In the summer of 2006, I had the privilege to be a pre-production tester and reviewer for Leica’s then-new M8. Introduced later that fall, the M8 is thought of by many as the first digital rangefinder camera. But was it really? Not quite.
The first commercially produced digital rangefinder camera was the Epson R-D1, launched a couple of years earlier in March 2004. As it arrived well before Panasonic’s Lumix G1 of 2008, it became the world’s first interchangeable-lens mirrorless digital camera – long before that term was ever used!
[Many in the industry, myself included, don't class the R-D1 as a true mirrorless camera due to its lack of live view or electronic viewfinder. But technically speaking, it is the first! – Ed]
The R-D1 was developed in partnership with Cosina, which modified its well-made and well-respected Voigtländer R-2 Bessa body for the purpose. Epson provided the electronics, while Cosina had the task of fitting it all into the R-2 chassis. Great effort was made by both firms to preserve the film “feel” in the R-D1.
The resulting camera had a Leica M lens mount and a 6.1MP, APS-C sized Sony CCD sensor. This same sensor was used in the 2003 Pentax *ist D. Because CCDs consumed more power than modern CMOS sensors, battery life was noticeably shorter than that of newer digital cameras. But, for the era, it was pretty good.
Photos were stored on SD cards, though the FAT16 file system limited them to 2MB of storage – which works out to roughly 100 RAW and JPEG images or 200 RAW files per card. Later Japan-only versions added SDHC support, which offered higher capacities.
Use of the Leica M mount (long out of patent protection by that point) meant that hundreds of lenses could be used with the R-D1.
However, Leica's Visoflex series of reflex adapters would not fit the Bessa / Epson bodies, so without “live view” (which only arrived years later, the Lumix G1), R-D1, photographers were pretty much limited to the three main focal lengths (28mm, 35mm and 50mm) marked in the finder. For most, this was not a great problem.
The R-D1 mimicked an analog camera a closely as possible, using the rapid wind lever to cock the focal-plane shutter – although there was no film to wind.
And it featured a rather nifty “Seiko watch-inspired” analog indicator on the top plate to show the shots remaining, image quality, white balance and so on. This “inspiration” is not surprising, as the Seiko Epson Corp also makes Seiko watches!
Unlike a film camera, however, the R-D1 had a fold-out 2-inch (diagonal) reversible screen that featured 235,000 dots. Later models increased this to 2.5 inches, though the resolution remained the same.
For those who wanted the classic film experience and preferred not to “chimp”, the display could be reversed and folded inwards to protect the screen. Doing so then revealed a Leica-like ISO reminder dial, but in fact it was a small conversion table between the three focal lengths and their equivalents on the APS-C sensor.
An interesting wrinkle is that the “rewind knob” is the jog dial, for reviewing images. You simply pressed the “monitor” button and rotated the dial to move between the images. To see the information on a particular shot (EXIF data, histogram and such) you pulled it up and rotated it.
In 2006, the R-D1s arrived. Physically unchanged, it had upgraded firmware for RAW + JPEG mode, the ability to shoot in Adobe RGB as well as SRGB, and a few other perks. Owners of the original R-D1 could upgrade to the latest standard. The 12-bit RAW files could be captured at ISO200-1600.
Production continued until 2014, with some 10,000 cameras produced. The later models, with the 2.5” fixed rear screen, were sold only in Japan.
There is one more interesting wrinkle to the R-D1 story. In November 2021, while Epson was reorganizing its warehouse, it discovered 30 brand-new, in-box R-D1 cameras that had been sitting there for 12 years! (I have seen similar situations with other suppliers, over the years.)
The company refurbished them and then offered them via lottery to verified, Japanese R-D1 owners rather than discarding them.
The reason for limiting the lottery to previous owners was that the batteries in the “newly discovered” R-D1’s had not withstood the test of time and new ones were no longer available. So the winners needed to be able to use their existing R-D1 battery.
The winners got to purchase an otherwise-new camera for ¥2,000 (about $18 USD). It was an unusual, but wonderful way to end the series!
Read more of David Young's ongoing series on classic cameras, as well as his book A Brief History of Photography.
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