Film emulation with the Ricoh GR

[an8x]

Everyone here knows the way how the Ricoh GR cameras handle high noise in black and white, creating that beautiful film-grain effect.

I did a little bit of experimentation myself with the Ricoh GR to see if that film-grain look can be achieved using a high ISO in colour.
We probably all spend more time behind screens than we care to admit and for this reason, I wanted to avoid doing any post processing.
The images you see here are out-of-camera jpegs with no processing applied to them.

See the rest of the experiment:
Film emulation with the Ricoh GR

If anyone has any questions or comments, I would love to hear them.

 

[thelps]

I very much enjoyed your article.
I have been a film user for many years and have done little with my GR lately because I have been scanning my pile of slides and film neg strips.
One thing that surprises me about the neg film in particular is the consistency of colour and appearance of the images.
There is of course a marked difference between the slides and neg film but across the versions of neg film less so to my eyes.

It is interesting to see your in camera jpg approach, while I do shoot RAW+JPG I often find a jpg is "good enough" for a postcard print so I don't bother processing the RAWs for every print. In a few cameras that I had, the LX3 and X100 I found it hard to improve upon the out of camera jpg using a RAW converter. Maybe that is just down to my poor skills.

While I still have two film cameras (an OM4 and Contax T3), I doubt anytime soon i will be using them.
Not at least until I catch up with my film scanning.

I like your "The Long Shadows" image a lot.

Here's a scanned slide, I can't recall when taken, maybe 20 year ago.
The black border is the original slide mount, not added in software.

 

[an8x]

Thanks for your comments Tim.

As someone who is experienced in film, what are your thoughts on the colour noise of the GR images? Do you think it emulates film well or poorly?
The colours of the GR images do vary quite a lot, unlike the neg slides you referenced. I would probably put it down to the temperature of the lighting which is likely to be different in almost every image.

I'm really keen to try the Fuji X series to see if I would get on with them. The jpegs look outstanding but I I really don't need another camera in my collection! Even a secondhand X100 still holds it's value well.
The GR does have the Positive Film preset that I do use regularly. I see camera jpegs almost like film types; film is purchased for it's colour reproduction, contrast, grain etc. Camera sensors and in-camera processing can be seen in a similar way; they have a signature look.

I love the vibrancy in the image you posted. What set up did you use for that shot? Do you do much post processing with film scans?