Ricoh GX100

I have one, evaluating it for my parents (Ricoh GR-D owners)

To answer some of the questions:

1. Yes it does B&W in camera

2. It has the same excellent ergonomics as the GR-D (well, more or less the same)

3. RAW write speed is about 5 seconds for a 10mp RAW. A massive improvement on the GR-D. That's also writing a Fine quality JPG. For me I think just about bearable in the real world, bearing in mind I'm used to shooting with an R-D1

4. Nowhere near as well-built as the GR-D

5. AF is a bit noisy

6. EVF is OK, nothing special but almost reproduces that accesory finder feel. Tonnes of diopter adjustment and eyepoint is reasonable for this glasses wearer. Not as good as the optical v/f on the GR-D but a good and innovative solution

7. I haven't done a side-by-side comparison with the GR-D but my gut feeling is that optically its nowhere close but then it is a zoom so what do you expect?

8. Same old ISO noise, visible at 160 upwards

At the moment its just about a keeper, just need to check with my parents that the EVF is up to scratch
 
Thanks for the report. Could you elaborate on the differences in build quality? They appear to be so similar. Are you referring to what one person has said is a loose lens assembly? It's not a "brick" like the GRD?

It would be great if you could do a side by side image comparison (You'd be the first)🙂. A raw shot of same subject with GRD and one with GX100 at 28 equivalent. Some low light B&W shots would be nice too. 🙂

Viewfinder is in B&W when in that mode? Ricoh said it is in a response to my email.

Raw speed improvement is good news. I hear it does 1600 ISO raw files too, something the GRD lacked.

I also have the R-D1 and am close to ordering the GX100. I also sometimes think of selling the R-D1 and saving for a M8, but the files don't say "street" to me at all, and I don't want to spend 5 grand on a camera only to dirty up the files later in PS.

I have to get a new printer and see how these cameras print. You know a 10mp small sensor compared to the R-D1 6mp large sensor. I'm confused. Maybe if I print M8 files all at 30' X 40' I will get the desired effect.🙂



Terao said:
I have one, evaluating it for my parents (Ricoh GR-D owners)

To answer some of the questions:

1. Yes it does B&W in camera

2. It has the same excellent ergonomics as the GR-D (well, more or less the same)

3. RAW write speed is about 5 seconds for a 10mp RAW. A massive improvement on the GR-D. That's also writing a Fine quality JPG. For me I think just about bearable in the real world, bearing in mind I'm used to shooting with an R-D1

4. Nowhere near as well-built as the GR-D

5. AF is a bit noisy

6. EVF is OK, nothing special but almost reproduces that accesory finder feel. Tonnes of diopter adjustment and eyepoint is reasonable for this glasses wearer. Not as good as the optical v/f on the GR-D but a good and innovative solution

7. I haven't done a side-by-side comparison with the GR-D but my gut feeling is that optically its nowhere close but then it is a zoom so what do you expect?

8. Same old ISO noise, visible at 160 upwards

At the moment its just about a keeper, just need to check with my parents that the EVF is up to scratch
Click to expand...
 
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galavanter said:
I also sometimes think of selling the R-D1 and saving for a M8, but the files don't say "street" to me at all, and I don't want to spend 5 grand on a camera only to dirty up the files later in PS.

I have to get a new printer and see how these cameras print. You know a 10mp small sensor compared to the R-D1 6mp large sensor. I'm confused. Maybe if I print M8 files all at 30' X 40' I will get the desired effect.🙂
Click to expand...

This is a good point you bring up. I think the higher megapixel sensors are just too clean for street photos. I'm plenty happy with my new GR-D.
 
galavanter said:
Thanks for the report. Could you elaborate on the differences in build quality? They appear to be so similar. Are you referring to what one person has said is a loose lens assembly? It's not a "brick" like the GRD?

It would be great if you could do a side by side image comparison (You'd be the first)🙂. A raw shot of same subject with GRD and one with GX100 at 28 equivalent. Some low light B&W shots would be nice too. 🙂

Viewfinder is in B&W when in that mode? Ricoh said it is in a response to my email.

Raw speed improvement is good news. I hear it does 1600 ISO raw files too, something the GRD lacked.

I also have the R-D1 and am close to ordering the GX100. I also sometimes think of selling the R-D1 and saving for a M8, but the files don't say "street" to me at all, and I don't want to spend 5 grand on a camera only to dirty up the files later in PS.

I have to get a new printer and see how these cameras print. You know a 10mp small sensor compared to the R-D1 6mp large sensor. I'm confused. Maybe if I print M8 files all at 30' X 40' I will get the desired effect.🙂
Click to expand...

It feels less solid than the GR-D. Its slightly bigger but doesn't have the weight to match the size it feels. It whirrs and clicks more than the GR-D (image stabilisation) and the AF feels slower and is much noisier - once again no doubt in part due to the image stabilisation. The GR-D just feels solid in your hand. As to the lens/zoom wobble, yes its definitely there, the front element moves a fair bit under light pressure. Most zoom compacts I've used tend to do this though...

The viewfinder is in B&W. It also displays what you would see on screen, so if you run the screen naked (i.e. no information overlays) you get the equivalent of a 100% parallax-corrected optical zoom finder 🙂 Admittedly its dark like all EVFs but its highly innovative.

I'll try to sort out some comparison shots today. There are high resolution samples from the GX100 in my Bessa R2S NHS set on Flickr (see my sig)

My GX100 is now up for sale on eBay - unfortunately the folks didn't get on with the EVF (they've been spoiled by the optical finder on the GR-D) so they're going to keep the GR-D...
 
RAW write speed is about 5 seconds for a 10mp RAW. A massive improvement on the GR-D. That's also writing a Fine quality JPG. For me I think just about bearable in the real world, bearing in mind I'm used to shooting with an R-D1

I've just received my GX100 today, I had held off on GRD [I am a longtime GR1 user] because of RAW write speed.
I'm finding the GX100 taking around 8-10 secs for a 10 mp RAW, far too long!
So far .although its cute, I'm not sure if its my Gr1 replacement.....................
Clive
www.clive-evans.com
 
Hi

I got mine as well for 3 days. My impression is I need to click up contrast and sharpness in image settings to get GRD like image quality. That means the default setting is a bit on the less contrasty and soft side.

Make a brief search of GX100 at flickr and you shall be able to find lots of GX100 pics there already. One guy there with attractive pics also commented that he had all contrast, sharpness and color depth click up to maximum.

I would also agree on noise quality, its like film grain, visible from as low as 100 (on dark areas, not unpleasant IMO) up, even at 800/1600 chrome noise is very well controlled. That's what I can say.

Raw write time with Extreme III SD is ~5 secs with my stop watch. And you can fire another RAW right away. No dedicated RAW buffer I suppose but 5 sec with an P&S compact is not bad as well.

2 interesting things I also noted,

1) On playback after shot, overexposed areas in pictures keep flashing between black and white. Will stop flashing when I zoom into the pics. Downloaded full size images on PC are of course normal. Don't know whether it is a default overexpose warning or a firmware issue.

2) In setting the two MY1/MY2 custom settings, the MY1 can be set to whether settings you prefer even with aperture priority. However, if I set the MY2 to aperture priority and other preference, the shutter speed just does not change automatically according to aperture change, it keep at the previous Manual mode shutter speed! So I just set MY2 to P mode and other settings. Don't know whether your model show the same.

Let's keep posting on new findings...

Cheers
Matthew
 
Terao,

Thanks a lot for the info and the pics. As far as image quality goes, it fulfills my needs. I'm glad to see the noise has the same look to it and they have not gone overboard with NR. I wish I could hold both the GX100 and GRD in my hands before making a decision. I really do want the range of the zoom though. I hope other users will post their impressions.
 
Terao said:
No problem, I'll be sorry to see it go but for me I prefer the GR-D
Click to expand...
OK, I've had mine a week now, enough time to put it through its paces.
It's very cute but not for me.........
I was looking for a digital replacemnt for my gr 1, which goes everywhere with me.
I shoot professionally with two Epson r d1, usually with 28mm and 21mm , but also carry 12, 15 and 50 . so the zoom doesn't really suit me too much.
I hoped the VF would work for me , but of course it "freezes" while the RAW files are processing so its worse than the mirror on an SLR and giving me enforced "chimping" [I work with the screens in on the R d1s]
The files are great,lots of nice features, but I think a GR D with the minifinder will be more suitable for me......................still worried about the RAW write times though...................
I'll be putting it up for sale as soon as I track down a reasonably priced Gr-D ......................unless something better arrives...................😎
Best
Clive
 
I find that I don't need to use RAW on the GR-D - the camera does a good job of auto-exposure with easy fine-tuning and now you also have the option to colour-bracket with custom film settings (so shoot one colour, one B&W). Of course you could do that in post but I like to see my B&W shots B&W as quickly as possible. I just wish it had more dynamic range...
 
Short Hands On Feedback

Short Hands On Feedback

Hi all, I am interested in GX100 and found your page, some great insight here. My brother just had a look at the GX100 for me and I thought I would post his thoughts:

NOTE: This was a few days ago at Melbourne camera show. Leica and panasonic he notes are the D-Lux 3 and DMC-LX2.

OK. Just back from the camera show. Went straight to the Ricoh stand
and had a good hands on with the GX100. Great to be able to handle a
camera without it being tethered by a security cable and the Ricoh
guys actually knew their product.

So...nice camera. Small but not tiny. About the same size as the GR.
Understated and unobtrusive it would be great for candid shots. Feels
like you're picking up a Minox. Matt black and no chrome highlights.
Lets make no mistake. This is still a digital camera. The metal body
not withstanding it still has the somewhat finger smeary screen, a
learning curve for the menu controls and a lack of things like manual
zoom that let you know you are in transistor land.

But it has a lot of stuff I really liked. As with my Minolta there
are two wheels. Real wheels, one on top one on the front, that
control aperture and shutter. Set to aperture preferred and with your
eye up to the digital viewfinder, more on that in a moment, you
scroll through the aperture range. The wheel changes function for
shutter preferred. Very intuitive. Set it on manual and each wheel
controls a function and you get a vertical line on screen that lets
you know if you are in or out of range.

Pleased to see built in pop-up flash. Camera very quiet. The digital
viewfinder feels very secure and can pivot up. This means that for
macro you can put the camera on the table and stand above the camera
to frame a shot. Digital viewfinder is a bit small and squinty. I
guess on a day out you'd give it a miss so that the camera could fit
in your back pocket.

The optical viewfinder that attaches to the GR is beautiful but then
that's a fixed length lens.

The 19mm attachment was on when I first picked up the camera and I
wasn't totally knocked out. First the apparent difference to 24 is
not as great as I'd hoped. You don't go "Wow" just kind of "Well
that's nice". You have to attach a tube like lens hood that attaches
to the body which extends past the lens when it's zoomed out. Then
the 19mm lens screws onto the hood so that the regular camera lens
can zoom in and out independently. Consequently the lens is pretty
wide. Wider than the lens barrel. A solid, and quite heavy, piece of
glass. I'd sooner buy the flash.

With the hood on the built in flash is also impaired. Must cut down
on the speed of the lens as well. It's not something I'd leap to buy
as the cost and the hardware suddenly make it quite cumbersome. But
the proof would be in seeing some images. Briefly checked out Leica
and Lumix but the Ricoh was the standout.

The GR had a cool feature, when used on macro, that's missing from
the GX100. With the GR you can control where the point of focus falls
by scrolling around on screen. I guess you can focus on the area you
want with the GX then lock focus and reframe as you would with any
other camera but it would be great feature for photographing
jewellery...

So two thumbs up for me...
 
I have had mine for a few days and like it a lot. The EVF is great in bright sun. It takes good IR pics with a filter. The hood is fine and accepts filters. Image quality is quite good.

I think of it as a digital Barnack Leica with a zoom. Popflash has them in stock.
 
Terao said:
I find that I don't need to use RAW on the GR-D - the camera does a good job of auto-exposure with easy fine-tuning and now you also have the option to colour-bracket with custom film settings (so shoot one colour, one B&W). Of course you could do that in post but I like to see my B&W shots B&W as quickly as possible. I just wish it had more dynamic range...
Click to expand...

I, too, wish it had more dynamic range. I have found that it will easily blow highlights, even as the real-time histogram shows no problems. (Unfortunately, there is no 3 color histogram, just white). That may be part of the problem. In any case, I find that setting exposure compensatioin to -.3 or -.7 helps alot. You can then reexpand the dynamic range in post-processing. I also find the built-in flash somewaht erratic. It usually works ok at normal distances, but for macros or close-ups it will blow the dickens out of highlights. Putting on a home made diffuser seems to help. I wonder if that after-market add-on flash is any better?

/T
 
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