Epson Japan officially released a note which marks the death for a historical camera: The Epson RD-1! The camera will no longer be produced.
As you know this was the first digital rangefinder camera ever released and had an APS-C sensor. It won the Camera Grand Prix award in 2005.
By bye dear Epson! Too bad you didn’t release a successor with real FF sensor just like Sony did recently with the A7-A7r!
8 Responses
The Epson R-D1 had an APS-C sensor, crop factor 1.5x (just like “everybody else” out there)
The Leica M8 had an APS-H sensor, crop factor 1.3x (shared with cameras including the Canon 1D)
Having owned the M8, and still owning the RD1 I can undoubtedly say the RD1 is a better camera regardless of sensor size or brand. The while the m8 is fantastic at base ISO, it’s absolutely rubbish at ISO 1250. On the other hand the RD1 is perfectly useable at ISO 1600, even by today’s standards. Also the ergonomics and fun factor of the RD1 are fantastic! I get more keepers with that camera than with my RX1R, and my previous M43 bodies including the EM5.
Truly Epson had an magnificent camera. With some decent marketing and real updates they could have made a mark in the industry.
It’s easy to blow off an all manual rangefinder if we’re blinded by today’s auto everything, wifis, sharing, gps crap. But when it comes down to it a camera teaches you to slow down and think makes you a better photographer, less dependent on all those tech crutches of today.
Still owning both RD-1 and the M8.2 I agree that there is something remarkable about the RD-1’s high iso performance. Both, it should be mentioned, share the use of (a different) CCD rather than a CMOS. In fact, possibly, the RD-1 has the best CCD high iso output out there. But there is something about the M8’s CCD, even in high iso that cannot be matched with the RD-1 even in high iso, speaking in terms of pixel-level sharpness as well as details. The M8.2 files are much more open to process. The RD-1 gives beautiful files as they are, among my favourite, but there is not much to do with them. They print nicely, I estimate that the 10mp of the Leica can be magnified while retaining details, about 4 times the magnification that the RD-1 can handle. Anyway, the nicest built of any digital camera up to date.
I agree the 10mp files of the m8 sure are sharp and provide great up scaling resolution. RD1 files look blurry by comparison. I just found that at ISO 1250 and 2500 the noise was so much it just damaged the files, so I always reached for the EM5 or RX1r. I’m much more confident the RD1 will hold its own at 1600 with an f1.4 lens. But man those sunny day M8 ISO 160/320 files! Amazing. The M8 also has a certain film-like look. Like Ektar 100 I thought. Maybe I’m nuts.
To be honest I did not know that this camera was officially still in production. Even though it is an old camera by digital standards, it has quite a following over on RFF. Pity indeed that Epson did not pursue the camera further.
Was this really still in production? If so, where was it sold? I’d have purchased one!
Go to RFF. There’s a brand new on for $1400 as we speak.
I still have my R-D1 and shoot it fairly regularly. It’s such a great camera. The output is fantastic up to 1600 (don’t go beyond that) and the colors of the CCD are very film like. The files are very amenable to b&w conversions. It’s very user friendly and operating is as close to using a film camera as you can get. I wish dearly that Epson had updated the sensor. I’d pay up to 3k for an update version.