GR-D Arrived Already! My Little Review:

[Lemures-Ex]

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

 

[emraphoto]

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

 

[Lemures-Ex]

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'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]

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.

 

[rogue_designer]

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.

 

[Lemures-Ex]

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.

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]

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".

 

[ChrisN]

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?

 

[Lemures-Ex]

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'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]

Good luck with the camera. Nice shots already.

 

[ravnish]

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]

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

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