Ken Rockwell's helpful Ricoh Gr review

[Dunn]

http://kenrockwell.com/ricoh/gr.htm

I thought this was humorous. He pretty much says he thinks it's stupid.

 

[majid]

Remember, affiliate commissions are a percentage of the sale. He makes more money from the sale of a $1400 camera than on a $800 one.

Not that the X100S isn't a better camera (for my purposes, at least, I am not a wideangle kind of guy), but it is also significantly bigger.

 

[css9450]

LOL That's just Ken's special way of being helpful. Same as his helpful hints that there's no need to use a tripod (because you can shoot at 16,000 now) and its risky to shoot RAW (because you never know when the industry will abandon the format).

 

[Black]

Its a none review and he's just link whoring. Poor show, but no surprise.

 

[JoeV]

Here's my favorite quote from the "article":

"If I want a small take-everywhere camera, I prefer my iPhone 5, which has colors and tonal range superior to any DSLR or compact digital camera I've ever used at their default settings."

As always, a good site to visit when you're down and need a quick pick-me-up.

~Joe

 

[Godfrey]

http://kenrockwell.com/ricoh/gr.htm

I thought this was humorous. He pretty much says he thinks it's stupid.

I find KR's comments stupid. I'd rather have a Ricoh GR than Ken Rockwell or his iPhone.

G

 

[pvdhaar]

This so called Ricoh GR review is indeed ridiculous, and speaks volumes about its writer. The very moment the Ricoh is available through one of his sponsored links, he'll make a back-flip and declare it the greatest thing since sliced bread.

However, you can't write off KR as merely a one-dimensional serial contrarian. True, he does have a Jekyll-Hide kind of personality. One moment there's this drivel about cameras that are better/worse than others he hasn't handled, littered with helpful quotes like "remember folks, I'm telling it like it is".

But the next moment there are these plain language user guides for Nikon dSLRs; concise, understandable, and with suggestions what to set for what kind of shooting. Even though you may not like all the choices he makes for picture controls (wb/colour/saturation), it points you to where/what to tweak to make it match your taste. If you disregard the reviews, there's actually quite a lot to learn there.

It's mind boggling how one person can write in two such different styles..

 

[zsas]

Good point Peter. Yep KR's site layout is spectacular, clean and to the point. I don't know how many times I've googled a lens to figure out the filter size and KR's site is one of the default results. Reviewer style asside, his site is easy to navigate and get to the bottom line when looking for tech info, if I've the choice of KR or digging through PDFs on Butkus, I'll take KR any day. I've nothing but respect for somone whose figured out how to make income as such.

 

[css9450]

It's mind boggling how one person can write in two such different styles..

My thoughts exactly. I enjoy looking at his crisp, clear and large photos of various cameras, lenses and flashes. But for almost every piece of equipment, his reviews alternate between "wonderful, best xxxxx ever" when its new to the market, and "clumsy and complicated" when its successor comes out. I can think of numerous examples.

 

[css9450]

Here's another useful one:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/zeiss/nikon.htm

 

[BorisSuave]

Remember, affiliate commissions are a percentage of the sale. He makes more money from the sale of a $1400 camera than on a $800 one.

Not that the X100S isn't a better camera (for my purposes, at least, I am not a wideangle kind of guy), but it is also significantly bigger.

You pay $800.00 for a plastic camera with a pop up flash, you pretty much get what you pay for.

He is right about the iphone taking better pics then the GR. I bought my GF a GR last xmas and we compared identical pictures between them and it was a wash.

PS- He could make way more hawking the $8,000 M9, yet he constantly says the 100T is a better digital camera then the Leica! So much for affiliate commissions.

 

[BlackXList]

I paid less than $800, mine's made of magnesium.

I'll always prefer a pop up flash on a compact, because 99% of the time I'm not using it, and I prefer it being completley out of the way.

Your GF's Iphone must be pretty special to be better than the 16mp APS-C sensor (even ignoring the lack of low pass sensor).

 

[Archiver]

I find it extremely difficult to believe that an iPhone 5 has the same kind of detail, dynamic range, depth of colour and raw malleability as the Ricoh GR. Extremely difficult.

 

[sevres_babylone]

You pay $800.00 for a plastic camera with a pop up flash, you pretty much get what you pay for.

He is right about the iphone taking better pics then the GR. I bought my GF a GR last xmas and we compared identical pictures between them and it was a wash.

PS- He could make way more hawking the $8,000 M9, yet he constantly says the 100T is a better digital camera then the Leica! So much for affiliate commissions.

The camera is solidly built. Running for a taxi, it popped out of my belt case, hit the pavement, bounced (not too high) and hit the pavement again. The only damage was some scuffing on the LCD coating. Still working fine,

I actually use its ISO25600, and granted, I have a high tolerance for noise, but the images are sharp and retain a fair bit of detail.

The other cameras I regularly use are my E-M5 and my M9. I hope I'm never put in the situation where I could only keep one. But I can see all kinds of reasons for choosing the GR. I don't have an iPhone, so I can't compare.

 

[DrTebi]

You pay $800.00 for a plastic camera with a pop up flash, you pretty much get what you pay for.

He is right about the iphone taking better pics then the GR. I bought my GF a GR last xmas and we compared identical pictures between them and it was a wash.

PS- He could make way more hawking the $8,000 M9, yet he constantly says the 100T is a better digital camera then the Leica! So much for affiliate commissions.

Looks like somebody joined RFF just to leave this one comment. Ken, is that you?