Ricoh GRD III - downloadable samples and more

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sevres_babylone

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There's some informative stuff at http://ricohforum.com/

There are some downloadable dng and jpeg images. The bar shot in the ricohforum post is going to sell a lot of cameras. I highly recommend downloading the DNG. Shot at everyone's ISO sweetspot of ISO 1181 at F1.9 1/32, it holds up really well, and the file is robust enough that you can squeeze more highlight detail out of it. The camera's handling of the mixed lighting, which is evident from the jpeg too, is also quite impressive.

The sample at ISO 1600 was much less impressive to me, until I thought back to the few times I used that ISO with my GRD II. I think there's possibilities -- but only in a crunch. And probably less problematical without people in the shots.

But hey, a very usable ISO 1000 (or 1181) is very attractive to me.

The samples are from Cristian Sorega's blog:
http://ricoh-gr-diary.blogspot.com/
 
Thanks for the links Jack - these are pretty good looking to me - I'd be willing to upgrade if these are going to be the type we'll see in the production camera.

I'm now salivating :)

Cheers,
Dave
 
Yes, I'm afraid it's one more "last camera" to buy.
I played around a bit with the bar shot in silver efex, and although I didn't print it out, it looked very nice in black and white too.
 
sevres_babylone said:
Yes, I'm afraid it's one more "last camera" to buy.
I played around a bit with the bar shot in silver efex, and although I didn't print it out, it looked very nice in black and white too.
Click to expand...

Nice.. then I perhaps would go for this camera - especially now that I've figured out a decent workflow with Lightroom and PS to print to the Epson 3800.

I wonder if/when Tony Rose will be carrying it...

Dave
 
sevres_babylone said:
The sample at ISO 1600 was much less impressive to me, until I thought back to the few times I used that ISO with my GRD II.
Click to expand...

These are my samples and I will make more available soon and at lower ISO levels but everybody was at first interested in the higher ISOs. You can see new pictures from the GRD III posted on my blog every day, hopefully I will have the time to finish up my full review in the next week or so.

I have noticed that it depends a lot which RAW developer you use as to how good the RAW files are, ACR for example produces pretty bad and smudgy results, RAW Therapee so far seems to be best at handling the GRD III DNGs.
 
If I calculate correctly, the sensor on this one is just a tad bit smaller than the one in the Panasonic LX3, which has f/2.0 max. aperture. I am already not that impressed with the wide open performance of the LX3 as it relates to DoF control, so I am not expecting more from this camera.

Notice however, I am not saying that these cameras aren't capable of excellent pictures when shallow DoF matters not.

Kudos to Ricoh for daring to stick a prime lens in the zoom-crazed world out there. I just wish they would join the m4/3rd manufacturers and offer us 2x as big of a sensor.
 
fwiw, I had a play with one in a shop the other day, build quality seems very nice, definitely better than the grd i used to have, I was pretty impressed. Shame about the sensor size though.
 
Thanks again VladimirV for posting the images, and making the downloads available at Ricohforum. (Not to mention your blog, as well as the comments you and Pavel have made in the DPreview Ricoh forum). The bar shot was particularly interesting for me, as took a similar shot in Paris last year with my GRDII. Therefore the improved quality of the high ISO image was really brought home to me. I processed it with ACR in Photoshop, and for the black and white used Silver Efex, playing around a little bit with colour sensitivity, because it seemed to improve the look of the "grain" on the woman's arm.

While I appreciate that initially the use of small sensors was likely out of necessity rather than an aesthetic choice, I think their existence does lead to aesthetic choices. In another thread I confessed to being schizoid, fluctuating between using Sonnars wide open and using and liking the deep depth of field from the Ricoh, particularly in low light situations where, without a tripod or considerable motion blur, it would be impossible with my other cameras. So I am happy Ricoh has kept the size of the camera small, and worked on improving the quality of the still small sensor. (Of course, when I was using my film Contax T3, I was equally praiseworthy of the narrow depth of field you could get with its 2.8 lens.:))

In terms of quality of the photographs, I was not embarrassed to have displayed 11x14 (more or less) photographs taken with the GRD II using ISOs from 250 to 800.

In one DPreview thread, someone criticized the high price of the camera and said it will keep the GRD line as a "niche" camera. Well, it is a niche camera. No matter what the price, it's not a camera for everyone. I'm glad there are options out there, even in the small, sort of pocketable class, and can see why some photographers would prefer the Canon G10, the LX3, or the Samsung. But for me, at this time, the GRD line works best.
 
I would echo Jack's statements above me.

Knowing that LightRoom uses, basically, the same ACR processing engine, I wonder how "bad" or "good" the files are going to be.

I do not want to be installing umpteen RAW converters as I really like my current workflow using LightRoom right now and don't really want to change it just for the sake of one camera :)

Cheers,
Dave
 
I'm not used to being agreed with, so perhaps I was misunderstood.:)

What I was trying to say was that with the bar shot, I thought the processing with ACR/PS was fine.
 
After getting some shots of a large ceremonial fire at an Order of the Arrow event a few weeks ago, in the rain from under a poncho when all the DSLR folks dared not take out their Big Guns (it was my son's tapping for Ordeal), I'm sold. My GX-100 did a fine job as my GRD I still has a broken LCD. I'm thinking of selling both off to fund the GRD III. Tony has a much better price than I expected. Fingers crossed that I can save enough. D60 will have to wait a bit longer. The GRD III projects such GAS powers I'm hooked.

UGH.

B2 (;->
 
I agree Bill (regarding the price @ Tony Rose's)

I can barely recall what, if any, badges you get once you join the Order of The Arrow - but does this help in moving towards Eagle Scout (as you guys in the U.S. call it)?

Cheers,
Dave
 
No, OA is a service group of scouts who are voted on by their peers. Does not help towards Eagle, officially, but it does not hurt. I got in years ago, my oldest (Robert 13) got tapped this year. I moved up to Brotherhood while he was working on Ordeal. I got to lead a group of about 150 scouts, most of who were not allowed to speak on trimming a long bank of pine trees along the entrance to MaKaJaWan (summer scout camp up north in Wisconsin). Robert is Life and working on his Eagle project and needs a few more merit badges. Here in the States you get a pocket flap sized badge for your right chest pocket and a sash for special occasions.

They do a lot of service projects for scouts like cleaning up MaKaJaWan over a weekend a few weeks before it opens. Saves a lot of money (free labor other than food) that keeps the cost of camp down. I'm looking forward to getting back into OA as many of the troops around here (Oz North as I like to call it) are very political with leaders, some down right bad. OA is about working, camping and making things better. I'm sure there's a bit of politics but I can focus on projects, I lead enough crap at work, don't want to do it on my off time.

B2 (;->
 

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I don't think we have anything up here in Canada that compares to OA - and instead of Eagle the scouts work towards the Chief Scout Award - each year I volunteer to do the group photo thing at the ceremonies - it's my way of "giving back" since I don't do any leading and I feel the Scouting gave me so much in my youth - many of my very good friends are/were in my Scout group & and these friendships have lasted decades (and I'm only in my 40's).

It's too bad it doesn't get the same exposure it used to back in the 70's but at least it's still going (Scouting that is) :)

Cheers and thanks for the images Bill :)

Dave
 
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