Ricoh GR1s ... some questions regarding value.

[Keith]

I've been thinking about getting a quality pocket sized point and shoot film camera for a while now and have seen a few pass through the classifeds that interest me. The little Contax appeals but seems to be premium price as does the neat little Nikon with the retro looking dials on the top ... I don't really want to spend this much!

Luminous Landscape gives the Ricoh GR1s a really good wrap ... especially the quality of the lens. I also like the understated look of the camera but I'm not sure what they're worth. There's currently one for sale on Oz ebay in decent nick and I'm thinking about bidding on it as freight costs will be low compared to sourcing one from elsewhere and with a few days to go there seems to be little interest in it.

What do you think would be a fair price for a seven year old GR1s that was supposedly serviced by Ricoh in Japan a year ago? It looks pretty clean to me!

 

[ernstk]

Keith

It's a great camera and the lens is excellent. In the UK, good ones are going for around £200 (AU$360).

I would recommend it highly.

Ernst

 

[btgc]

Nice to hear someone believes in film P&S's! Uh, I mean those little more expensive than current 0.99 trend 🙂

 

[Albee]

It is a very good little camera, I got up not long ago, it has a very good lens, if 28 is your lens, do not hesitate.
Alberto

 

[sevo]

IMHO it is overpriced, though - the lens is nice, but the camera body is rapidly approaching its end of designed lifetime. Most of the R1, which were the parent design for the GR family, and are five to ten years older, already have LCD failures - and that is a failure point better production quality can't do anything about (F3-F5 Nikons or the Contax G have similar problems).

 

[Benjamin]

Sure so it's not going to last a lifetime, that's what pictures are for not cameras.

It is however a very decent, user friendly, and dare I say disposable, camera.

Get on it.

 

[nightfly]

I lucked into getting a standard GR1 (no S) off KEH for a really good price a year ago and I love it. I've had a Contax t1, t2, Olympus XA, XA4 and a Minox GTE. Each one had something about it that made me get rid of it but the GR1 is still going strong along with a Yashica t4. GR1 is for black and white, the T4 for color.

The aperture wheel and the snap mode pretty much make it the perfect street camera for me when I don't want to take my Leica. Also the slimness of it makes it very easy to slip in a pocket without having something bulky in there.

Basically there's no excuse not to take it with you and the lens is good enough that you will not notice a difference when displaying with prints from your Leica.

 

[john_s]

The one for sale in NSW is too expensive. The condition is not all that impressive. The wear indicates a fair bit of use. The intermittent display is a big disadvantage, and is not inevitable (as the vendor seems to be suggesting).

Keith, for someone like you, the GR1v would be better because it has manual ISO film settings.

I had a GR1 which occasionally locked up. Only removing the film restored it. Removing the battery did not. I now have a GR1V which is going well. No problem with the display.

IMO, it would be better to wait for a mint GR1v even if it costs a bit more.

I don't know if this range of cameras can be repaired, but if one does fail it's probably not going to be easy.

 

[.ken]

I wish I could afford a GR1x right now but I found a cheap Nikon Lite Touch with a 28mm f3.5 lens auto focus and panoramic. Seems like a cheap alternative point and shoot without all the extra bells and whistles. Anybody have any experience with this camera? I was also looking at the Ricoh R1 but that was only 30mm f3.5 and panoramic.

 

[sevo]

I wish I could afford a GR1x right now but I found a cheap Nikon Lite Touch with a 28mm f3.5 lens auto focus and panoramic. Seems like a cheap alternative point and shoot without all the extra bells and whistles. Anybody have any experience with this camera? I was also looking at the Ricoh R1 but that was only 30mm f3.5 and panoramic.

The R1 can be switched between 24mm and 30mm panoramic and 30mm full frame - if you block the panorama blinds, it will do 24mm full frame with vignetting as well.

The Nikon Lite Touch (AF600 for us Europeans, where cameras still had a type designator during a time when the US had gone over to embarrassing mottoes) is not exactly the king of sharpness (probably a AF rather than a lens matter), but not really awful either - mine has a rather strong tendency to overexpose on high-contrast subjects, which disqualifies it as a slide film camera, but I can't tell whether that is a general problem or a flaw on mine.

The Ricoh GR21 (21mm), Fuji Natura black (24mm f/1.9), Fuji Silvi a.k.a. Zoom Date F2.8 (24-50mm f/2.8-5.6) and R1 (24mm panoramic) are the widest point and shoots I am aware of. The Silvi in particular is neat - essentially a wider version of the Natura Classica in a more ugly casing, at a fraction of the price.

 

[BillBingham2]

Keith,

Not sure what a good price is but you might sneak over to www.ricohforum.com and ask. Good site (though not as good as here) with folks who use Ricoh cameras both film and digital.

I had an R1 and loved it till it tested gravity from the top of the TV in the bed room and found it still working. From everything I've seen, in what I would call the "More Professional" Space their primes are very good. I was very happy with my old GRD and am equally happy with my faster GRD III lens. Matter a fact, there is a link to some GXR shots (with there APS-C and 33mm Micro lens) from a Chinese web site that quite frankly had me drooling.

You can find some manuals over at Crazy Mikes Little House of Great Stuff:

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/ricoh.htm

Look to the bottom right.

Sorry I can not be of more help.

B2 (;->

 

[BillBingham2]

Here's another spot you might look four manuals.

http://ricohforum.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=202

B2 (;->

 

[nonot]

I haven't seen one in Canada go for much less than $500, which is too much to keep my frugal self from adding it to my already ridiculous collection of point and shoots. But boy do I want this camera badly.

oh, and the gr21 as well.

 

[btgc]

seconding sevo, I can confirm that Fuji Zoom Date F2.8 aka Silvi is very nice. It were started before Nature, as I recall so latter could be called brighter version of Silvi 🙂 Natura has sexier body (is it heresy to say so? 😱) if you are tactile type, though Silvi has English interface. And thanks to TWO release buttons I can give it to my left-handed dear wife. Wish it would have manual ISO override or +-EV1.5 (oh, latter is available on Black Silvi, Japan only, so much rarer than Silver).

 

[shiro_kuro]

There is also a GR10 that may be cheaper ...

check out the links below ...



http://web.archive.org/web/20080101114016/http://www.gr1.artsociety.net/

http://filmwasters.com/forum/index.php?topic=771.0

 

[amateriat]

I have an original (and made in Japan, no less, FWIW) GR-1, which has been on the DL for a few years from a steep drop onto concrete. When it was still working, it was wonderful, although the AF/film-wind mechanics made more of a racket than I would have liked. Last May I picked up a used Contax Tvs (first version) from FrankS, and I'm lovin' it lots.

Chelsea Triumph, 2001

Twilight from Manhattan Bridge, 2002

Trio, Summer 2001


Eventually, I will get the GR-1 fixed, although there are a few small photographic priorities ahead of that (unless somebody want a decidedly "as-is" GR-1 on the cheap...). Getting the Tvs reminded me of why Really Good compact 35's are so important to me.


- Barrett

 

[Keith]

The one for sale in NSW is too expensive. The condition is not all that impressive. The wear indicates a fair bit of use. The intermittent display is a big disadvantage, and is not inevitable (as the vendor seems to be suggesting).

Keith, for someone like you, the GR1v would be better because it has manual ISO film settings.

I had a GR1 which occasionally locked up. Only removing the film restored it. Removing the battery did not. I now have a GR1V which is going well. No problem with the display.

IMO, it would be better to wait for a mint GR1v even if it costs a bit more.

I don't know if this range of cameras can be repaired, but if one does fail it's probably not going to be easy.

Thanks for pointing that out about the ISO setting ... I downloaded a manual and checked and sure enough if you put a non DX coded film into the GR1s it defaults to ISO 100 and there appears to be no manual selection to over ride this. For someone like me who shoots predominantly from bulk loaded film in used cassettes from the local one hour that's not much use at all!

Cancel the plan for the GR1s and think about the 'V' or an alternative I guess!

 

[john_s]

Thanks for pointing that out about the ISO setting ... I downloaded a manual and checked and sure enough if you put a non DX coded film into the GR1s it defaults to ISO 100 and there appears to be no manual selection to over ride this. For someone like me who shoots predominantly from bulk loaded film in used cassettes from the local one hour that's not much use at all!

Cancel the plan for the GR1s and think about the 'V' or an alternative I guess!

For DX-coded cameras our solution was HP5+ developed in Microphen. At least that really is close to its DX code speed of 400.

There was a very good GR1 web site that was hard to find because it moved and I can't find it now. However I have a file copy of the page that I could email you if you wanted it.

 

[Keith]

I did have a thought about this ... I have a friend who could print me up some thin vinyl stickers with the appropriate bar codes on them. Provided they are placed accurately on the cassette I should be able to get the camera to do what I want! 😀

I would really like to be able to shoot one of these little things at ISO 1600 to overcome the rather slow lens!

 

[john_s]

I did have a thought about this ... I have a friend who could print me up some thin vinyl stickers with the appropriate bar codes on them. Provided they are placed accurately on the cassette I should be able to get the camera to do what I want! 😀

I would really like to be able to shoot one of these little things at ISO 1600 to overcome the rather slow lens!

The DX sensor in a camera is looking for patches of electrical conduction. The silver metal conducts, the black paint insulates. There aren't many ways to reduce film speed conveniently by sticking bits of adhesive label on the conducting bits. One that you can do is reduce the speed of Neopan1600 to 400 with one little square, which helps those of us who like shadow detail but not much help to anyone else.

That's why I like the GR1v so much. DX is a complete PiA imo.