Today’s Post by Joe Farace
I love to photograph old trucks with lots of personality like the one above. For another example, see my post, “Shooting Wide Screen Photography with Film,” that was made with a Horizon panoramic film camera that I no longer have but am sorry I sold. It happens…
I photographed The Yoga Truck using an Epson R-D1 digital rangefinder camera that was introduced in March 2004 but was later discontinued in 2007. It was, in fact, the first digital rangefinder camera that was available, even before Leica made one. The R-D1 was never officially imported into the US but I was able to borrow one for a few weeks and made, among other images, the above photograph. (A friend at Epson let me borrow that camera.)
The R-D1 was jointly developed by Seiko Epson and Cosina, who used to build their modern and impressive take on Voigtländer cameras but now specializes in creating beautifully crafted, unique and somewhat expensive Voigtländer lenses. Used Voigtländer are available from, all the usual suspects.
The Epson RD1 accepts all Leica M-mount lenses and you could fit earlier Leica screw mount lenses by using a lens adapter. The R-D1 and subsequent versions of the camera used the same 1.5X Sony sensor as the Pentax *ist D (remember that one?) and also Nikon’s D100.
How I made this photo: I encountered this truck in front of a Yoga School in, I think in Fort Collins, Colorado. The lens used with the Epson RD1 was a Voigtlander Ultron 28mm f/2 lens with an exposure of 1/1600 sec at f/8 and ISO 400. The camera originally sold for $599 or about $981.18 in today’s dollars. You can pick up an Epson RD1 on eBay buy expect to drop two grand to own one, so it’s moved into “cult camera” territory. Me, I’d love to own one because it was a delightful camera to use but there are other cameras that are high on my “want list: so there’s that…
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