two panos from here

[quester]

Not works of art, but shows the landscape here. A bit better if you click and open.

The first is "home sweet home" - although at this time of year it's more like "home sweat home"...
Bottom right is the solar tower, for those who have noticed the photos I posted of it. Middle far right is the start of the date orchard, where I work.
BTW, small village in the distance at the foot of the mountains is already Jordan.

Second one is taken from the back of a new solar panel field in the area. Luckily the moon is in the sky, because for a while I thought I was on it....

 

[Spode]

Nice panos. I like the first one where the hill/ mountain dwarfs the settlement.

 

[Orol]

Thanks for posting, quester. Seems quite a small area to dwell in for one's whole life. How about the cabin fever (or submarine disease as we say here)?

Peter

 

[Blow-in]

Pretty staggering shots for the PX - it really likes the desert colours and the clear air. How many of you are living in the settlement?

Richard

 

[quester]

Thanks for looking, folks!

Thanks for posting, quester. Seems quite a small area to dwell in for one's whole life. How about the cabin fever (or submarine disease as we say here)?

Not my whole life, but 30+ years is still a lot of it. "Social" cabin fever is the problem, as a collective type of community like this (kibbutz) has its friction points. But I have an immense "backyard" to relieve the pressures when needed... There's a town of 40,000 inhabitants a half-hour away, so it's not as lonely as it looks.
Another problem is no Ricoh dealer for thousands of kilometers!

Richard, we are a hundred members here (around 45 families), plus many children of all ages, and a spattering of temporary residents like volunteers and guests. A lot of good people, and it's very difficult at times to run things cooperatively. But it's an interesting experiment.

 

[Schaki]

Nice to see these pictures. A little interesting how the second is not a lot though noticeably darker on the left side than the right.
I can't help but think that you for image quality would benefit from using a rugged dust, shockproof and waterproof camera like the Ricoh Caplio 500SE or 500G.
Long time ago around the announcement of the Ricoh PX I've had a look at several PX full size sample images in reviews as well as previews and there is some sharpening artifacts and as far as I know no sharpening options in the menu?
the 500G/SE is definitely bulkier but after all, overall the top of the hill among these Ricoh-cameras it is the best of them for image quality, Low NR and ok corner sharpness even at the wide end of the zoom as long as it is a good copy of it with no crazy sample variation.
At the moment I've one 500SE and one 500G and while the 500SE have ok corner sharpness the 500G is almost dreadful in the corners due to noticeable corner softness because of bad sample variation. With exception for the larger lcd and the fact that the 500G/SE have no aperture-priority, these two cameras are heavily based on the Ricoh Caplio GX8 which have the same nice zoom with fast Phase detection AF and also the same somewhat noisy 1/1.8" 8mp sensor as the first GRD.
The slight purple cast which can occur randomly outdoors when Auto white balance are used are imo the only real weak link in the chain there. But as I almost always the white balance set to Cloudy/Overcast for outdoor use regardless if it is sunny,normal or a cloudy day, it definitely works better that way. The purple cast occur less often that way and when it is there it is less worse than probably would have been with AWB.
One might argue about however the Low NR is good or bad. It certainly preserves finedetails better than the somewhat more harder NR in the Ricoh G600 which also have a smaller 10mp ccd.
The G600 however have at least one edge over the 500G/SE for image quality and that is the sometimes Clarity in the images. I had both these two cameras at a time and took as identical images as I could in a shootout between these two.
But it really should be said that I had not had the 500SE for a very long time at that stage and not yet figured out how a work around for the Purple color cast problem so I was still using Auto white balance when I did that test and in some of the pictures it really showed.
I found that Album at Dpreview after first having found the actual thread I made for that comparison and also that two or maybe three pictures which no longer shows up in the thread still seems to be available in the Album. Weird.
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/50299 ... ainst-each
And the thread http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/2 ... t-35111981

 

[quester]

Thanks for the input Schaki.

When I was considering which digital camera to buy (the PX is my first and only), I indeed looked at the info on these Ricoh models. However, because they were more expensive, and I had no clue how I would take to using a digital camera, I preferred to buy the lower-end PX. Time has passed, and I now know better what I would like as my next camera. I am still hoping that a manufacturer will put out a serious WR compact with aps-c sensor. It would be a great tool for the backpacker/traveler who wants to go light, and for streetshooters who like to be out in the rain...and I would be happy to take it to work everyday, where I take the bulk of my photos. Hoping Ricoh/Pentax will be the ones who do this.

I missed my opportunity to get the new GR - a "compromise" until my afore-mentioned 'dream camera" is manufactured. My sister was in the States in June, but the camera was not yet in stock.

 

[cupidsrose]

hello everyone.