Ricoh GR pictures and impressions

[VladimirV]

I had my GR for almost a week now and have been enjoying it a lot. After being a bit sceptical at first, I now see how good it really is and how well it works.

In use the GR is simply fantastic, everything has been improved and refined from the previous generations, the start up time, shot to shot time, AF, write time have all been improved and are now at least twice as fast when compared with the GRD IV or the GXR A12 28mm.

The image quality is equally great and beats the GXR A12-M in terms of noise, dynamic range and even detail (now I really want thus sensor in a new M mount module!). Even the JPGs (usually a poor showing from Ricoh) are excellent.

The GR is a fantastic little camera and one I can fully recommend to anyone looking for a really serious compact or if you just want the best backup camera you can get.
The GXR A12-M will still remain my main camera as nothing can touch some of the lenses I have for it and the character it gives but the GR is great for travelling light and for ultimate IQ it beats the somewhat older 12MP sensor in the GXR.

But enough with the talk, now it's times for some pictures.

You can read some more of my impressions and see more pictures on my blog here: http://ricoh-gr-diary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/first-ricoh-gr-outing-and-impressions.html

 

[streetshooter]

Cristian,
Nice first outing. The whale...I won't ask.......

Would you mind explaining what you think of the Modes and also the Snap etc?
thanks.....

 

[Tom Caldwell]

Cristian,
Nice first outing. The whale...I won't ask.......

Would you mind explaining what you think of the Modes and also the Snap etc?
thanks.....

Don,

What I think is new in Modes - I may be wrong as I simply may not have noticed it: If you set up a Box Mode and transfer it into a My Mode with the same name then any future changes to the Box Mode will be mirrored into the corresponding My Mode.

For example if you were out shooting with one of your excellent street set ups you could could save it to (say) Box Mode #1 and call it "Street" then copy it to My Mode #1. Therefore when the dial was on My1 you would always be in that set up when the camera was first switched on. (All kindergarten stuff - forgive me for being pedantic).

But if you modified your setings then you would have a choice. In order to be able to switch the camera off and on again and retain the modified settings you could be either in PAvTvTAvM ("PATTM"?) mode or relying on My1 which you would have to update for those changes each time you switched on. You then have a choice - a temporary change for the moment could be saved to the My Mode and break the auto-connection to the host Box Mode (which you could later revert to) or changes made direct to the Box Mode1 which will auto update the My Mode1 automatically and permanently. If the change to My Mode1 is only temporary then it can be refreshed from Box Mode1 and renew the link. I will have to test whether changes made on the fly can be saved direct to the Box Mode and keep the link in place. [Ed - I tried it, it does not work, if you were in My Mode1 "Street" and made a change to it then saved it as Box Mode1 "Street" then it does not auto-update My Mode1 as well - apparently the link is broken - nothing is "perfect" I guess - just more complex :shock: ]

The idea seems to be to give the best of both worlds. Either the My Mode can be used as a scratch pad for suitable settings on a particular day or the working settings might have become generic when the Box Mode can be updated without the need to similarly update a corresponding My Mode - that update would be automatic.

I see the whole MyMode-BoxMode idea as a way for individual users to incorporate their individual styles of shooting into their personal camera tool - the beauty is that it can evolve naturally or alternatively, if most settings are already known, the camera can be preset once and be a natural living tool from there on in.

I would like to see Ricoh supply the cameras out of the box with some Modes pre-set as I think that setting up a camera with some first modes might not be an execise that some users would relish.

Tom

 

[Tom Caldwell]

I think I have made a mistake. It is in the interpretation of point one under "Note" at the top of page 105 of the manual. It is a little ambiguous, to save looking it up here are the words:

"If the settings of [My1 ..] are assigned in [Recall My Settings] and the settings of My Settings Box are edited, the changes are also applied to the settings of [My1 ..].
If the settings of [M1 ..] are directly edited, the changes are not applied to the settings of My Settings Box. Furthermore, if the settings of My Settings Box are subsequently edited, the changes are not applied to the settings of [My1 ..]"

The last sentence seems to contradict the first paragraph.

What it must mean is that if you edit the Box Mode you can recall it into a My Mode - we know this. What is puzzling is "the changes are also applied".

Hey - it does work I feel less like a dummy, more like a teddy bear :geek: . If you do a "Street" type setting recorded in Box Mode then recall my setting to a My Mode set up as "Street" then if you go back and edit the Box Mode "Street" then the recalled Mode "Street" is similarly updated. I think that this is new.

The meaning of the second paragraph is that if you edit the My Mode directly then the link from the Box Mode is broken and changes there will no longer auto-update the My Mode. (phew!) done, makes sense.

Tom