Epson R-D1

The Epson R-D1 camera is a high end, compact digital rangefinder camera that meets the needs of Leica and Voigtlander interchangeable lens owners who can’t wait another year for Leica’s M-Digital rangefinder body. With the exception of its pesky AE exposure lock, the camera has been configured into a device with many intuitive menus and controls. Its Epson PhotoRAW software is unusually flexible and helpful for processing RAW files. Its sensor does justice to the very high quality Leica lenses, producing highly detailed, low noise images with vivid colors when one can use the rangefinder to focus properly.

Once I mastered the steep learning curve of focusing with a misaligned rangefinder that was hard to use in low light, I was able to take highly detailed, vivid, noise-free images using Leica and Voigtlander rangefinder interchangeable lenses. These pictures were as good as or better than I was able to get with my 5 megapixel Leica Digilux II. I enjoyed its wide range of ISO sensitivities -- between 200 and 1600 – that exceeded the ISO range of either the Leica Digilux II camera or the Kodak DSC Pro Back for the Contax 645C. I found the viewfinder’s 1:1 magnification very helpful in focusing, as it seemed to use the entire eye-brain system for getting the best convergence of images. I also could see the framelines shifting for auto parallax correction while focusing on both near and far objects. The R-D1’s controls are intuitive, so that I didn’t have to refer to the camera’s manual.

The R-D1 I own had ghost framelines at the 28 mm setting, ultra-slow help files for the Epson PhotoRAW program, a misaligned and unpredictably accurate rangefinder, and telephone support that is friendly but disorganized

I'm currently using a new Leica M-7 with a set of 7 Leica and 1 Voigtlander interchangeable lenses. For digital, I use a Leica Digilux II and a Canon 1D Mark II camera body with Canon L lenses. The Epson R-D1 takes pictures of similar quality to these cameras if the rangefinder is behaving.

To get help with my misaligned rangefinder, I had to call four times over 3 days before I got someone who stayed on the line, identified the problem, and proposed a solution. Each of the first two technicians took down my name, phone number, camera serial number, and details about my problem, then put me on indefinite hold. I finally reached a technician at second level support who gave me the authorization to send the camera in for repair. I got faster results emailing Epson support rather than calling them.