Ricoh GRD III at last ...

First of, congratulations on the purchase.

Now I have a hard time deciding, if I should go for the original GRD, or sell of my Sigma DP1 and use the money for the III :/

Someone in need of a Sigma DP1? 😀
 
Thanks guys. More will be coming soon.

OlliL - I would say it is matter of taste. What it is that you do not like about your Sigma? As far as I understood it has its quirks (speed, high ISO), but it is quite unique and the files can look really good. After last few days I confirmed what I already knew - I am much more familiar with 35mm focal length - the 28 requires a bit different approach, but can be used nicely in particular in cities or interiors. But it is very easy with wide angle lenses just to use them to "capture it all" instead of using their field of view for some interesting compositions.

The GRDIII has really some nice features and once you set up your 3 most favorite modes you will be very quick. Video is just OK as it misses stabilization, but gets the job done. The BW out of camera is really nice and you can set it up to your taste (toning, contrast, sharpness).

My next step is to try RAW and compare that to out of camera JPEG to see when it may be interesting to shoot RAW.
 
Well it's exactly what your saying about the Sigma, but my main problem is (was) that it isn't really pocketable. I have the X100, so I wanted something smaller.

Long story short: just sold the Sigma and bought a GRD II. 🙂
 
Matus said:
Thanks guys. More will be coming soon.

OlliL - I would say it is matter of taste. What it is that you do not like about your Sigma? As far as I understood it has its quirks (speed, high ISO), but it is quite unique and the files can look really good. After last few days I confirmed what I already knew - I am much more familiar with 35mm focal length - the 28 requires a bit different approach, but can be used nicely in particular in cities or interiors. But it is very easy with wide angle lenses just to use them to "capture it all" instead of using their field of view for some interesting compositions.

The GRDIII has really some nice features and once you set up your 3 most favorite modes you will be very quick. Video is just OK as it misses stabilization, but gets the job done. The BW out of camera is really nice and you can set it up to your taste (toning, contrast, sharpness).

My next step is to try RAW and compare that to out of camera JPEG to see when it may be interesting to shoot RAW.
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I had a hard time getting used to the 28 on the GXR since I shoot 35 on the Leica exclusively but I've found the solution quite often is just to take a few steps closer.
Trust me, after using the 28 for a while you'll start seeing things in that focal length and then it will be weird to use a 35!
I totally agree with you on Ricoh's black and white implementation. I think it's the best b&w I've seen out of a digital camera.
 
OlliL said:
First of, congratulations on the purchase.

Now I have a hard time deciding, if I should go for the original GRD, or sell of my Sigma DP1 and use the money for the III :/

Someone in need of a Sigma DP1? 😀
Click to expand...

They are very different cameras, and I would advise to keep both, if you are able. The DP1 does things that the GRD III simply cannot, particularly with colour and depth of field. The GRD III, on the other hand, is a lot faster in operation, will find focus much better in low light, and has much better high ISO colour and noise.

For quite some time, I used the DP1 as my daylight camera and the GRD III as my nighttime camera. This arrangement does work very well!
 
Not a bad idea.

I sold the DP1, but in Germany we can get them for around 125€ on the used market, so their isn't any problem to get another one.

For now I'm really happy with the GRD II and I also like the color jpgs, when shooting at iso 200, or 400. Very Portra-like.


Behind the clouds von oliverleschke auf Flickr
 
Great decision, the GRDIII will be a good travel companion. Maybe get the wide angle and adapter, it does not degrade the image quality by any mile. I travel also with only this camera and the wide angle lens. Snap mode in B&W can make a faster street camera.
 
I love the GRD, but unfortunately the 28mm is a little too wide for my taste. Maybe if I lived in NY or London, where the streets are packed with people. But regardless the GRD is the only compact digital I know of that appears to have been designed by actual photographers and not marketing drones.

If they made one with a 35 I would buy two... or if I had money to burn I would just buy a GRD III.
 
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I have a soft spot for the GR-series too, film and digital. Why they used a 28mm instead of a 35 is beyond me? Perhaps just to shave a couple of mm off the length? Or a sick joke they've been playing since the GR-1?

As we move to larger sensors for image quality, and in spite of the millions of tiny cameras sold, I have a hunch that photographers still haven't really explored the creative possibilities that the small sensors hold. It's only been a recent cyclical trend to prefer selective focus -- had we had these little unlimited depth-of-field wonders in the 80s then we would have been ecstatic... if we appreciated these little noisy cameras for their unique characteristics then we wouldn't be feeling like pissing an extra grand away on the larger sensor compacts.
 
Isn't there 1001 noisy cameras? Seriously, these small compacts have evolved much from what they were a few years back. Some of them can do ISO 800-1600 without smudging the image specially when using in-camera black and white which the GRDIII is very capable.
 
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