an RD-1. Now at
$2000-2200, I think I would have a hard time saying “no”. Even at
$3000, if I knew that I could get one or two fast/wide lenses, I think my desire
for a digital rangefinder would easily overcome the price tag. But right now
I’m really on the cusp, I love digital and I love rangefinders. But so far,
my 120 minute “fling” with the Epson RD-1 wasn’t enough to
totally convince me to take the plunge.
Where to buy
The Epson RD-1 may not be too easy to find. You can checkout the following
photo.net affiliates and if you find it, purchasing via these links will help
support photo.net.
© Copyright 2004, Josh Root.
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, December 10, 2004; 02:54 A.M. 
