Epson R-D1
The Epson R-D1 is a digital rangefinder camera introduced by Epson in March 2004, and the first digital rangefinder ever commercially produced. The R-D1 was a joint venture between Epson and Cosina, the former developing the electronics, UI, and imaging processor, and the latter providing the body and rangefinder mechanics. It uses the Leica M mount.
R-D1
The R-D1 was jointly developed by Seiko Epson and Cosina and manufactured by the latter, which also builds the current Voigtländer lenses. It uses Leica M mount lenses or earlier Leica screw mount lenses with an adapter.Uniquely, the R-D1 is a digital camera with a manually-wound shutter actuated by a rapid wind lever. The controls operate similarly to film-based rangefinder cameras.
Settings such as white balance, shutter speed, JPEG quality, and shots remaining are all displayed with servo-driven indicators on a dial resembling a watch face. The rear screen can be rotated 180 degrees inwards towards the camera, allowing it to be fully hidden while folded.
The R-D1 and its subsequent revisions use the Sony ICX413AQ, an APS-C interline-transfer CCD sensor also used in the Pentax *ist D and the Nikon D100. The sensor originally dates back to 2002.
R-D1s
The successor of R-D1, the R-D1s was released in March 2006. The Epson R-D1s is mechanically identical to the R-D1, but with a firmware upgrade. It adds:- JPEG+RAW mode
- Quick view function
- Adobe RGB mode
- Noise reduction for long exposures
R-D1x
The successors of the R-D1s, the R-D1x and R-D1xG were made available from 9 April 2009 in Japan only. They feature very similar feature set except for few modifications:- Larger 2.5" LCD display but with the same resolution - 235K
- LCD is no longer articulated and cannot be closed
- Support of SDHC memory cards which increased max. capacity to 32 GB
- Improvements in accessibility of rangefinder adjustment
- R-D1xG model also includes removable grip