Ricoh GR1 - Day 6

Continued today with my GR1 week and took one picture, still have 2 left so will manage to have a full week with the slight break of yesterday.Much has been talked about OVFs in compact cameras and wether they should be integrated or not. My opinion is that I don't need an OVF and see it more as a gadget than a real useful tool for composition, my composition actually suffers when using an OVF. But if a company decidest to waste space in a camera and make an integrated OVF it should be like the GR1 or better, otherwise just leave it out and provide a high quality external one.

Window Shoper

GRD, f2.4, 1/60, ISO 1600, JPG

Although I still have three pictures left on the film in the GR1, I did not get roun to use it today so took this picture with the GRD I instead. I had to use ISO 1600 since it was dark so I doubt the ISO 200 film in the GR1 would have been of much use today. Only processing was a slight crop and removing the color noise using Noise Ninja. After using the GR1 recently, I really hope Ricoh can get the GRD III to focus as fast and reliable as the GR1. While the GRD I is very fast and one of the feastest focusing compact cameras, the GR1 is even faster and more reliable in low light. This coupled with a fast lens would be the prefect camra for low light street photography.

Ricoh GR1 - Day 5

After today I still have 3 pictures left on the film so it might get me through the weekend. This is one of my favorite picture from the week and yesterday's featured picture was also taken today with a few other pictures I quite like. I could have easily finished the film but decided to make it to 7 days.

Today, I could also go to a concert and start the low light, high ISO comparison but only between the 2 GRDs. Will have to sort through the pictures and will post a preview soon.

Ricoh GR1 - Day 4

The weather was really bad today (yet again) so I was not overly inspired but tried to take a shot from the hip using Snap focus. It was dark and I had to use f2.8 so I hope it came out ok. One thing I don't like about the GR1 is that I have no idea how to disable the AF assist lamp (maybe reading the manual would help but this is too easy ;) ).

Ok, the picture for today turned out pretty bad, blurry and out of focus due to my own falut for setting the GR1 to Snap focus and f2.8. So I decided to use a different picture instead but you can see the original picture for today below. I decided to use the other pictre since it shows some nice weather this week but also because it showcases best the higher dynamic range although I am sure the GRD II would have done a similar job.

Ricoh GR1 - Day 3

I start to get along better with using film although I am looking for different things to take pictures of. Unfortunatelly the weather is pretty bad, cloudy and it gets dark at 3pm already so there are not many photo opportunities.

This is one of the pleasant surprises of the week, the picture came out much better than expected, it was very dark and overcast when I took it but it looks much better in the picture.

Ricoh GR1 - Day 2

While the weather was again not very good, I still went out after work to take some pictres with the GR1. The ISO 200 film is however very limiting and I hope I won't end up with a bunch of blurry pictures due to camera shake. The biggest disatvantage of film is that it is very restrictive an one can not just change the ISO, color/b&w and other setting as easy as on a digital camera. Everytime I shoot film I wonder if the better image quality really makes up for the lack of flexibility.

I really like the tunnel here and will definitely return for more pictures at some point.

As to answer my own question, the image quality is not better so it does not make up for the lack of flexibility. Let me set it straight, the image quality can be better if you pay a lot for processing. The good news is that most pictures were actually not blurry as expected.

Ricoh GR1 - Day 1

Ok, off to the GR1 week. Unfortunatelly, since the GR1 uses the rather 'outdated' sensor technology caled "film" I have to wait till the end of the week to review my pictures due to the very slow procesing. Also the ISO is fixed at 200, b&w mode does not work either and I have to replace the sensor after each 36 pictures. ;)

So you don't think I just forgot to update my blog, I will keep updating it every day with a place holder picture. These pictures will all be taken with the GRD II and removed once the proper pictures are up. The text might also be ammended.