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Pentaxista... and now Ricohian, too

frank_b

frank_b

New Member
I started getting somewhat serious about photography 18 month ago when I bought a Pentax K-x - fantastic camera I use on all my trips and family outings. Besides the 18-55 and 55-300mm kit lenses (good enough for me on most occasions, I have to admit) I snapped up a few manual focus primes, including a pancake 40mm and a K-A 50mm F 1.4, on ebay.
As much as I love my K-x, I was looking for a point&shoot I could carry with me basically on a daily basis, but wanted something that I could fully control myself, to improve my photography skills. Naturally I came across the Ricoh GRDs and GX'es, and shortly afterwards the Ricoh-Pentax announcement came out, which I think is a good development, and it strenghtened my wish to own a Ricoh.
After looking on ebay quite some time, last week I came across 2 great opportunities, a GRD I and a GX100, both with their respective viewfinders, both in good shape, and snapped them both up for 120-130 USD each as I could not resist. So... I find myself with 2 Ricoh compacts and am very happy about it. Especially the GRD is such a joy to simply look at and handle... and the GX100 is very nice as well. Ergonomics are truly unbeatable.
My question to fellow Ricohians would be: if you use a GRD and/or a GX100, what are the typical situations that you use them most, and what settings works best for you with these cameras? I'm trying to figure out which of my new toys to use in which circumstances.
thanks a lot, Frank
 
Hi Frank and welcome here! It would be interesting to know how many pentaxians came since the Ricoh-Pentax announcement? I'm sure this merge will bring us some truly excellent cameras and lenses.

As for your question, GRDI is without the doubt the best compact camera for direct B&W photos. There is simply no other camera with as good B&W results. The photos from it have very nice detailed and film-like. In color mode, the photos are very good up to ISO200, above that value, photos would require some good color noise treatment. GRDI is also known for it's very minimal (if any) noise reduction. This is both good and bad approach. It's good because of very detailed B&W photos, it's bad because of somewhat noisier color photos. However, unlike the modern compact cameras, the color noise from GRDI is very different and much easier to clean than for example color noise from GRDII and GX200. I personally prefer GRD (no matter which one) over any zoom camera, because it's limited focal length forces me to think about photo. And yeas, I believe it made a bit better photographer than I was before the GRD ;)

BTW, because of minimal NR in JPEG, there is no need to use RAW with GRD. In fact, using GRDI in RAW mode is a painful experience, because of long delays between shots (at best about 6-8 secs).

As for the GX100, it's very good all around camera. The in-camera noise processing is harder than in case of GRDI but still better than in case of GRDII/GX200. Color photos are also very good. It seems the GX100 uses different sensor than for example GRDII, with more warm colors. It can take some very good color photos and you can get some excellent results from RAW. RAW is faster to use than GRDI, but still not as fast as are today's standards (about 4secs per RAW+JPEG).

What's great feature available in both GRDI and GX100 is Snap focus mode. Once mastered, you will no longer have to rely on sometimes slow and loud AF. And because of relative small sensors used in GRD/GX100, there will be plenty of DOF so you will not have to worry about precise focus. Of course, this apply for shots in range 2m-infinity. In case of close-up shots it's always good to use AF ;)

Hope this helps for now? Enjoy the forum and don't hesitate to ask in case of problems! And please, don't forget to post some photos! ;)
 
dear Pavel,
thanks a lot, that is very helpful! :) The Snap focus mode is using the hyperfocal distance based on aperture, I suppose? In this case, if I change the aperture, does the lens refocus? I was just wondering what you meant by "mastering Snap mode".
I'm in UK today on a business trip, first time I have my GRD with me, and will post some pictures of Windsor later.
And I will definitely try shooting with native B&W JPEG settings with this little marvel.

regards, Frank
 
just one extra question: what's your view on using settings for picture "finish", especially the "Hard focus" option which I think would sharpen the contours (and conversely the "soft" would blur them) - is that something you used?
 
frank_b":2b10au1c said:
just one extra question: what's your view on using settings for picture "finish", especially the "Hard focus" option which I think would sharpen the contours (and conversely the "soft" would blur them) - is that something you used?
Click to expand...

I am a bit puzzled by this question Frank and I guess you have bamboozled the others as well.

Further to Pavel's excellent summary on the GRD original I might add that I have perversely used the GRD on high ISO B&W in good light as well, simply scaling back the EV compensation to get the look I wanted. Images full of grain and real character. If you want to complete the bargain trio of old Ricoh compact cameras you should also try the R4. This looks like a consumer point and shoot and you can lose yourself in the tourist crowd easily enough but it sure is a mean performing little camera. Not the GRD of course but well worth having if you can find one. Again the R4 b&w jpg images are very good. Once shot a very good wedding reception set (as a guest) in b&w with a R4 using a mini-monopod and available light only. All three cameras use the same battery - a plus.

Tom
 
Hi Tom, I was referring to the "Image setting" (maybe I did not get the designation right) where you select "B&W" or color or you can select "Hard" or "Soft". Hope this clarifies. Cheers, frank
and thanks to all for their great input, helping me to get the most out of my new toy!
 
Ah! Nothing like a bit of curiosity to make me get the "old neglected" out for a peek. The hard/soft/normal are just variations on the primary processed colour capture style. Always used normal myself but I might experiment a bit - best way to find out something is to simply to try it. If you don't have a side menu "detail" next to b&w then you have an earlier version of the firmware. In this menu you can set b&w contrast and sharpness. I have mine set to maximum contrast and miniumum sharpness.

On my Flickr site I posted a series of b&w images showing the complete combination of b&w settings to show how they looked - must find and post the link. Ricoh are very good in supplying firmware upgrades and the very last update for the GRD supplied FV compensation. This was a retrograde step as I think that it decoupled the normal EV reading which read flash illumination as well and made them separate settings. Did not work as well in my opinion - but that is another story deep in the historical archives of the GRD.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49387980@N ... 295493690/

The series of chair images at the bottom of this set.

Tom
 
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