[Leica] R-D1 sample

[bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)]

I'm glad to hear that the images shown are better, but knowing how this
goes, I want to read reviews from people who take photos themselves, and
then view/print the images, as opposed to looks at images provided
dealers by the manufacturer...;-)

The RD2 is NOT an M - it is not built as solidly as an M, and it does
not have a viewfinder/rangefinder as good as the Ms, so that's hardly a
shock - and this camera costs about 50% of what a digital M will cost;

Rangefinder alignment is hardly a big issue on a camera sitting at a
Tokyo dealers. The question will be - how good are the production
cameras out of the box?

Face it - any digital/electronic camera needs more gentle care and
feeding than an all mechanical M - or Nikon or Canon for that matter.

B. D.

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Karen Nakamura
Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2004 5:32 AM
To: CVUG; lug@leica-users.org; leica@freelists.org
Subject: [Leica] R-D1 sample



Today I was at Bic Camera in Shinjuku and they had a pre-production 
camera (Serial #201) on hand to play with a bit. The camera is 
officially going on sale on Friday for a price of Y312,000 with a 10% 
"point" discount = ~$2500.

My comments based on about 5 minutes of fiddling with it:

  * The rangefinder was out of vertical calibration! The salesdroid 
didn't even notice it. This was very disturbing to me.

* The rangefinder patch was not as brilliantly clear as my M7/M2. I'm 
not sure if that's normal to the Bessa series of if the 
pre-production unit was a prototype. It was adequate but not 
spectacular and may account for some of the focusing errors we're 
seeing in the sample photos.

* The analogue dials are very cute but I'm worried about their 
long-term reliability.

* The wind lever stroke is very short, very quiet, and solid. Three
thumbs up!

* The interface was *very* snappy. The jog-dial (aka rewind dial) 
worked like a charm.

They showed some photos taken with the R-D1 and printed on 10x12 
inkjets. *Very* nice. Easily the same quality as my EOS 10D. Corners 
were very sharp even with wide-angles. The amount of shadow and 
highlight details is excellent.


Conclusion? I'm worried about the long-term ruggedness. The vertical 
calibration bothered me. I'm going to wait a few months for the price 
to settle down (usually they take 10-20% off after a few months) and 
see what happens.

Just about *every* photo magazine in Tokyo has a "review" of the 
R-D1. It's the surprise hit because it's so unusual.


Karen

-- 
Karen Nakamura
http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/
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