Lemures-Ex
Jared S
I ordered it from Popflash yesterday around noon. To my surprise the mailman brought it to my door today. Granted I live pretty close, but that's still fast. The free case is a nice touch too. Many thanks to Popflash and Tony Rose. You have earned yourself a future customer.
So onto the GR-D. I just spent an hour reading the manual and playing with all of the menu functions. I have the camera setup in a very streamlined manner now and I think it should work well. Pretty simple learning curve for a digital. The build seems great. I wouldn't throw it on the floor but it seems plenty durable and feels a lot better than your average plastic P&S. The buttons have a nice tactile feel and feedback. I have no complaints about the battery not locking as I will be removing the SD card with the camera upside down. I have heard a couple complaints about the hot shoe being off-axis but it's only about 1-2mm. I don't see it affecting anything to a noticeable extent. I do wish the tripod socket was on-axis but that's nitpicking. My only real gripe is the flimsy "lens hood" and that is a problem with most point and shoot cameras.
No picures yet (soon) but from the test photos I have taken I think I will be very happy with this camera. It is replacing 35mm because I'm tired of the hassle. I still shoot 4x5 regularly but it's my only film now.
I'm still debating which viewfinder to get for it. Either the CV 28mm or the CV 28/35 mini finder. I'm leaning toward the mini for its size.
I do have one queston for those of you that have the GR-D. Technically 2 questions I guess. There are two settings in the menu that are not described in the manual. I don't know if this is because of the updated firmware or if they just left it out but I cannot figure out their purposes. Both are in the "Setup" menu. The first is "ADJ SHTR BTN SET" and options are "ON" and "OFF". The second is "CL-BKT SEPIA" and the options again are "ON" and "OFF". If anyone can tell me what these do I would appreciate it.
I'll take it for a test run downtown this evening. I should have some photos to show tonight.
Jared
So onto the GR-D. I just spent an hour reading the manual and playing with all of the menu functions. I have the camera setup in a very streamlined manner now and I think it should work well. Pretty simple learning curve for a digital. The build seems great. I wouldn't throw it on the floor but it seems plenty durable and feels a lot better than your average plastic P&S. The buttons have a nice tactile feel and feedback. I have no complaints about the battery not locking as I will be removing the SD card with the camera upside down. I have heard a couple complaints about the hot shoe being off-axis but it's only about 1-2mm. I don't see it affecting anything to a noticeable extent. I do wish the tripod socket was on-axis but that's nitpicking. My only real gripe is the flimsy "lens hood" and that is a problem with most point and shoot cameras.
No picures yet (soon) but from the test photos I have taken I think I will be very happy with this camera. It is replacing 35mm because I'm tired of the hassle. I still shoot 4x5 regularly but it's my only film now.
I'm still debating which viewfinder to get for it. Either the CV 28mm or the CV 28/35 mini finder. I'm leaning toward the mini for its size.
I do have one queston for those of you that have the GR-D. Technically 2 questions I guess. There are two settings in the menu that are not described in the manual. I don't know if this is because of the updated firmware or if they just left it out but I cannot figure out their purposes. Both are in the "Setup" menu. The first is "ADJ SHTR BTN SET" and options are "ON" and "OFF". The second is "CL-BKT SEPIA" and the options again are "ON" and "OFF". If anyone can tell me what these do I would appreciate it.
I'll take it for a test run downtown this evening. I should have some photos to show tonight.
Jared
emraphoto
Veteran
hey jared
i was wondering if you could tell me what the high iso images come out like. i was thinking of buying a grd and heard the high iso performance was poor. now coming from tmax 3200 and fuji press 800 i take that with a grain of salt... let me know what you think. mainly i'll be shooting b+w. i shot on a gr1 (film version) for years and LOVED it. now though, the time good scanning and developng takes does not agree with my schedule...
cheers
john
i was wondering if you could tell me what the high iso images come out like. i was thinking of buying a grd and heard the high iso performance was poor. now coming from tmax 3200 and fuji press 800 i take that with a grain of salt... let me know what you think. mainly i'll be shooting b+w. i shot on a gr1 (film version) for years and LOVED it. now though, the time good scanning and developng takes does not agree with my schedule...
cheers
john
Lemures-Ex
Jared S
emraphoto said:
I'll be sure to shoot some high ISO photos and post them here. I should have some up by tonight.
From what I have seen the performance is not bad. Very film like. andersju, a member here, has a site up with a bunch of subway photos. He said he shot most of them at 800 and a few at 1600, no editing aside from curves/contrast. Here's the site: http://2038.cc/
Jared
Lemures-Ex
Jared S
Ok, I figured out what the "ADJ SHTR BTN SET" function does. It allows you to accept a setting by pressing either "OK" or half-pressing the shutter. I still can't find anything about the "CL-BKT SEPIA" function.
I noticed one of the complaints with this camera was the LCD lighting up when the shutter is half-pressed. In the firmware version on mine (v2.30) there is an option to turn this off called "Synchro. Monitor" in the Setup menu. Problem solved.
I noticed one of the complaints with this camera was the LCD lighting up when the shutter is half-pressed. In the firmware version on mine (v2.30) there is an option to turn this off called "Synchro. Monitor" in the Setup menu. Problem solved.
rogue_designer
Reciprocity Failure
There is a PDF linked here http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/download/firmware/docs/GRD_vup_E.pdf That mentions this. It looks like its a way to set the sepia color mode, but the specific method doesn't make sense to me. Not having the GRD here to play with to understand the menu options.
edit: it looks like it will auto bracket color, bw, and sepia images when this is set to on, otherwise, the auto bracket is only color and bw.
edit: it looks like it will auto bracket color, bw, and sepia images when this is set to on, otherwise, the auto bracket is only color and bw.
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Lemures-Ex
Jared S
rogue_designer said:
Why thank you sir! I tried to open that file earlier but the connection kept failing. It worked fine this time for some reason...
Lemures-Ex
Jared S
Some Example Photos:
Some Example Photos:
Macro mode. Pretty darn good I'd say:
100% crop. Keep in mind this was handheld at 1/25th:
Nose man. Probably could have used a little less exposure compensation. I think this was +1.7 stops:
And a crop of that. He did this for about 8 minutes
Both images are straight out of the camera, resizing aside. Plant at 200iso and guy at 64iso
Here's a shot at 800iso. Usable for color and looks really good for B&W:
And a crop:
I'll try to get some 1600 and a few more 800iso shots soon. I know you all want to see the high ISO performance. I am very happy with this camera. I really need to get a viewfinder though
Jared
Edit: No postwork on that last one either. I forgot to mention the nose guy was shot through a window, hence the "stuff".
Some Example Photos:
Macro mode. Pretty darn good I'd say:
100% crop. Keep in mind this was handheld at 1/25th:
Nose man. Probably could have used a little less exposure compensation. I think this was +1.7 stops:
And a crop of that. He did this for about 8 minutes
Both images are straight out of the camera, resizing aside. Plant at 200iso and guy at 64iso
Here's a shot at 800iso. Usable for color and looks really good for B&W:
And a crop:
I'll try to get some 1600 and a few more 800iso shots soon. I know you all want to see the high ISO performance. I am very happy with this camera. I really need to get a viewfinder though
Jared
Edit: No postwork on that last one either. I forgot to mention the nose guy was shot through a window, hence the "stuff".
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ChrisN
Striving
Looking good Jared!
I'd be interested in user's comments on the two viewfinders you mentioned. Specifically how are they each for glasses-wearers?
I'd be interested in user's comments on the two viewfinders you mentioned. Specifically how are they each for glasses-wearers?
Lemures-Ex
Jared S
ChrisN said:
I'm fairly certain I'll be getting the 28/35 mini finder because of the size. I have a post in the WTB section for either finder so I'll see if I get an offer there. If not then it's the mini for sure. Either way I'll put my opinion of the finder I get on here.
lZr
L&M
Good luck with the camera. Nice shots already.
ravnish
Member
i shoot weddings and use the grd with the wide attachment lens and viewfinder ... i have to say this camera is brilliant for the quality and ease of use... i would say take this camera for a week as your main camera to truly get a feel and work with it
Lemures-Ex
Jared S
ravnish said:
That's what I'm doing
I don't have a viewfinder yet so it's not as convenient as I would like, but i will get one soon. I am very happy with this camera so far and I think it will easily fill the position of primary street camera.Weddings eh? Are these paid jobs? I'm curious because a lot of pople want to hire the person with the biggest, most expensive camera. The quality is certanly there, but the GR-D doesn't exactly look like a pro DSLR
That said, I will be shooting a friend's wedding in June and I plan on taking my GR-D with me. I'll probably shoot 50/50 GR-D and my Pentax K10D.
Jared