’s R-D1 digital M-fi t rangefi nder

ver since launched the A design from the past outer ring of the dial and dropping D1 fi ve years ago, Leicaphiles it on the prefered choice. A manual Ehave been wringing their gets a digital afterlife. Leica focal length frame switch is placed hands in anguish over Leica’s between the eyepiece ocular and procrastination in launching a digital expert Jonathan Eastland looks accessory shoe. This switch is rangefi nder camera. The company a carry over from 1950s Canon has issued proclamations; fi rst about at the fi rst M-mount CCD body. rangefi nder designs, but it should be how making such an artifact was on the front face of the body where not possible, then possibly, that it it can be fi nger controlled without might be, and fi nally, that they will. removing the camera from the eye. We will have to wait at least another Finally, we come to what looks like two years before the fi rst Leica an analog watch face dial nestling M-Digital hits the market in any between the shutter speed dial and sort of numbers, though a prototype the raised portion of the top plate. has been promised for March 2006. This device, the components of In the meantime, Epson have which are made by Epson for , done it and it’s here now. permits the camera user to see It’s not a Leica. But you can at a glance the settings for white fi t Leica lenses to it. And, it balance, image quality, battery state makes a pretty good picture. and the number of frame spaces The key question for people remaining on the SD storage card, like me who use Leicas a lot was counting down from 500. The back simply, how good is the image out of the camera features a 235,000 of an R-D1? And, if the answer pixel two inch screen with a single was favourable, can it maintain array of press-button switches all the quality using any old Leica mounted on a hinged panel that objective dating back as far, almost, can be turned over to protect the as Leica history will permit? monitor screen. A nice touch. The R-D1 is a joint project The R-D1 is based on Oddly, the R-D1 has no USB or between Seiko Epson and Cosina a Cosina Voigtlander Firewire connection and there are in Japan. Cosina are responsible for body and accepts Below: the top plate of the R-D1 no plans to feature either on the designing and manufacturing the Leica M lenses. shows the unusual needle dial next model. Users must plug the SD now fi rmly established Voigtlander settings control interface. card into a reader to upload images lenses and Bessa L and R 35 fi lm to a computer or printer. The card . Epson are best known for itself is housed in the usual slot ink-jet printers and scanners as arrangement behind a slim door well as a range of indifferent image fl icked open with a thumbnail on quality consumer digital cameras. the right end of the body. The door is Cosina is now also manufacturing hung on a sprung hinge and I have the new Zeiss 35mm rangefi nder visions of this being snagged open announced at photokina 2004 and snapped off in the rough and together with a selection of new tumble of a photojournalist’s life. Z M bayonet mount lenses. It needs a discreet but solid lock. A short throw of the power Better built switch located under the hub of the lever wind advance soon has the My fi rst observation about the R-D1 camera up and running and from is that its build quality is two or then on in it’s all fairly intuitive, three steps above the level I have though a thorough reading of the associated previously with the Bessa manual is advised in order to cameras. The R-D1 is solid and vertical run multi blade shutter and overcome the inevitable frustra- heavy with well fi nished details. the second, a sort of primary control tion at not being able to instantly The second observation was that to device for a range of functions. fi gure out what this or that does. all intents and purpose, it looks and The top-plate layout is standard My R-D1 review sample arrived feels like a fi lm camera, complete fi lm camera fare with the exception with the recommended but scarce with wind-on lever and re-wind of one item. A shutter speed control Voigtlander ƒ1.2 35mm Aspherical knob. Both these components dial does what it says on the tin lens, itself a substantial lump of serve different purposes on the The LCD viewing screen can fl ip and is easily fi nger controlled with glass and metal styled in the manner digital camera; the fi rst to charge round and seats home like a Leica the camera to the eye. Effective ISO of Nikon’s old scallop milled F the electro-magnetically controlled fi lm camera back panel. speeds are changed by raising the lenses from the 1950s and 60s.

f/1 Above: no colour fringe defects – 15mm ƒ4.5 Voigtlander Heliar with 21mm Leitz Finder. Metering in-camera from centre of field. Note vignetting in corners, not especially intrusive for some composi- tions. Reproduced maximum size for 300 dpi original file.

Top left: 5.30pm miserable January evening. Leica Summilux-M (non Left: what you see aspheric) 50mm ƒ1.4. ISO 1600, 1/30th sec at ƒ5.6. Colour out of the box. No is not what you adjustments. This is typical of the sort get… of shot the Leica-M is often used for; the R-D1 does it just as well. Focus point is R-D1, Leica Summilux the blond boy’s head. 50mm ƒ1.4. JPEG/Fine/ Auto WB. ISO 400, ‘Low Centre left: ISO 400, Auto WB, Nikkor everything’. The greyed out SC 55mm ƒ1.2, exposure 1/60th sec at area shows the extra area ƒ4, levels adjusted 10% for black, Image obtained in the file but not cropped 15% from file to obtain 85% viewed within the bright line observed viewfinder field. I can’t fault frame of the viewfinder. It’s a this image for its quality of detail or the little disconcerting when you way Auto WB handles the mixed lighting are used to the accuracy of a on the shop; all this from a lens 35 years Leica M6. old! f/2 Indeed, the milling is such a close clear but not desperately accurate. RAW, JPEG Fine and JPEG Normal excitement that perhaps at long match to that on several old Nikkor Only about 85% of the image formats. Epson supplies its own last, here was something that might lenses, it reminded me of a rumour obtained is framed in the viewfinder. RAW manipulation software, but be usable straight out of the box. currently circulating that Cosina is Once you get used to it, it’s possible to be frank, I have not had time to I asked Eiichiro Kawai of Seiko manufacturing some of the Nikon to make hit or miss adjustments, fully investigate this or the quality of Epson Corporation to elaborate. film camera products. Further but it desperately needs modifying. RAW files. Fine JPEGs from the cam- “The color space in the R-D1 is examination of the multi blade Two exposure measurement era are more than adequate for the sRGB (sYCC). When we developed shutter unit revealed similarities to modes, AE and Manual, are vast majority of needs, including 12 our color space, we did not target any the one used in the Nikonos IV and set-up using the shutter speed dial, sheet bill board publication, so I have particular ICC profile. We tried to V which has only a grey metering providing more convincing evidence no doubts that whatever improve- make the best ICC profile that can strip on one of its blades, whereas the of the similarity of function layout ments can be seen with the eye reproduce the color space naturally R-D1 has two grey and one off white. and electro mechanical arrangement when selecting the RAW option, they and as a result our color space I shot the first card full of images between the R-D1 and the last two are not going to be of a significant became very close to Kodak’s profile.” using the supplied lens and my own Nikonos camera, exposure measure- improvement on the more conven- Signal processing draws on ƒ4.5 15mm Cosina/Voigtlander ment, mode function and shutter ient, and quicker, operating option. Epson’s printer business technology Heliar on a cold but bright windy unit of which was developed from The camera LCD monitor held and is manifest in a very filmy look, day in Portsmouth Dockyard while the Nikon FG. Even the viewfinder high hopes for the quality and colour closer to modern chromes than researching a project on Nelson’s data of the R-D1 is identical in of the images made and this was negatives and more especially when flagship HMS Victory (due to be in layout and function and I found you soon confirmed on the Mac. Of all shooting at the higher ISO speeds. the news a big way this year). The need to have your eye right in the the colour spaces in all the many At its highest setting of 1600 ISO, I first thing I found was that using the ocular to properly see the display. different models tried and tested so had the distinct impression of images R-D1 really did feel a lot like one of A standard APS-C type CCD far, the R-D1 comes closest to what looking more like they had been shot my Leica-M rangefinder cameras; sensor (23.7mm x 15.6mm) is used is generically called ‘Kodacolor’, on 3M’s 1980s high speed tungsten working with it was much faster than with a Bayer RGB and lo-pass filter that early, vibrant and saturated film but with better defined edges using the Nikon D1. The rangefinder generating 6.1mp, or 17.2 megabyte colour film space analagous to and more refined granular structures. is bright; the focal length frames are image files that can be captured in 1940s -70s film. I felt a twinge of Of course, the effect is simulated

f/3 and processed out of pure electrical Left to right: Voigtlander Asph ƒ1.2, Leica Summicron ƒ2, Summicron ƒ2 Asph. angle than at its centre, compared noise, but it works well and obtains The interesting feature of this strip is the different colour of the 4th version to the more moderate angle of a higher level of image quality Summicron ƒ2. The other two are closely matched, the Leica having a barely SLR types, thus diminishing the than would be obtained with film perceptible sharpness edge. The standard f2 Summicron (non asph) produced light charge received and causing at these speeds. Lower down the closest real life to file colour match. Exposure 1/500th @ f8-11 in all cases. the edge darkening phenomena. scale at 200, it is difficult to detect There are six custom light unsightly artifacts on screen, or, settings including auto white but where it might be more easily seen no custom white on the R-D1. Auto perhaps, in prints and reproduction. white works perfectly for all daylight Three film settings provide five situations and for a mix of twilight settings of contrast, sharpness, hue, and fluorescent, the most difficult of saturation, tone and noise levels. mixed lighting for signal processors I set all to low as this gives the to analyse and arrive at some sort of widest gamut for computer post acceptable interpretation. Switching processing. None of the images from colour to monochrome is sim- supplied for this feature have been ply a matter of pulling up the main edge sharpened (but receive the menu and twiddling the primary same standard USM as all illustra- wheel (re-wind knob) to set the fea- tions for litho printing – Ed). ture. There is an option of shooting What is more interesting in standard no-filter mode or apply- perhaps, in comparison to Nikon ing one of five coloured filter effects D1 images opened with Lino Color from yellow through red to green. Elite (colour space NTSC), was fit via an adapter or straight to the at all apertures. Leica’s ƒ2.8 15mm Finally, the camera is powered that R-D1 images opened with the R-D1 M mount will produce its own R type lens has no such faults, but by an Epson Li-ion battery type EU same application (input profile set distinctive look and feel and will be needs an adapter to be used on the 85 3.7v 1500mh which on a full to sRGB), shifted only marginally quite close to what you might expect M mount. The forthcoming Zeiss charge and using the five minute when auto corrections for exposure, say, from a Nikkor, a Takumar or ZM 15mm will doubtless also be power save option lasted most of hue, chroma, shadow and highlight a Leica lens when used with film. an excellent performer – at a price. the day I spent in Portsmouth. A were applied, compared to the There has been some adverse None of the Leica-M focal lengths Fuji NP 80 battery designed for Nikon’s more dramatic corrections. comment about the R-D1’s tendency used matching the bright line frames older compact digitals will also Once I had established the R-D1 for its CCD sensor to vignette images of the R-D1 (50-28-35) have so far work in an emergency; it’s the image files obtained in camera – a problem that can be partially shown any tendency to unsightly same voltage but lower capacity and needed little or no post processing, corrected with the supplied software vignetting, though there was some available from Hama or other battery I had a fairly clear idea of what to when shooting in RAW . My experi- expected and obtained from an old suppliers in an own label version. expect once I started using Leitz ence of the problem has so far only Nikkor-H 28mm ƒ3.5 when set to At the outset of this review, and Leica lenses. I reckoned that for been really noticeable when using the its maximum aperture. The problem having previously heard or read of several older lenses of different type 15mm Heliar, a lens of moderate cost stems from peripheral light rays some aspects of disquiet regarding and length, image contrast would designed for use with film cameras exiting the rear pupil of rangefinder the R-D1, I expected to be sceptical remain the same or drop compared five years ago and which vignettes lenses striking the extreme edge of its performance. Until Leica can to the Voigtlander ƒ1.2, 35mm inherently to one degree or another of CCD photo diodes at a greater get around to solving the problem of and in theory, the modern Leica how to make a parbolic sensor and Asphericals, would perform as well as Nikkor 28mm ƒ3.5 with Novoflex Leinik-M adaptor. Exposure 1/30th sec @ fit it in a rangefinder camera that can the Voigtlander or better, manifest- ƒ3.5. No obvious vignetting. Image is typically 1960s Nikon, pin sharp over produce a result as good as or better ing the same or higher contrast. 60% of the centre softening toward the edges. than the R-D1, I can only say that By the time I had mounted an from my perspective as a professional uncoated 1930s f2,5cm Summar, I user of the camera type, I would had made dozens of frames of the have no hesitation in adding it to same subject with twenty or so the kit now. It’s well built, handles Leica and a few older Nikkor lenses some of the finest lenses ever made (using Novoflex adapters). There for 35mm use without batting an is still some way to go before this eyelid and turns in an image with process is fully exhausted, but what the kind of aesthetic and quality is readily apparent is that for subjects that more than satisfy my needs. requiring a particular look and feel, ©Ajax News 2005 almost any objective you can get to Á f/4