GXR A12 28mm: Street photography settings

[108]

Hello, I just purchased the GXR A12 28mm for street photography and am tinkering with the settings.

Am interested in knowing what other street photographers general settings are. Especially ones who have mastered this machinery.

Am also curious which is better for street photography, Snap focus or one of the other AF settings together with Full Press Snap

My links are below if interested

Thanks ahead

VC Ferry

 

[streetshooter]

VC......I use the 28 most times.
So, here's my idea on setup...
I use Snap focus a lot not always.
I use Full press snap... Just really press it no issues.

fn 1 to AF/Snap
fn 2 to Aspect Ratio. I used to use A mode all the time but now after the last firmware...
I like M mode. I set ISO to auto high 3200 /1/30 sec.

Here's my thinking.....most times with the 28 hyper focal distance is at work.
The Ricoh scale..on the left side...is very accurate. Yes, I tested it.

Let's say we are at F8. Hd of 6.6' set the snap distance to 2 meters.
Now your good from 3.3' to Infinity. By playing with the snap focus distance, it's easy to set up a zone of acceptable focus at any given fstop.

The camera is very responsive. I keep power and screen on without going to sleep. Get batteries.

If your working snap focus and need to get critical focus...just hit fn1 and your now at AF.
Aspect on fn2 does a few things. I normally do 3:2 aspect. It's native to the GXR anyway.
If I feel there's too much tension in the frame, I can hit 4:3 or any other in a press. Do a horizontal portrait in 3:2.... Then rotate the camera and frame again... It's a more natural tension to go to 4:3.

I use a wrist strap. All my straps come from Luigi, there are non better. I fasten it to the tripod socket... I know, I know.... I take meds....ain't helping...
A wrist strap on the street keeps the camera at the ready and...
The camera on a wrist strap becomes a protective hunk of metal against an assailant.

My thinking is ...if someone is trying to get my camera, they get a very bad headache first.
Neck straps do not function the same as the thief now has something to grab.
One must always be prepared.

I guess that's it... Oh, I am still in a nightmare about the raw/jpeg thing. I always do raw and loved my screen in B&W. It is no longer possible as raw only shows that uh...uh...color crap.

There is a special time I use jpeg. The HiBW scene mode is most interesting.
You can't adjust exposure settings so I keep the camera in auto iso. The jpegs generated are really first class.
I run them thru LR4 & Nik Silver Effex and get amazing images.
If I was you get I'd keep the camera set that way but beings older, I would be to comfortable...

 

[108]

Sharp shooter, thanks so much for your response...very detailed

Some things:

Excuse my ignorance but what does this mean: "Hd of 6.6'

I thought Full Stop Snap doesn't work with Snap Focus, at least it says that in the manual

Are you stating the fn toggles can be set to bounce just between a specific Focus mode....I already changed it to open up the menu of Focus options settings, but it sounds like you might be saying it can be set to bypass the menu of options and just go to the one you set it at?

Being on A mode, say its on F8, how do you deal with less light, while keeping the same hyperfocal distance, when it's too dark to keep it at f8 with the offset of the shutter?

Thank you again

Oh and btw, I lived in Philly for 5 years, and much of my street photography is from there

VC

 

[AlbertTRAL]

Welcome to the forum Ferry. Very nice collection of photos! Can you please comment what brought you to choose the GXR?
Regarding your doubts:

Some things:

Excuse my ignorance but what does this mean: "Hd of 6.6'

Hyper focal distance of 6.6 feet, roughly 2m.

I thought Full Stop Snap doesn't work with Snap Focus, at least it says that in the manual

Full Press Snap has sense if you are in AF, if you are in manual, infinite or snap you can already "full press snap" at the distance you have chosen "by definition".

Are you stating the fn toggles can be set to bounce just between a specific Focus mode....I already changed it to open up the menu of Focus options settings, but it sounds like you might be saying it can be set to bypass the menu of options and just go to the one you set it at?

Yes. you can assign direct toggle AF/MF, AF/Snap. See the very first 2 options of the list.

Being on A mode, say its on F8, how do you deal with less light, while keeping the same hyperfocal distance, when it's too dark to keep it at f8 with the offset of the shutter?

Increasing ISO setting. The camera has Auto-Hi, where you can choose the ISO top limit and where you can choose the minimum speed level for ISO change. The camera will choose ISO down to the unit, not in full EV steps as in other cameras.

 

[streetshooter]

Thank you Albert....Now I actually understand what I wrote and in fact what you wrote....

VC.... Do you have an intelligent phone? My iphone is smarter than I am and because of that there are 2 apps you need as a street shooter....
1st off is DOF Master but I like My DOF because it's faster and more intuitive on the street.
The second is a good math converter... I use Globe Convert. Both are free.... so....
For some reason as good as the GXR is it only thinks in meters. Can you imagine, in this day and age.... so we here in the colony need a converter to get things from meters to where they belong in FEET! Just kidding youse all.....
Now your out and you look at the DOF app for any given f stop and you see what it says for Hyperfocal distance. That's where you put your Snap focus distance at. IF YOU WANT TO WORK IN HYPERFOCAL DISTANCE. At any rate, between the 2 apps you can figure out where your zone of focus is at....
Remember the GXR scale is more accurate then most realize.

If you don fn1 as I suggested, then a press on the button will get you to snap and another press will get you to AF. I set AF to SPOT AF as this is the most accurate setting.
As far as the meter goes....it's as accurate as any other meter but has no brain. It sees what it sees and I almost never agree with it. We argue all the time and I actually win because I set to M mode.
I can set 1/125 f8 and the camera will set the ISO. The camera no longer has fun by guving me a slower speed in A mode. I don't like that at all. So now, I have control of 2 out of 3 parts of the exposure equation.By the way, I almost always do B&W and I trust the camera out to 3200 because of that. In color, I may want to stay under 1600 prolly 1200 to be safe.
Good luck.....

 

[108]

Welcome to the forum Ferry. Very nice collection of photos! Can you please comment what brought you to choose the GXR?
Regarding your doubts:

Some things:

Excuse my ignorance but what does this mean: "Hd of 6.6'

Hyper focal distance of 6.6 feet, roughly 2m.

I thought Full Stop Snap doesn't work with Snap Focus, at least it says that in the manual

Full Press Snap has sense if you are in AF, if you are in manual, infinite or snap you can already "full press snap" at the distance you have chosen "by definition".

Are you stating the fn toggles can be set to bounce just between a specific Focus mode....I already changed it to open up the menu of Focus options settings, but it sounds like you might be saying it can be set to bypass the menu of options and just go to the one you set it at?

Yes. you can assign direct toggle AF/MF, AF/Snap. See the very first 2 options of the list.

Being on A mode, say its on F8, how do you deal with less light, while keeping the same hyperfocal distance, when it's too dark to keep it at f8 with the offset of the shutter?

Increasing ISO setting. The camera has Auto-Hi, where you can choose the ISO top limit and where you can choose the minimum speed level for ISO change. The camera will choose ISO down to the unit, not in full EV steps as in other cameras.

Hey, thanks for the response...I chose GXR because I wanted a more portable and less visible camera than a DSLR

Obviously Full stop woulnt be needed on Snap...should have thought that thru...duh!

I feel like I am doing something wrong though as I am getting a lot of off focused pictures

My settings are:

A mode
Snap
2 m
f8 ( which the distance meter shows green from 1m to infinity

And when I do Spot AF with Full Stop, it's out of focus plenty also

What am I doing wrong here...

Does the camera have to be held really steady?

Thanks again for the help

 

[streetshooter]

Welcome to the forum Ferry. Very nice collection of photos! Can you please comment what brought you to choose the GXR?
Regarding your doubts:

Some things:

Excuse my ignorance but what does this mean: "Hd of 6.6'

Hyper focal distance of 6.6 feet, roughly 2m.

I thought Full Stop Snap doesn't work with Snap Focus, at least it says that in the manual

Full Press Snap has sense if you are in AF, if you are in manual, infinite or snap you can already "full press snap" at the distance you have chosen "by definition".

Are you stating the fn toggles can be set to bounce just between a specific Focus mode....I already changed it to open up the menu of Focus options settings, but it sounds like you might be saying it can be set to bypass the menu of options and just go to the one you set it at?

Yes. you can assign direct toggle AF/MF, AF/Snap. See the very first 2 options of the list.

Being on A mode, say its on F8, how do you deal with less light, while keeping the same hyperfocal distance, when it's too dark to keep it at f8 with the offset of the shutter?

Increasing ISO setting. The camera has Auto-Hi, where you can choose the ISO top limit and where you can choose the minimum speed level for ISO change. The camera will choose ISO down to the unit, not in full EV steps as in other cameras.

Hey, thanks for the response...I chose GXR because I wanted a more portable and less visible camera than a DSLR

Obviously Full stop woulnt be needed on Snap...should have thought that thru...duh!

I feel like I am doing something wrong though as I am getting a lot of off focused pictures

My settings are:

A mode
Snap
2 m
f8 ( which the distance meter shows green from 1m to infinity

And when I do Spot AF with Full Stop, it's out of focus plenty also

What am I doing wrong here...

Does the camera have to be held really steady?

Thanks again for the help

I'd be willing to bet that what your seeing is movement and not out of focus. In A mode, the camera chooses speed. So maybe you shoot at f8 to get the DOF you want and you don't pay attention to the camera. The camera then shoots at 1/30 or something and you get movement. The way around that is to read my above post....

 

[AlbertTRAL]

Agree 100% with Don...what is your speed? Iso? Is your blur warning triggered? In the 28mm this warning goes on below 1/30 speed. If your iso is in auto by default, your max is 400 (800 with flash)....you need to set auto-hi as Don points out....

 

[myecholalia]

streetshooter,

this is an excellent and very helpful explanation of your setup. Shooting in M-Mode makes so much sense now that I know about the new Auto-ISO feature in FW1.50. For some reason I completely missed that... Will try shooting in M on the coming weekend.

Regards,
Thorsten

 

[Tom Caldwell]

What is obvious is that this is not an ordinary normal modern digital camera that thinks for you.

It can do this but it does allow any user to step outside the boundaries. Exploring what you can do and what mistakes are there to be made not only makes you think more about the process of photography but also makes you learn and the process is enjoyable.

Those photographers who say "it is easy" have passed through that necessary learning process and have the confidence to instinctively twist the right knobs for any given situation.

Myself, I am past the point of wondering what the best settings might be but I still have to think about my set up each time, but I enjoy the process and it is hardly time consuming. Sometimes I have to experiment a bit.

The wise words on here are from those who have already done much experimenting.

Sometimes it is a struggle to do better than a mobile phone though, so I somtimes wonder why we rustics worry so much about having the very best in camera gear.

Tom

 

[streetshooter]

Tom my friend.....you had me till the mobile phone thing.....
Now I'm wondering about you.....hmmmmmm

 

[autochrome]

Nice post,really one some the best of Ricoh Forum,i think ! and this forum is one some the best...
again i just purchase 28mm myself... and that all isn't in the instructions !

 

[streetshooter]

Congrats on the 28. There exist no finer camera then the GXR 28.
I'm anxious to see what you see with it.
Enjoy...

 

[108]

Thank you all for adding to this post, it has been very informative