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Unhappy with picture quality

J

justinhannaford

New Member
Hi all,

New to the Ricoh forum and Ricoh in general (Nikon D700 user) so be gentle on me ;) Just bought the GR IV 2 months ago and in general like using it. I do, however, have 2 bugbears, and I am not sure if it user error or there is something fundamentally wrong.

Firstly, when taking a photo of say a man in a black jacket, the entire picture looks fine, except the black jacket. It comes out in a very unpleasant green noisy mess. Take a look at what I mean, his arm and jeans look awful. This is from the DNG, not JPEG (pls see attached)

The other thing that I have noticed is that when using Aperture or Shutter priority, some images don't seem to expose properly. For example, if I choose Shutter priority and the image is overexposed, I sometimes need to change the Shutter to compensate. I thought the whole idea of these settings were that the camera adjusts the Aperture vs Shutter to give correct exposure. I have tried Auto ISO and manual ISO buit nothing seems to work. I think I may be doing something wrong but not really sure as coming from DSLR, I would expect what I have done to work properly.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Justin

EDIT:

I have attached another photo that shows the issue more clearly I think. The stone above the graffiti has turned green, as has the cobbles underneath leading into the image

EDIT #2

If you look to the top right under the arch, you can see the green noise I am talking about:
 

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Hi Justin,

I'm not really seeing the green noisy mess on the jacket but there is quite a green-blue tint to the whole picture (at least on my monitor).

I notice that you have the whitebalance set to manual...are you still having a problem on auto?

Richard
 
Hi Richard,

Thanks for your response. It's difficult to show the issue as the photo had to be attached at no more than 900 px on the longest side. I always manually set the white balance, it's just a habit that I have always done so.

If you look at his right leg just below the seat you can the shading, not green but greyish. His right are is greenish, not black as per his jacket's actual colour. You can kind of see it in the ruffles of his sleeve between his elbow and hand. His right shoulder has been altered too. Also the downpipe just below his left hand is greenish, when in fact it was black in real life.

Cheers, Justin
 
Hi Justin and welcome here! Don't worry, you have found probably the friendliest photographic forum. We definitely don't eat new members, not even those with the D700 as a primary camera ;)

As for your problem, it's hard to say from this small sample, but I believe I see some ugly green maps on jeans. GRDIV is unfortunately small sensor camera with all disadvantages coming from the small sensor (relative low DR, noise visible even at low ISO, etc...). However these green maps looks like something messed up during the DNG conversion? Can I ask what RAW converter did you use? Could you please somewhere upload the original DNG? Or simply send it (zipped please) to support(at)ricohforum.com .
 
Hi Pavel,

Many thanks for your response.

I take your point on being a small sensor compared to the D700 but I have a Panasonic LX3 too and I have never seen this issue with that. This is why I am really struggling to understand what is going on as I read lots of reviews and opinions on the GR IV and they almost all were very positive. I am hoping that I have just got some setting wrong on my camera as I have not found anyone else reporting this issue. I want to love this camera! :D

I have emailed 2 DNG images directly from the camera, many thanks.

I generally just use Lightroom for converting images but in this instance, the issue appears directly from the camera, before any post processing. These images are quite dark anyway, but I deliberately underexposed 2 to accentuate the issue. The image of the man is slightly dark but should not have caused to many issues I would not have thought

Thanks once again, Justin
 
justinhannaford":2f4zk0h1 said:
Hi Pavel,

Many thanks for your response.
Click to expand...
You are welcome! ;)

justinhannaford":2f4zk0h1 said:
I have emailed 2 DNG images directly from the camera, many thanks.
Click to expand...
Got them, thanks. I will look at them later today when both our little girls will be in their beds ;)

justinhannaford":2f4zk0h1 said:
I generally just use Lightroom for converting images but in this instance, the issue appears directly from the camera, before any post processing.
Click to expand...
Do you mean the pics posted in the initial post are in-camera JPEGs? Or just unprocessed DNG files exported from LR?
 
You sound like you work too hard! :lol:

The images I posted were the DNG files directly from the camera. I know that GR IV save DNG & JPEG, but I don't look at or use JPEG at all

I only mentioned LR as that is what I normally use to process RAW and convert to JPEG. I have not used LR in this process.
 
OK, I examined both files (while girls were occupied with supper) and these files are definitely weird. They both show very strange posterization patterns visible mainly in shadow and dark areas. Something I would newer expect to see (and never saw) in RAW. I will try to simulate this problem with my GRDIV.

In a meantime, I would suggest you to update your camera with the most recent FW 2.10 available here:
http://ricoh.com/r_dc/download/firmware/grd4/
As I noticed, your pics were taken with the original GRDIV FW 1.14, which may be not the best one? It may contain an unknown DNG processing bug, possibly eliminated in most recent FW versions (bug fixing 1.17 or feature enhancing 2.10). You may never know?
 
Thank you Pavel, I will update as suggested. I did not think to do anything as I only bought the camera 6 weeks ago!

I will let you know how I get on, and thank you once again for your excellent help.
 
Hi Pavel.

Updated to v2.10. Taken a few test shots in circumstances I think it may have blown out as before and it looks ok.

Will need to put it through the paces properly, so I will head out this week at some stage and give it a decent run and feed it back here on the forum.

Many thanks, and grab some dinner yourself!

Cheers, Justin
 
I've Just got my GRD IV last week as well. I can see the issue you are having (I'm using a terrible monitor right now which shows the problem rather well). I hope the firmware update fixes your issue. As for me I've updated my GRD to latest firmware straight out of the box and I've not seen this issue. I've took it for a test drive at a wedding last weekend to see how well it works in high iso. Lots of black suit that I had to pull out of the shadows and I've not seen the green cast anywhere.

I've to say, I was surprised how well this camera performed in this situation...

ISO 1037:
R0010515-M.jpg


ISO 519:
R0010542-L.jpg

ISO 168:
R0010543-L.jpg
 
Ok well I have an update after updating to 2.10. Have taken quite a few photos since updating and everytime I introduce anything dark or black I still get this green shading. Not sure what to do now, although I am considering taking this back to where I bought it and getting them look at.
 
Hi Justin,

I'm sorry to hear that you are still experiencing this problem. Any chance you can export your actual GRDIV setting to SD card and send it to me (to email as before)? I don't think this has something to do with the camera settings, but one never knows? I will try your settings with my camera. The next step I would suggest to contact Ricoh support. Your camera definitely acts weird. The question is, if it's SW or HW problem.
 
Hi mate, how do I export this information? I am working today not far from the shop I bought the camera from so will head up after work as I havd some images on the camera I can show them. I thjnk that's the first place to start and then I will explore Ricoh support if I don't get any joy. Anyhow, I will keep you updated as some other owners may havd thus issue in the future. Thanks Pavel
 
all cameras IV has your problem or just yours ?

if it is just jours camera you should use the garantie, if it is a common problem :oops:
 
could you (or eventually odklizec) show here a 100% crop of a picture with the problem, so that other users can eventually say if they have the same problem ?
 
Hi all, just an update of where I am at with this issue. I went back to the shop I bought it from and they suggested I try auto white balance or return for a refund if I was still unhappy. I took the camera out for some more tests using auto wb but found the green noise still an issue.
Next I referred the problem to Ricoh support. They asked me to format the internal memory and reset defaults and test. I was able to replicate the issue and sent them example files. Ricoh support have come back saying that the images show no distortion and in their opinion there is no issue. They have offered to take a look at my camera if I send it then.
I am really disappointed with this outcome. I don't want to send my camera off and then find out they still think there is no issue. I will then be unable to return and will be stuck with a very expensive camera that produces well below acceptable images. I have decided to return the camera for a refund. It's a shame as if it worked as it should it'd be a fantastic package. Thanks for your help in getting me to this stage btw. Much appreciated.
 
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