My Ricoh GR impressions

As a predominantly small sensor photographer, preferring the sketchy look, I have consciously and consistently stayed away from large sensor cameras. For a long while my Panasonic GF1 was what I considered the maximum. So in the last three years my main camera was the Ricoh GR Digital 3. I appreciated the limitations provided by the small sensor and the 28mm fixed prime lens. Only hindered by lesser performance at high ISO’s in low light and some AF problems this year and two years ago. So when Ricoh announced the GR with an APS-C sized CMOS sensor it immediately caught my attention. Not necessarily for the much better expected image quality, but more the better low light performance.

For many years the Ricoh GR Digital cameras weren’t noticed by many photographers and the main websites. Recently though, the Ricoh GR however already got its fair share of attention and many wrote about the history and specifications. I don’t plan to do that again. I mean, we all know that the camera has a long history and that this is the first GR with a larger sensor. The only thing really worth mentioning is that the GR kept the Snap mode. A mode where the focus is immediately set to a particular focus distance which minimizes the shutter lag drastically. Many would say this is a key feature for street photography, but what about parties (in particular with kids) or in low light?

Those photographers who had a previous GR Digital will immediately feel at home with the GR. The body is only a bit larger, but in a good way. When Ricoh started to use the 3″ inch LCD screen in the GR Digital 3 I critized that some of the buttons got too close to each other and that you could accidentally hit a button with your right thumb. With the increased size of the body it directly had a positive effect on the button layout. My thumb has more space, but all buttons are still easily accessible.

The camera operates nimble and you can configure the camera the way you want to. Kai from the DigitalRev said it was a camera for geeks and when you first go to the menu, you immediately realize that basically everything can be altered. The adjustment lever on the back can be set to your personal liking. There are two additional Fn buttons, and even the effect button on the left side can be reconfigured. All this gizmo stuff is of course great, but can also be daunting. Personally I prefer to set up the camera as fast as possible. For me that means, Av mode, using the Fn1 button for switching from Spot AF to Snap mode, the Fn2 button for adjusting the focal distance for the Snap mode, and the adjustment lever for rapidly changing ISO.

When you open the package you will immediately notice that there is no battery charger. It can now be USB charged. Some like that, some don’t. Let just say I feel fortunate of having a suitable Ricoh battery charger. What I do like is that it not only takes DB-65 batteries, but also the older DB-60 battery used in the GRD3. Ricoh delivers the camera with a RAW converter by Silkypix. It works, enough sayd. Ricoh sells an additional lens adapter and 21mm converter lens. Also the GV1 and GV2 viewfinder are still sold for this camera.

I use the GR with a 28mm Voigtländer optical viewfinder. I prefer the 3:2 frame lines. The camera exposure metering is set to multi and for the white balance I like Multi-P Auto. It just works convenient and reliable for me. Like many other Ricoh cameras the GR is shutter speed limited at 1/2000 sec at the lens wide open, because it uses a leaf shutter. Therefore it comes in handy that they added a ND-filter. I put the ND-filter in auto and the camera automatically uses it whenever needed. Excellent! Some worried that the lens was ONLY f/2.8 instead of the f/1.9 GRD3 and GRD4 lens. At f/2.8 with the larger sensor it is still a lot more usable in low light.

Everything on the GR seems at the right place. It operates fast and you change settings on the fly. In low light the AF seems to struggle a bit, but the wide angle lens and the snap mode still provide enough depth of field.

The most noticeable feature of the new GR is the larger sensor. Oh boy, what a differences it does make. The images are a lot cleaner, especially at low ISO. Its performance in low light is significantly better too and I feel comfortable using it up to ISO6400. Which is a lot better too than the Ricoh GXR with the A12 28mm lens module that showed banding from ISO3200 and up. My camera does show hot pixels that steadily increases from ISO1600. I asked several other owners about this and some even shared photographs with me, but until now it seems I have a one off. I have still asked Pentax Ricoh to examine it.

Admitted, I had my concern about the cleaner images. And at low ISO I feel it is too clean for my taste, but I think many others will certainly like it. I prefer a modest texture in my image and I found a sweet spot at ISO 400 for good light. Still with all the tonality from this sensor, yet with a very fine noise structure. And talking about noise. It is very fine, even at ISO6400 and doesn’t come with those ugly blue blotches. Some say, it appears film like. Dunno, but it works for me. And best, it makes up for great looking black & white photographs.

Those familiar with the Ricoh GR predecessors learned that it was best to set the exposure compensation to -0.3EV at default. I know it was the first thing I also did with this camera. I learned though that the GR already exposes quite conservative. As a result I think it is best to keep the compensation set at zero, especially when photograph in RAW only. And when you first check your photographs on your computer you instantly notice the larger dynamic range. I tell you, this GR is way beyond any digital GR previously released.

Unlike the GR predecessors the shutter makes a little bit more noise, but I you got used to it I didn’t notice it anymore. Typical for Ricoh cameras the shutter speed sill remains maximized wide open at 1/2000 sec. In bright light that could be a concern, but the camera comes with a built-in ND filter.

With the Ricoh GR also come some new features known from Pentax dSLR cameras. Some can be found in the firmware, others in the camera modes. Previous GR models all had P, A, S and M modes (for program, aperture, speed and manual). The GR now has P, Av, Tv, TAv and M mode. Av is the replacement for A and Tv for S. All these work unchanged. They just changed the naming. The TAv mode is new for Ricoh and is a clever mode where you set the aperture and shutter speed while the camera calculates the needed ISO. It seems to do a good job at good to moderate light, but when it becomes darker the camera somehow finds ISO25600 (!) the best sensitivity. Some might like the noise at ISO25600, but due to this behavior I find this mode less usable. The manual seems to suggest that AUTO ISO can be used with the TAv mode too, but I learned that the manual is wrong here. So I prefer Av mode instead where I set the ISO.

One other thing immediately noticed is the sharpness. The GR doesn’t come with an AA filter. In post processing you hardly have to add sharpening. The lens is sharp too. Even at f/2.8 it shows good sharpness in the corners and that progresses when you go for a smaller aperture until f/8. There is one caveat though. Moiré! With very fine and regular textures it can produce moiré and a wavy pattern. In Adobe Lightroom, my preferred post processing application, it cleans up really well. And also Silkypix, which is bundled with the GR, handles it really well. Although it can take a while for the program to handle it. I had set up the camera without applying noise reduction for the out of camera jpegs. Somehow though it seems to fix moiré, which can look really ought. This became most noticeable with brick walls. And brick walls? These are kind of hard to ignore here in the Netherlands.

That brings me to the in-camera jpegs. At default the jpegs look very good. Certainly less sharp than the RAW images, but colors are pleasing. The camera also has a lot of effects available, like the high contrast B&W and bleach bypass. One other nice feature, known by current Fuji camera users, is the possibility to process RAW images in-camera. With my GRD3 I felt comfortable to just use the jpegs instead of the RAW images. Taking in account the moiré handling in jpeg I decided to stick to RAW only though. Not a deal breaker you know. These images are very malleable.

The RAW images come with a rather subdued color profile, but with a simple S-curve in post processing the colors quickly come alive. Ricoh and Pentax cameras provide RAW images in the DNG format. Nice, because most RAW converters will be able to open and process these. The downside can be that it may take a while before these RAW converters come with a proper camera profile. The GR is no exception. Most will likely use the Adobe RAW converter and at default it can display red colors a bit strange. Lightroom 5 now supports the Ricoh GR and on seriouscompacts you can find good info how to add the Ricoh GR camera profile to older versions of Lightroom or the RAW converter for Photoshop. This camera profile makes a lot of difference.

I was worried that the larger sensor would somehow affect my photography. I learned though that the benefits at the high ISO side outweighed the downsides of the cleaner images at low ISO’s. The Ricoh GR doesn’t come with a viewfinder unlike the Fuji X100s and some would call that a dealbreaker. I photographed more freely in the last years and accepted the small optical viewfinder in the hotshoe as an alternative.

So what to remember of the GR though? It is a very nimble and fun camera with unlimited possibilities. The only constrains can be your own imagination. After less then a week I felt so comfortable with the camera that I did not need to think anymore about the settings. It just worked for me the way I intended it. This Ricoh GR could well become a new classic. The image quality is amazing, but still comes in a familiar Ricoh package. In the end it is still a tool for me and it should be one I don’t notice at all. For my kind of photography it just works. It works for me, because I am in charge.

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma

Love is in the air

With spring most people open up after the long darkness of the winter. So am I and I become more aware of my surroundings. It is this tantalizing feeling that something is in the air. Something about to happen.

Interested in viewing my photographs in book form, check out my first photo book ‘Saudade‘ here.

Photograph by Wouter Brandsma

First outinGR..

Old skool

There is obviously so much that crosses my mind after a day of photographing with the new Ricoh GR, but I also feel it is way to soon to just write some first impressions down. I know some have no problems jumping to conclusions after a couple of hours using a camera. I however want to learn to master it. I should say though that after a brief moment it felt very comfortable.

It feels easier to hold than the GXR, the grip is reassuring and the finish of the camera is like expected. The little bit of extra weight is much appreciated. The menu though….. A typical Ricoh menu, organized, well structured, but you do almost need an IT background to understand all the firmware features. I’d better figure it out now and just set up the camera once and for all.

New skool

I always try to set up my cameras to keep the shooting process simple. A concept I always appreciated when I bought my GR1 briefly after it was launched in 1996. All the options of the Ricoh GR can, at first, be very overwhelming. If you already have a GRD predecessor I suggest to set up your GR similarly. Best for me though, was to get out with the camera as soon as possible.

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma

Cumbersome indeed and a bit of everything

It took me a while to think of a new blog post again (I don’t feel a pressure to regular post new stuff though) and that has partly come because I currently hardly photograph. I guess, more than expected, I needed a break from photography. Much of my work in the past year dealt with converting my moods into imagery, sometimes consciously, but often subconsciously. A friend recently showed some concept of his new photography blog and that excited me. And made me realize too that much of the stuff I did was not always about happiness and joy. Mood? Yes. Honesty? I tried. I think what I miss is something to desire, a mood, a feeling, something pretty and pleasant. More than ever before I look forward to this upcoming Summer.

Since December 2007 I run my own photography blog and shared my photographs online. I don’t do it to become popular, well known, or to start up a business. sharing makes perfect sense for me in photography, the people I met ever since were worth all the effort. And yes, I had my worries of image theft or people sharing my work without mentioning. But I lightened up on this issue which I mention clearly in my About page. A couple of days ago I was shocked when I received an e-mail where someone claimed the two photographs in the previous post, Almost Human, were actually his. First of that claim was just ridiculous. I know these photographs are mine, I took them, I processed them, I know where and when I took them, which camera I used, and I know who where with me. I told it to my wife and she was flabbergasted (she was with me on both occasions). The claim is stupid, but with current internet legislation I feel the content makers are very vulnerable.

E-mail with the insinuation

Then I more closely inspected that mail and I noticed that the person, not leaving behind additional contact information, attempted to redirect me through a strange link to my blog post. This felt untrustworthy. The strange link and, I presume, the false identity. I immediately changed my password for my blog content management system and I contacted wordpress.com. It felt like an attempt to hack either my blog or something else. Again it emphasizes the vulnerability of our online presence and the evilness some people unfortunately have within them. Yet it pisses me off, you know. These punks should get a life, go to school, do something meaningful with their lives and for our society, and they should tell their mothers what a jerks they are. I thought the best response trying to forget this was to write a new blog post. It is my blog, and these are my photographs, my musings.

Since November last year I made no effort writing about gear. You see, I believe a camera is just a tool. There are probably lots of reasons why you decided to use a specific camera (I know I have), but I feel no need to defend this. An important reason why I stay away from forums, because too often people troll to give great significance to their reasoning and bash anything else. Just stupid. But I prefer certain tools and I know many visitors on my blog come here for this fact too. As much as I hope it would be for my photography alone I realize it matters others what gear I use and what can be done with certain cameras (and lenses).

Well that said, my preferred cameras are the Panasonic GF1 with the 20mm pancake lens and a Ricoh GR Digital 3. While I really like the GF1, it does feel like a replaceable camera to me. The Ricoh however is more than that. If I replace this camera, it would only be with a new GR Digital model. Since end 1996 I replaced my SLR for a Ricoh GR1 and I was really glad to get a digital replacement in 2009. No other camera forced me to work so consciously with a minimal set up. Just a 28mm prime lens and that is it.

The current version, the GRD4, still uses the same sensor that was introduced with the GRD3. Sony stopped producing this sensor and that makes me wonder what Ricoh should do for next year. Ricoh acquired Pentax last year, but yet haven’t decided or at least announced proper plans for their full camera line up. I think their current line up has a few noticeable and distinctive cameras like the Pentax 645D, the K-5, and the Ricoh GRD4. The K-5 has one of the best APS-C sized sensors and is a really good camera. The GRD4 is a true cult camera and loved and faved by many photographers, especially in Asia. The sensor however is outdated and the competition is getting better and better. Now Sony introduced the RX100 with a new 1 inch sensor and I really believe this is the sensor that Ricoh should incorporate in the new GR Digital 5 next year. It is a huge step beyond the small sensors used until now. Greater dynamic range and better high ISO performance. And while the current GRD is well developed in it’s current form, I believe it makes sense to get the GRD form factor closer to the original GR1 series with a viewfinder.

And returning back to the Pentax Ricoh camera line up I think their problem is in the mirrorless cameras, the Pentax K-01 and the Ricoh GXR series. While both are unique and use interesting technologies, I believe these cameras are commercially speaking not really successful. The K-01 lacks the option to use an electronic viewfinder and looks rather ought. And when it comes to the GXR I personally feel only the M-mount module is really worth all the effort. And innovating technology alone doesn’t necessarily make a camera system commercially interesting.

Enough cameras though. Recently I started using the previous year released Lightroom VSCO film presets by Visual Supply Co for my own processing. One of the most well known photographers who contributed his knowledge to these presets is American wedding photographer Sean Flanigan with his distinctive style. Both his shooting and posing techniques with tilt and shift lenses became fashionable in the wedding photography industry. Soon after that his processing style popped up all over the place. With the release of these presets it is now even easier to achieve this look. Honestly, I think this look is now overdone in the wedding photography, but still I find these presets very intriguing. In my opinion these are the first development presets for Lightroom that can generate continuity and consistency in the post processing on multiple photographs. Soon I will publish my impressions on these presets and how I try to use these for my photography.

I hope all is well to you and good light!

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma

My view

It is now almost two weeks ago that I broke my back at a freak accident. I still have some pain, but I am able to sit and walk a bit. I really appreciate all your comments and messages, thank you all.

But what next? Ricoh quickly replaced my camera for another one and many suggested seeing the situation as an opportunity, which I did.

On twitter @MichaelZelbel suggested to post some tips on photography health. But what should I suggest? Be careful with chemicals when you are still shooting film. Unless you need all your equipment, go light or at least minimal. A large camera bag and one or two cameras and lenses add a lot of stress to your shoulders, neck and back. When you go out in your neighborhood walk or take your bike instead of a car.

And concerning health, it took me a lot of time to edit these photographs and write this post. So I now I am still not there yet. I am still glad that I could take these. And I am also glad that I could still keep in contact with many of you despite my fracture.

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma