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Just joined and am opening my GRD1........

G

GRDoneUser

New Member
Hello to forum members. I've been a sometime Ricoh GRD1 user in London and the south west of England since 2007. Sadly the camera died a couple of years ago and the repair seemed relatively costly so I put it away and fell back on my Nikon D60. However, a couple of months ago I decided that I should give Ricoh another try and bought a 2nd user GRD1 on eBay. I had all the various accessories from my failed GRD1 and, thus far, its been a pleasure to become reacquainted with the camera. So far, its main use has been in creating panoramas and, in that role, its been ideal.

As the 'new' GRD works in all departments I decided to conduct an autopsy on the failed version and its been a journey of discovery which brought me to this forum because I hit something of an impasse which Will Forman has clearly managed to avoid. His photo series on Flikr is really useful but I'm stuck because the flash is not deployed and as the camera is 'dead', I don't know how to release it to get to the catches beneath it. Any suggestions would be welcome as would any other guides to taking the GRD1 apart.

As an 'old skool' film and print photographer, its a shame that the GRD series doesn't enjoy the reputation that its film based ancestor, the GR enjoyed. Few digital cameras can approach the reliability of their analogue counterparts and I hope that the GRD1 will renew my faith in these devices. But I am sure that this forum will be a reliable resource when I hit problems, as I'm sure I will.

Regards and best wishes to all.

GRDoneUser
 
Hi man and welcome to the forum! I absolutely agree with you regarding the GRDI. It's an underestimated gem especially when it comes to B&W photography. Is it slow?...Yes. Is it noisy?...Yes. Is it prone to the ADJ wheel failure?...Absolutely! But still, there is no other compact camera like this with similarly appealing output. And because of different sensor in the newer GRD models (with completely different color characteristics and much stronger NR) GRDI still produces the best JPEG files. I often wish to see the GRDx with the old GRDI sensor and all these nice features from the GRDIV. In my opinion, it would be a killer GRD :)

Good luck with your "new" GRDI! And please don't hesitate to post some photos from the GRDI autopsy! ;) Enjoy the forum!
 
Thanks to photos posted on Flikr by Will Foreman, I have opened up my old GRD1 and it is definitely not a job for the faint-hearted. It has been hugely informative to see the tight packaging of a digital camera and also to understand that the lens and sensor is a single module. This is probably the only way that the manufacturers could make it work. I also better understand why, when these things go wrong, the manufacturers will, most probably, give you a replacement rather than repair the faulty item. The risk of damaging the internals when opening the casing (as I suspect was done by Ricoh when they assessed the camera for repair) is very high unless you know exactly how the device went together.

I'll follow Will's example and post a few of my GRD autopsy images on Flikr.

Regards to all.
 
Wills photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/72611934@N ... 794831744/

If you are thinking about opening your GRD, think very carefully and make sure that you can afford to write the whole thing off. The internal packaging is very very tight and the ribbon cables are not very strong. It is very easy to damage them.

My own photos concentrate on the casing of the GRD and I will post them on Flickr as an addition to Will's comprehensive set.

Regards

GRDoneUser
 
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