fgianni said:
If you want a pocket digicam with a wide angle lens and raw support there are only two to fit the bill: the GR-D and the LX1.
Having raw is important because allows you to control the amount of noise reduction and sharpening applied, so on a 1/1.8" (or 1/1.65" for the LX1) it does not really matter if they crammed too many pixels.
The LX1 has a nice zoom, but looks like the GR-D might have a sharper lens (this from preliminary reports, no full tests have been made public yet AFAIK) and a conversion lens to get tit to 21mm equiv, also the GR-1 has the external finder option, while the with the LX1 you can only chimp at the screen when composing.
Again from some user tests it seem that the noise on the GR-D sensor is less than the one on the LX1, while the LX1 has optical stabilization.
So at the moment for me is wait and see if more information comes along to help me decide.
If you are not in the market for a pocket digicam, or you don't require raw, then you might be better off saving your money.
I am going to wait. I *do* want a camera that is the digitla equivalent of the Ricoh GR series film cameras, but I don't feel that it exists just yet.
My requirements, assuming I want to spend $800 on a non-SLR digicam, are these:
1) Slim, small, shirt-pocket size.
2) Fast, wide, sharp, lens.
3) Larger than 1/1.8" sensor. APS/C or bigger, please.
4) Optical viewfinder for shooting. LCD optional.
5) Manual controls by knobs, not menus.
6) ISO to 3200 with no more noise than current DSLRs, such as Pentax.
7) Fast startup.
8) Fast shot-to-shot.
9) Option of manual focus by knob, not by menu.
Things I don't want or need in a GR-like digicam:
1) LCD.
2) Zoom lens.
3) More than 6 megapixels.
Now, I fully realize that the trend in consumer digicams is away from my specs and towards the opposite, and I know that the camera makers create new models for the masses, not for the tiny niches.
I am kind of disappointed because the Ricoh GR Digital was supposed to be the 'inheritor' of the GR film camera mantel of fame, and it has SOME of the attributes that the film camera did, but not all of them, and not enough to satisfy me.
You can see they were trying - they put in a built-in ND filter to lower the outside light so they could use a wider aperture / slower shutter speed for more creative control when needed, but the 1 1/8 CCD does not allow for much in the way of selective-focus effects, despite the wide f2.4 aperture. The external viewfinder was an obvious attempt to put back what they lost room for when they put in a big honkin' LCD on the back - but no one who appreciated how the GR fit into a shirt pocket and was ready to use in a split-second is going to like fumbling with an optional external viewfinder that they don't even include with the camera, for crying out loud.
The GR was a cult camera for a lot of reasons, and for many, it was the fact that it was a pro-quality stealth camera par excellance. This ain't, and that disappoints me. You can't 'stealth' while chimping over an LCD - not possible.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
