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Any opinions on the new R8?

Not that I'm interested in an R-series camera, but one thing I did find worrisome about the specs for this camera is that the exposure bracketing function for it is limited again to -0.5 / +0.5 -- just like the GRD, GX100 and GRDII. Yet this is a newer camera. I wonder if the message is getting through to Ricoh that they need to abandon this narrow bracketing limitation in their cameras. I do hope that this unnecessary restriction will be removed in later incarnations of the GX or GRD range (or simply in firmware).
 
Yes, this limitation in bracketing is rather strange. I personally would like to know if there is a reason of such limitation. I will ask my contact in Ricoh about this problem. Unfortunately, the chance we will get a reasonable answer is very low. But we may never know? ;)
 
I got a confirmation (from Stanley Young from GR Fan Club) that the R8 zoom and AF noise level is significantly improved! The AF is now very silent. The improvement should be similar to GRD/GRDII noise level improvement. A definitely great news!
 
This is indeed great news. I will be in Japan next month and if I find a good deal on the R8 I might end up buying it as I really like the design and think it will complement the GRD very well.
 
Ha..are you going to personally withdraw your price from Ricoh Photo contest? ;)

I'm curious about the R8 noise reduction performance. Hope they did not break the nice R7 chroma noise removal?
 
Hi all still enjoying my grd buttt the R8 sounds very interesting..Most of my pics are candid,i looked at the r7 grd but it was pretty loud,i brought and sold a fuji f30 over how loud it was(it really bugs me),so great news that this model is quiet, maybe a great little camera for candid shots...

Any info about the zoom,be great if it can be set like the GX,i'd buy it if you can set the zoom in steps
aj
 
Hi aj! Sure, you can set the zoom in steps. It's already possible with R7. You can even record your favorite zoom position in My Settings 1 or 2 so when you switch to My 1 or 2, the lens will automatically zoom to saved position.
 
oops read the review again (just flown back from vegas to uk so a bit tired lol)...It does have the step option on the zoom "the step zoom has distinct jumps 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 105mm, 135mm and 200mm".. I'm buying it yeeharrrr..
 
I should have the R8 soon so I will definitely make a R7/R8 comparison. I'm sure, there are many R guys waiting for such test? ;)
 
Hi Odk hope ur well,i just edited it does have the step i'm very exciteddddd..I wanted a R7 but the sound it made put me off,and i read the GX was loud to..I love my GRD but i really take 80% candid pics and the grd is set on snap mode most of the time,in fact i stress to much in manual and ruin half the pics, so a great small camera with a snap mode & step option on zoom would suit me fine!!
 
Unfortunately nothing yet :( I will ask my contact if they already sent it. Stay tuned! ;)
 
Good news folks! The R8 is on the way! So if there will be no problems, I should have it on Friday or early next week. When it arrives, I will immediately start with tests.
 
Don't have it yet, but the good news is that it entered Slovakia and it's on the way to me. Unfortunately, parcels are not delivered during weekends so I should have it on Monday. Hope for some good "photogenic" weather next week ;) Today was a gorgeous day and I did some nice shots with GRDII and few with R7.
 
Very cool, looking forward to the review :)
BTW Pavel, what do think of the new Olympus E420 and the 25/2.8 pancake lens?
 
Well Lili, as an E400 user I'm rather disappointed by the E420 upgrade. No IS, no manual lens focus confirmation, still the small and dark viewfinder, simply no real improvements.

The pancake lens is OK. The smaller lens for E4xx, the better. I would only be worried about the quality of this lens. The recommended price $349 is not a sign of top grade lens? But we will have to wait for some real world tests.

As for E420 alone, as I mentioned, it's a disappointment for me. Face detection (gimmick) or shadow adjustment technology (just an in-camera JPEG processing..probably auto-curves..not useful in RAW) are just toys and marketing features. No IS, the same small viewfinder, still the same size (E400, E410, E420 shares more or less the same body), which can hardly be called pocketable. It may be the smallest DSLR (this is why I bought it) but it's still not small enough. The main advantage of 4/3 system should be small size of camera and lenses. E4xx is close but it should be even smaller.

My second gripe with E4xx is its end-user orientation. Why the small cameras must be automatically entry level models crippled from some serious features? Why it cannot have all these nice features from E510 or even E3..of course, at higher cost? I would gladly pay the E3 price for really small (max size of DP1) and feature rich camera. But I will never buy anything larger than E4xx. Even the E4xx with all its feature cuts is no longer attractive for me. E4xx is nice concept, but in my opinion, seriously crippled by marketing.
 
Ok, SIL sent me four pictures last night, which I guess she shot around the house when she got back from her shopping trip to pick it up. She's very much a beginner, so these are from a real user! As far as I know, straight out of camera at factory settings.

http://gallery.mac.com/careilly#100122 - full size files are there for download.
 
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