Anyone onboard care to share their experience as an R9 user?
Not interested in the DMR aspect as such (have a 5D), more the basic R9 as a Leica-glass equipped SLR designed for manual focus. There's lost of info/opinion on the DMR, but little I've found on the basic camera itself.
Not that I'd turn my nose up at a DMR if it fell off a truck in front of me....
I use the R9 almost exclusively with the DMR these days but when I first got it I shot almost exclusively with film and love the camera. Wonderful viewfinder and works superbly with the manual focus R lenses. At today's low prices it is hard to see how you could go wrong if you are still serious about shooting film.
My usual camera is the R8 but I've had an R9 for a while as well. There is really only one difference between them and that is the lock which prevents the mode switch being altered inadvertently. Apart from that they are the same. (edit) Having said that, I would probably try to get a second hand R9 over an R8, simply in the hope that some of the R8's bugs have been ironed out.
The viewfinder in this camera is extremely good, arguably one of the best you will ever come across, and this really does help to get better pictures simply because you will miss fewer shots because of minor focus issues. Focusing on the edge of the screen is a breeze, you don't have to focus in the centre of the screen.
The shutter speed dial is very easy to opereate without moving your eye from the viewfinder and the viewfinder also shows you your metering pattern (unlike the EOS 1V, pain in the ass, even 'though it is possibly a better camera overall). Seeing everything in the viewfinder allows you to quickly change metering patterns from spot to 'matrix' (or whatever they call it). The metering on the R8/9 could be better. It's pretty good when it does the metering for you, using it's multi pattern, matrix thingo metering. The problem I find is that the spot meter is so broad that it is pretty difficult to select and meter specific parts of a scene, unlike the EOS 1V which has a very fine spot meter and arguably better metering overall.
The shutter release on the R8/9 is very smooth and I've found that I can hand hold it about a half stop slower than I can pretty much any other camera (I don't use rangefinders).
Main problem I've had with the R8 is that some of them (don't know the serial number range) have been known to scratch the film as it advances. I had this problem on one of my bodies and I have seen some info on the net about it but can't remember any sites. You might want to google it.
The camera is quite big and bulky but very comfortable to use. It really is quite well designed from an ergonimic point of view, it just works.
I have a 5D with CZ and a wish list of Leica glass and an Fe2 that I got as a sweet 'what the hell' package deal with a 50/1.8 and 40+ rolls of older Velvia 50 and current Velvia 100F ($200 for the lot).
Having never shot slide before I was VERY impressed with my first roll came back - this with a <$100 lens.
I love the Zeiss and Leica glass on the 5D. While the 5 will handle pretty well any glass, I would like to have lenses that I can share, to the degree possible, between the 5 and a film body that was DESIGNED for manual focus use. No question the Zeiss are sweet, but they (ZF mount) max out (fl) at 100/2. An EOS 1xxx would work, but it, unlike the Fe2, R9 and rangefinders are NOT designed for MF use - dark VF's limited focus screens, etc. This narrows the film camera range to a Leica R or Nikon.
The 5D with a EE-S gave inconsistent focus results. Focus confirm adapters are hot/miss. Have a BrightScreen on order, but partially getting fed up with the wide mfg tolerances we see in the 5D. Besides, it doesn't shoot film ;>
A rangefinder would be smaller, have no mirror slap and allow use of CZ, Voigt and Leica M and LTM (with adapter) glass, but it would entail FL duplication and a max FL of, realistically, 135mm or so.
I've read Erwin's thoughts on the R9 and the chap from photo.net who just bought by 90 Sumi Apo gave me some great input as an R9 shooter, but am trying to wrap my head around the $$$ delta between a used 8 (KEH $900) and 9 (KEH $1600). I do like what Erwin says about the weight placement of the 9 however (lower CoG). The Anthracite R9 is also a real drool-machine looks-wise.
Anyway, enough rambling - keep the thoughts coming.
The R9 is also more likely to work with a DMR properly if you ever go that route.
I have both a R8 and two R9. Other than the mode lock switch and lighter weight, the R9 allows the user to fine tune the Matrix metering by 1/3 stops. When shooting the DMR, I had my R9 tuned to -1/3. This is also handy when shooting slide film.
The R9 and R8 tend to have meter cells go in them. I don't know if it is DMR related or we just started hearing about it from DMR users as they started posting here. I had the cells go in my R9 four days before a two week vacation. I panicked and bought a new R9 and couriered the old one to Kindermann to get repaired. They ended up doing the repair in a day and I took the old R9 with DMR mated to it on vacation. When the tech was replacing the metering unit, which is the mirrorbox module, not just some cells, he told me using the computer diagnostics, he could dial down my metering by 1/3 of a stop globally (all program modes/metering modes). This R9 now meters almost perfectly in most situations when shooting digital and I assume probably slides.
BTW, it is an antracite R9. If you are interested in an Antracite R9, I may part with it and start using the new one I bought prior to the trip. I am in Canada too, so you avoid the customs and brokerage fees.
Never used an R9, but have a couple of R8 bodies which I love. I'm shooting film with'em and had to have the meter cells replaced in both of'em, so I don't think it's related to the DMR. The metering/metering display/metering range, is just great. A simple to use camera that IMO is very ergonomic. I dropped one of'em on some rocks a while back and the lens mount had some damage and the back door [the camera bounced] but the inner workings were undamaged.
Hard cameras to beat unless you get a Leicaflex SL or SL2.
gmanp wrote:
.... I'm shooting film with'em and had to have the meter cells replaced in both of'em, so I don't think it's related to the DMR. ....
Just wondering, what are the sympoms when the cells fail? Is it total failure of the metering or does the metering slowly go off over time (and cause lots of grief before you realise what's happened)?
JohnJ wrote:
Just wondering, what are the sympoms when the cells fail? Is it total failure of the metering or does the metering slowly go off over time (and cause lots of grief before you realise what's happened)?
JJ
It seems to be the meter goes way off in daylight, but is still quite good in dim light. It may be that there are different cells for different light levels. I think mine was off by three stops or more in daylight.
The metering cells in a R8/R9 are in the mirror box. These cameras are modular, so the repair is a new mirror box. It is a $360 part and $275 in labour to replace it.
JohnJ wrote:
Is it total failure of the metering or does the metering slowly go off over time (and cause lots of grief before you realise what's happened)?
JJ
What Robert said. In my experience, the metering doesn't go little by little. You'll know something's wrong if it happens the minute it happens. It was like having a lens cap on the lens, because the meter read LO all the time no matter what I did with the exposure mode or the shutter speed/aperture ... but obviously I could see fine (and not just the dark lens cap either ) through the viewfinder.
Mine had same symptoms as Robert's and PSquared63's, meter was all over the place.
Both my bodies are fairly early units, nearly 10 years old, both purchased used about 3 years ago, so I don't know what kind of use they saw before me.
) through the viewfinder.