Gr-d
Gr-d
Hi!
I bought mine on December last year, so this is only a first opinion: cameras are like people, sometimes we have to change opinion when we know them better... 🙂
As an aside, I also own the Ricoh GR-1 and I really liked it (I haven't used for a while, that's the reason for the past tense) and that was one of the main reasons why I bought the GR-D.
I wanted a camera that I could take anywhere, with a wide lens (38mm on 135 does not cut it for me as the limit...), good image quality (lens + sensor + software) and optical viewfinder. The GR-D seemed to fit bill, except for the last requirement. But it has a flash/accessory socket and the 28/35 VF from Cosina/Voigtlander is oh-so-cute and fits the GR-D even better than the "original" VF, IMHO.
Ergonomically, it works very well, (almost) no complaints until now. I keep the LCD only for reviewing. The CV VF matches the FOV of 3:2 format very well. When I need to focus on something very close, just turn on the LCD and use it. Flash will try to open on auto mode and sometimes your fingers will be over it... Having the same door for SD and battery is strange for those who use a card reader (I do...) as the battery will be loose everytime you acess the card.
Battery is well behaved, flash is useful for fill-in and even powerful enough for main light (but ugly shadows, etc). The camera has two controlling wheels, one for the index finger and one for the thumb and they can control the menus (just like the D80). I have to say I just love this, using the menus is incredibly fast and ergonomic.
Felt (and still feel) quite at home after a few years with the GR-1. Never read the manual, still didn't need it.
Image quality is outstanding for a compact but gets noisier over 200 ISO. That's to be expected, really. I'm used to the Epson R-D1s and that's probably the problem... 🙂 There are no miracles and the GR-D is far from the perfomance of my Nikon D80 or even my Nikon D100 (not to mention the Epson) regarding noise over 200 ISO. But none of them would fit my shirt pocket with a 18/2.5 mounted... 🙂 And it's better than my Coolpix 5200 on this regard. Noise tends to be like "grain" and not like the "colour patches" you get in some other compacts. I use NeatImage for noise reduction / sharpening and it does a very good job on GR-D jpg files.
The lens is quite good at 2.5 and improves when closing down. You can control everything.
If you want top quality, you can shoot RAW (DNG) but the camera gets very slow. So slow it's annoying, if you are not expecting it. Using DNG you get a definite boost on quality (both detail and noise). For things like landscape, architecture, etc, the raw delay is no problem at all.
A funny thing is that I use three CV 28/35 VFs: one on the GR-D, another on the M3 (silver) and still another (black) on the Epson (for my Zeiss 21/2.8 Biogon). So, all my three mostly used camers feel the same (in a way) to me.
All in all, I'm very happy with it as my "go-with-me-everywhere" camera. There are lots of pictures I would not get any other way. I recommend it, no doubt. Just don't think you'll get Epson/Leica/DSLR quality with it without some effort (you can!) and you won't be disappointed.
I attach a picture I just made of the GR-D+CV VF together with the Epson R-D1s (with the CV VF and the 21/2.8 Biogon), the Leica M3 (with CV VF and the 35/3.5 Summaron/hood) and the Nikon D80 with the Sigma 20/1.8, to compare looks and sizes. We have to admit the GR-D is a small camera, indeed.
I can post a few photos from the GR-D but I have no direct comparison with other cameras. If you don't bother seeing boring pictures I can always take a few photos of my bookshelf with each one and post them... 🙂
