How do the different digital rangefinders compare?

[Jonathan Wienke]

The R-D1 is pretty much the only game in town for digital rangefinders righnt now, and has been featured in two articles still on the hoime page of this site. Go read them.

[BJL]

The R-D1 is pretty much the only game in town for digital rangefinders right now

... the Leica Digilux 2 ...

The Digilux 2 is not a rangefinder; it does not have the defining feature of the rangefinder's split image focusing system.

Apart from Leica's tenuous involvement in that fine Panasonic product, it has no more connection to rangefinders than any other digital camera with a peep-hole (not through the taking lens) viewfinder. I liked my Olympus C-2040 and its fine f/1.8-2.4 lens, but I never called it a rangefinder.

[avalon]

For the better part of the last 10 years, I've been taking photos with a SLR (and more recently, DSLR).

Since owning the DSLR, I realised I grew up, at home, using a rangefinder camera (Voigtlander) that my parents owned.  This has been "retired" because the flash broke and was not reparable.  This realisation only came about when I saw that name mentioned in a article on the website here and thought "I wonder...".

I've read the articles here about digital rangefinders and they've left me wondering if they're "ready" for normal use, especially for someone who is used to using a [D]SLR.

The first question, not having done any extra research on this topic outside of reading this website, is, what other web sites have articles about people using rangefinders "in the field" and comparing them with SLRs on how they function, quality of picture, etc?

Also (because I haven't yet researched the topic well  and I'm feeling lazy |-), how have others, aside from those who have written articles for this website, found using a digital rangefinder for an extended period of time after using a DSLR?

Are there any others, of note, aside from the Epson R-D1?  Putting "digital range finder" into google gets me the first page with only hits about that product.

Has anyone, who primarily uses this type of camera, actually compared one with another?

btw. can we call a digital rangefinder a DRF?

[Graham Welland]

The R-D1 is pretty much the only game in town for digital rangefinders right now

Well that might be true for interchangeable lens based digital rangefinders. I've found the Leica Digilux 2 to be an excellent travel camera with great glass.

Would I swap my DSLR's for just the Leica? Nope. Different needs/capabilities but it does produce fine pictures.