Epson RD-1, film lever?

[anders_sjogren1]

What is the function of Epson RD-1's "film advance lever"?

[peter_evans4]

Cocking the shutter, I'm told.

[jim_a]

cock the shutter?

[monsoonphoto.net]

Apparently so.

[furcafe]

Yes, even digital cameras have shutters. The Epson has a mechanical 1, just like the Bessa R2 it's based on.

[james_baird]

That's interesting - I would have assumed that a digital rangefinder would use an

electronic shutter. Are there advantages to mechanical shutters I'm unaware of?

[steve_larese1]

Doesn't take juice from the battery, feels like a camera the way God intended.

[huw_finney]

When you 'clear' the sensor all elements go down to 'zero' at once, but the data is shifted out it all goes past or even through the other pixels giving it a chance to pick up some highlights. Cheaper cameras have vastly fewer pixels and hence the problem is much less visible, they don't have shutters. The effect is easily seen on any news broadcast at night with lights in frame, you get a vertical streak of light in the picture. The 'electronic' shutter is still present in shuttered digital cameras though, enabling some blistering top speeds. The sequence is something like .. open mechanial shutter, clear sensor, charge sensor, stop charging, shut mechanical shutter, shift out image.

[gregory_goh]

It's for cocking the shutter - at least that is what this non-Japanese fluent

person can figure out from the Japanese manual - it's late and the battery is in

the charger so will have to play with it tomorrow

[el_fang]

A digital camera that has a wind lever for cocking the shutter. Sorta like a computer with a hand crank for powering up Windows. Priceless.

[steve_unsworth1]

Not stupid at all - a shutter will help prevent dust reaching the sensor. Having it as a crank means that the camera can be smaller and as someone else said saves on battery drain.

[david cunningham]

my understanding is that it both cocks the shutter and advances the image when previewing.

[godfrey]

It's a shutter cocking lever. Yes, digital cameras have shutters. Even cameras with

electronic shutters use spring tension to power the action of the shutter in most cases. In

all current DSLRs, the shutter is cocked by a servo motor. Epson/Cosina has simply

decided not to incorporate a motorized shutter cocking mechanism into the RD-1.

 

This also means that it cannot support making sequence bursts, of course.

 

Godfrey

[eric_tai]

I've bought a RD-1 yesterday & I've a problem of focusing when it's wide open at my noctilux 50mm f 1.0 & 75mm f 1.4 .All the picture is not in focusing & they's sharp at the foreground.

they've been in focus after stopped down to f/5.6

any leica M fans has any idea?

Thanks for your valuable experience

San<div></div>

[huw_finney]

I am suprised you got the focussing that good given the short baseline of the R, the biggest 50mm CV does is the f1.5 Nokton, about twice as easy to focus as an f1!

[jorge]

>> Sorta like a computer with a hand crank for powering up Windows. Priceless. <<

 

If you loaded your camera with a windows based film, you would have to unload and re-load it after each thre or four frames.

[gaijin]

Eric,

 

You also have to deal with the 1.5 (or is it 1.6?) crop factor when using your 50 f/1 or 75 f1/4 on the Epson. Essentially your 50 f/1 is a 75 f/1 on the Epson and the 75 f/1.4 becomes a 112.5 f/1.4 equivalent. So you're trying to focus a 75 equivalent lens at f/1 with the already too short rangefinder base of the Epson/Bessa body. I'll be surprised if you can get accurate close focus even with the CV 50 f/1.5 Nokton since it becomes a 75 f/1.5 equivalent on the Epson.

[edlaurpic]

Regarding focusing the R-D1 (with apologies for the repetition of this point

from another forum), I thought that when there is a magnification factor in a

digital camera so that a 50 becomes a 75, the depth of field remains

unchanged ... it's still a 50 as far as dof is concerned, That is why little P&S

digital cameras have dof from here to eternity and it's so difficult to get bokeh

effects with, for example, the Digilux 1 and digilux 2 as their real focal length

is like that of a superwide angle lens. So ... if the idea that it would be more

difficult to focus a 50 on the d-g1 than on an M6 relates to the magnification

factor, that would seem not to be true. On the other hand, if there is a focusing

difficulty related to a limitation of the bessa-type rangefinder, that would be a

different matter, and it's something I know nothing about. and about which I

haven't read anything. If there is anything out there about that, I would

appreciate a url.

 

Thanks

Ed

[eric_tai]

Hello ,

I've finally test my leica lens ,tri-elmar & noctilux focusing are accuracy fine when wide-opened at f 4.0 & f 1.0 .But it's a pity of out focus using 75 summilux f 1.4 & 90mm summicron .The 75 work acceptable sharp at infinity,but out focus at my attached road photo.

Please give me any appreciate experience.

Does the Rd-1 cannot using the lens above 75 & 90mm?

Thanks

sang

[lct__]

Hi Eric.

<br>Would you mind to show us some of your sharp 50mm

images?

<br>Thanks in advance.

<br>LCT

[eric_tai]

it's sharp & wide open when focusing at infinity

[eric_tai]

it's out of focus

[eric_tai]

Epson RD-1 using noctilux sharp at 1.0

[lct__]

Eric,

<br>The effective base length of the RD-1's rangefinder is only

38 mm in round figures.

<br>To get sharp images at f/1.4 with a 75mm lens, you should

need an RF base length of about 48mm according to the formula

b' = (e x f^2) / (k x z) where b' is the effective base length, e the

visual acuity (0.0003 here at approx. 1 arcmin), f the focal length,

k the aperture and z the circle of confusion (0.025 mm).

<br>Best,

<br>LCT

[lct__]

Eric,

<br>Here's a 100% cropping of your Noctilux pic at f/1.0.

<br>The sharpness as well as the colour rendition and the

noise reduction look very good indeed.

<br>It is encouraging, as far as focusing accuracy is concerned,

if you focused precisely on the sharp parts of the image

needless to say.

<br>Best,

<br>LCT

 

<br><br><center> <img border=0

src="http://tinyurl.com/rv7w/RD1cropweb.jpg"> </center>