Considering a Ricoh GR-D. Have ?'s

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Jared S
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This camera really appeals to me. I am primarily a street photographer but I have been wanting to get away from 35mm for some time. I'm tired of developing and scanning the small negs. I want to have an all digital workflow (except for my 4x5 of course. Never letting that go).

I do have some questions for those of you who actually own/have owned one.

The biggest issue with this camera seems to be the noisy sensor. From what I have seen it is about average for a P&S sized sensor. The noise pattern also looks rather nice up to 800iso in the photos I've seen. Do you have any complaints about the noise? How does it compare to the current higher end P&S cameras?

I shoot RAW for everything digital. The RAW write times on the GR-D are frightening. Is RAW even usable for street? How do the JPEG's compare?

With my 35mm street photos I'm not very careful about exposure (sunny 16 mostly), developing (I just use Diafine for the simplicity) or scanning (flatbed Epson) so I'm not terribly concerned about perfectly crisp, sharp, smooth, etc. shots. The feel of the image is the most important part to me. Are you happy with the results of any "quick and simple" shooting/editing from this camera?

Finally, do you think it's worth giving up 35mm for? Would you miss having a rangfinder to focus with? Keep in mind that I do have a very nice DSLR for those times I need the high quality images. The only thing I am using 35mm for is street/candid portraiture and the GR-D seems to do these well.

Thanks for any help. I appreciate it.

Jared
 
appart from the 10 sec. raw exposure times the GRD is an excellent digital medium for creating and almost reaching B&W film quality. When I use it, I will use JPG just for the speed of things..... Get the 28/21mm finder with it, this is essential, and don't use it for colour shot at high ISO .... It really does make excellent B&W digital images. As for the cap.... don't have a problem with it. The whole camera looks pretty solid to me.
 
I'd wait to see what gives with the new GX100. The GRD is a great little camera. RAW is excellent for everything. JPEGs are great. I wouldn't be concerned so much with noise. There are many good programs for this, Noise Ninja etc., and it can be made to look like grain in Photoshop.
 
kbg32 said:
I'd wait to see what gives with the new GX100. The GRD is a great little camera. RAW is excellent for everything. JPEGs are great. I wouldn't be concerned so much with noise. There are many good programs for this, Noise Ninja etc., and it can be made to look like grain in Photoshop.
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The GX100 doesn't interest me all that much. I don't need/want the zoom and it will probably cost more. The 2mp difference is almost useless. The only advantage it might have for me is lower noise, and as I already said the noise doesn't bother me.

I've never liked programs like Noise Ninja or Neat Image. They make the image look too fake and plastic-ey in my opinion. I havn't used one in some time though so maybe I'll give it another try...

Thanks.
 
I had a GRD for a while. I liked the noise and the general image quality, and the camera was a lovely little thing too. I'm usually a stickler for RAW but the JPGs were fine (although I tended to do a bit of local contrast enhancement in PS, so it's not ideal to use JPG). My complaint, and the reason I got rid of it, was that the depth of field was still pretty large even when wide open.
 
If it's just a second/third/fourth digital thingie you are buying ... check out a Fuji finepix F30, cheaper .... great low light results .... even in B&W ... but no RAW
 
Mafufo Acilu said:
If it's just a second/third/fourth digital thingie you are buying ... check out a Fuji finepix F30, cheaper .... great low light results .... even in B&W ... but no RAW
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I'm looking for a primary street shooter, so not a backup camera or anything like that.

The most important thing about the GR-D is the shoe. I need to have an optical viewfinder that isn't tiny. I do not want to use the screen for composing/shooting. I considered getting the LX1 or D-lux and adding a shoe to it but I don't really want to do that. I can't find another P&S with a shoe, much less a hot-shoe.
 
wintoid said:
I had a GRD for a while. I liked the noise and the general image quality, and the camera was a lovely little thing too. I'm usually a stickler for RAW but the JPGs were fine (although I tended to do a bit of local contrast enhancement in PS, so it's not ideal to use JPG). My complaint, and the reason I got rid of it, was that the depth of field was still pretty large even when wide open.
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Depth of field is not a problem for me. I like having lots of it for street. If I want to do portraits or something else with shallow DOF I have my K10D and some nice lenses.
 
yeah, then you will certainly like the GRD, have you checked out the Flickr GRD forum and pics ....
 
shutterfiend said:
I'm in a similar situation. Thinking about going digital with candid stuff. Is there a reason that you didn't consider the new Sigma DP-1 for?
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Probably going to be too expensive and I don't like the tradeoff between smaller max aperture and higher iso's. It does look like a cool camera though. If the lens was a bit faster and it was as pretty as the GR-D I'd be seriously cosidering it.

I think the thing about the GR-D that appeals to me the most is the hyperfocal setting. I almost always use hyperfocal on my RF's for street shooting so it's a nice feature for me.

Edit: The metal body is nice too. It seems like it can take a beating.
 
The Sigma is slower but has a bigger sensor, so even at f/4 it will still have less depth of field than the Ricoh. But then if you're interested in that, a 28/2 or 28/1.9 on 35mm film or APS-sized digital is the way to go. The Sigma, though, is a lot larger.

Doubtless many cameras beat the Ricoh on this or that count, but for me it's perfect.

It's so small it fits snugly into something like the breast pocket of a suit. This means I have it with me most of the time, when it's a bit of a hassle to take an RF or SLR and a few rolls of film on the offchance of taking photos, e.g., every day at work, popping out to the shops.

As my only cam, I don't think I could live with that, mainly for the DOF issues. But it fills a gap for a pocketable, versatile, controllable digicam that can go anywhere. So I can see how it might fit in with what you already have. And I've had prints done - colour, b/w - without any PS work, and they're fine.

Noise? It doesn't look bad at all, especially in b/w. After pushing Tri-X in Diafine or even shooting Provia 400F at 2500, I don't give a monkey's about noise. As long as it doesn't look like my 0.3MP cameraphone (yes, that's 0.3), I don't really care. In fact I look on in contempt as all those people who said it's the photographer not the camera and who knocked Leica and said a photo with a Holga was as good are now falling over themselves to show off their knowledge of how cam X has cleaner detail than cam Y at such and such a focal length blah blah blah.

Sometimes I wish I'd kept an old Praktica with a 50mm lens as my main shooter. Sure, I get off on photo gear, but that's about gear that lets me do what I want to do (e.g., RF or Nikon F3 and H2 screen for low light) and doesn't get in the way. And again, I don't want to pay hundreds for a lens that's going to flare at the apertures I use it at or that's going to distort in the subjects I'm going to shoot with it.

Daido Moriyama has been using a Ricoh, apparently, for what that's worth, along with other street shooters. The GRD just lets you photograph stuff and doesn't get in the way. As you say, you have the DSLR for higher quality images than any high-end point and shoot, along with fast lenses, different focal lengths, filters, extension tubes etc. etc. I think the Ricoh might fill a gap for you.
 
back alley said:
i like the grd so far, especially with a cv 28 finder attached.
i have a very few shots on flickr taken with the grd at 800.

joe
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Nice shots Joe!

Well I did it. I ordered a GR-D from Popflash today. Huzzah! I'll let you all know when it arrives.

🙂
 
How much can you get a decent Contax T3 for now? The 40mm lens might be a bit long for what you want, but it's immensely sharp and very, very small.

David
 
I have one and it does everything you want it to do. I don't use RAW but the jpegs are good enough, noise looks grain like. If I liked shooting digital, it would be the perfect camera for me since street is my main thing and I like 28mm.

However there's just something missing from digital images for me, so I went back to using my Leica for street and have a Contax T on the way for those times when I don't want to carry the weight of the Leica.
 
I like my GR-D, apart from the raw write times, which are atrocious. Set to snap focus and b&w jog and it's a good camera for candid street shooting. But I hardly use it since I acquired an Olympus 35 RC a few months back.

Ian
 
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