Epson Made The Perfect Camera

Epson makes your printer my scanner and back in the early 2000s digital cameras like this one the Epson photo PC 650 which this video is definitely not about don't worry it's a neat little digic cam but nothing jaw-dropping and that's why most people forget that Epson even made cameras that and the fact that they stopped making cameras as early as 2004 they made about 15 different cameras in total and all but one of them were like this point shoots aimed at a more casual market and then they made this [Music] this is the Epson rd1 released in 2004 as one of epson's last cameras and it is nothing like their other cameras actually it's like no other digital camera at all let me explain how let's start with what this camera even is this is a digital camera as much as it doesn't look like it and I'll explain how all this up here Works in just a minute it's actually the first digital rangefinder camera to ever be made a rangefinder camera uses a special type of focusing system that allows the photographer to look through this Optical finder that is not looking through the lens of the camera but still allows focusing this is the system that is most famously used in leas even today but Epson actually beat Leica to the punch with the first digital Rangefinder to this day Epson is still one of only three companies to have ever produced a digital range Miner making these still really uncommon today you'll notice on the back that the camera has no LCD screen actually it does it's just [Music] hidden and I leave it hidden away anytime that I'm shooting this isn't just because it makes it some fun analog experience it's because this camera has no live view the only thing this screen is used for is a handful of functions that can't be changed with just the physical button buttons themselves but many things can be changed with these physical buttons and they're [Music] genius over here is a simple switch that can be used to switch the frame lines in the viewfinder depending on the lens that you're using this on the side is a dual purpose dial that can pop up or lower down and then changes different settings depending on that there's a multi-adjustment dial here that allows you to select exposure compensation or shutter speed and then select your ISO by pulling up and twisting which is just an excellent throwback to the manual film cameras here's a quick switch and button combo to change white balance or a variety of settings and whenever you change one of those settings this happens real quick before we get to these I'd like to let you know where I found this camera because it's pretty tough to find especially for a good price I bought it from the sponsor of today's video which is baay baay is a website for shopping local listings that are only available in Japan Jaan and they offer access to a wide variety of these peer-to-peer Japanese listing websites when you buy an item on Bay it is shipped domestically in Japan to bu's Warehouse from there they can insect the item and then if all is good ship it to wherever you are in the world it's a fantastic way to get rare camera gear because you're not competing against everybody else in your country on whatever popular auction website you have my tips for finding really good deals there are to use the automatic search alerts pay attention close attention to the yin conversion rates and then just remember in the back of your head that you're going to have to pay for shipping twice check out my link below to save more money thanks to BU for sponsoring this video and for making a cool website that got me this camera instead of an LCD display on this camera the camera uses physical gauges to inform you of a variety of settings I've only ever seen this on two other cameras a film 35mm camera from Nikon the 35ti and oddly enough a Samsung point and shoot called the nv9 but it's definitely uncommon you can see how many shots you have left on your SD card you can see the image quality setting if you're shooting raw or just jpeg it lets you know how much battery life you have left and it lets you know the white balance setting but if you thought those features were the most analog thing on this camera you'd be [Music] wrong I don't know if you caught this earlier but you might have been wondering what a film Winder is doing on a digital camera on an older manual film camera this would be used to wind the mechanical shutter and then Advance the film newer film cameras and digital cameras don't need this because for those that have the physical shutter it's electronically controlled some camera designs have Incorporated something like this but it's just for the looks but on this camera it's actually not just for show to shoot this camera you must pull this back for each shot because it is actually physically winding the shutter this I'm sure will split the audience into who would actually care for this feature but I love it and when I shoot film I'm most drawn to those older manual cameras that require manually winding the shutter there's something about that extra physicality and manual nature of a camera that is gripping and at this point in the video I'll surprise you with the fact that this is only a 6 megapixel sensor you wouldn't have guess that from the incredible image quality now that you can tell on YouTube anyway but that's besides the point now it's not perfect the sensor isn't up to enough with modern sensors of course this is 20 years old so it has the common shortcomings of an older CCD sensor from the early 2000s the biggest thing you have to work around is the mushiness with higher ISO settings but if you treat with respect you will get some fantastic images out of [Music] it it's actually the same sensor found in a few other 6 megapixel dslrs from the same era so if you're just after the sensor the more economical way to do that would be to go through one of those oh yeah because did I mention this camera has held on to Value like crazy the prices seem outragous at first for a 6 megapixel camera from 20 years ago but if you think a little bit more about it it's actually very very predictable the price makes sense later models of this camera never came out well not really there's a couple revisions this one's the Epson rd1 s for instance but they're just minor improvements on the camera not like a new sensor or anything so there's nothing newer to drive the price of these older models down and then like I mentioned before digital rangefinders are still rather uncommon today so your options right now are either Leica or the newcomer pixie and both of those cost thousands of dollars and then I've never owned a Leica actually there's one up there on that shelf but we don't talk about that yet but I do own the pixie camera and this camera is nothing like it this is a truly unique digital camera experience with the manual mechanical shutter winding the gauges on the front of the camera the no LCD no live view and then the results are fantastic despite the limitations of the older sensor and all of that makes this honestly the perfect digital Rangefinder I can think of if they just made a modern version of it that'd be awesome so but is it worth the price well I only paid half of what it's going for now now days so that's a huge relief but even then it was a hard pill to swallow but after using it now for a little bit I have zero buyers remorse I'm actually planning on selling off some other cameras that this camera will now be replacing more to come on the camera as I get more photos with it but it's awesome I also mentioned the pixie in this video which I do own and I made a video I made two videos on that camera so I'll put those here for you to learn a little bit more about that for a modern take on a digital rangefinder camera I'll see you over there in those videos and until next time as always happy snapping

Channel: snappiness

Views: 236,495

Keywords: epson rd1, epson r-d1, epson r-d1s, digital rangefinder camera, rangefinder camera, digital camera, cool cameras, m mount camera, epson camera, leica alternative

Id: 94IZu-6LmcM

Length: 7min 31sec (451 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 25 2023