Ricoh A12M at a restaurant shoot

[dreilly]

Some of you know that I moonlight as a restaurant photographer for Edible Finger Lakes (a local food magazine; there are edibles all around the country). Tonight I did a shoot with the Ricoh GXR, and this time I had the A12M in my bag. And a 28/2 Ultron and 35/1.2 Nokton.

It was a lot of fun! Manual focus is all right with the focus assist mode. I have the Fn2 button set to show the full-screen magnified view and that really helps, along with the peaking mode 1. Not as fast as focusing with a D700, but my shoulder doesn't hurt after four hours of shooting. I had the EVF on it but I didn't really use it. I like composing on the screen, and I'm often holding the camera above me head or at waist level.

I'm still getting the hang of working with the GXR, but my results have been pleasing so far. There are a lot of little things that make working with it enjoyable.

I also had my R-D1 with me. I missed a custom white balance on that and had to shoot in raw. The restaurant I was shooting at has these red neon lights on the ceiling (no, it's not that kind of place!) and I've never had a camera that can auto adjust to it. With the GXR I needed to use the custom setting.

The R-D1 was fun to shoot and in some ways was easier to focus in the dim light.

The one thing I missed was close focus. Luckily I had my A12-50 module still and that came in handy. That's a hell of a lens, too. I got home and ended my ebay auction on that (I was going to sell it)...it's just too good a lens and the macro is awesome. Can't do that with a Nokton!

I'll see if I can't post an image tomorrow.

 

[__--]

...The one thing I missed was close focus. Luckily I had my A12-50 module still and that came in handy. That's a hell of a lens, too. I got home and ended my ebay auction on that (I was going to sell it)...it's just too good a lens and the macro is awesome...

I sold mine, as well as the A12/28mm camera unit because the files from the M-Module are so much better, with better colour as well, using the M-lenses that I've shot with so far: the Elmarit-21 ASPH, the DR Sunnicron-50 and the Heliar SWC 15mm. And I'm not interested in macro.

BTW, as i mention in another posting here, I found the Mode 1 focus assist unusable in bright light — someone else on the LUF found the same thing and said that Mode 2 is better for that. It didn't matter for me because I was doing street photography and preferred to zone focus with the Elmarit-21, as I would do on the Leica M6.

Look forward to seeing your pictures.

—Mitch/Bangkok
Ricoh GXR M-Module with Leica Elmarit-21 ASPH Lens

 

[TKH]

Just yesterday I discussed with a good friend about the strategy with my GXR. I really love the wide field of possible experiences in the future with the fine M-modul. First pics with the very good Jupiter Sonnar clone show me the road I can go on and have a lot of fun.

So staying with the two A-12 Ricoh moduls 28 and 50 was the question? Or selling and buying Voigtlander lenses for the money?

We were in one mind that the A12 in 28mm must stay in my bag. OK, there are a lot of nice m-lenses in 15mm (with crop of the m-modul than around 23mm) or more, but in f2.5?? And in that small size? And I see not one thats not in the K$ range.

Also the A12 50mm is unique. A lens in that size, for that price, that is very sharp and has a very pleasing bokeh and is a macro? Again no lens to see.

So IMHO you did right to stop the eBay auction and stay with the A12 50mm

 

[dreilly]

Yeah, I can't think of anything that can do what the A12 50 does.

The 28 is a different matter. I don't really shoot that wide very often. 35 is usually as wide as i need. I may down the road get a superwide to have some landscape fun, but really I almost never venture there. 35, 50 and 75 are where I usually am happiest.

For my 35, I'm going to get the Zeiss 25mm ZM if I can sell my Voigtlander 28mm f2. For my 50 I have the A12-50 and currently the 35/1.2. I say "currently" because I may need to sell that 1.2 for a cheaper low light option. Photographically keeping the A12-50 was a good idea, financially...not so much. Not sure what i would replace it with. Probably a 1.4 Nokton. Smaller, too. And I just picked up a 50mm ZM planar (don't have it yet). That's all the 75 I'll ever need and I'm very excited to shoot with that lens.

That should do me!