Ricoh-GR-blog

Wednesday, 1 October 2008

photokina snaps

Camera : Epson RD1s
Lens : Voigtlander Nokton classic S.C 40mm F 1.4
Settings : ISO200 . 1/97s.

Camera : Epson RD1s
Lens : Voigtlander Nokton classic S.C 40mm F 1.4
Settings : ISO200 / 1/676s

Camera : Epson RD1s
Lens : Voigtlander Nokton classic S.C 40mm F 1.4
Settings : ISO200 / 1/208s

Camera : Epson RD1s
Lens : Voigtlander Nokton classic S.C 40mm F 1.4
Settings : ISO200 / 1/676s

Well, i ve just been to photokina after several months of anticipation. Finally another chance to meet up with the Ricoh staff. our last meet up was in Japan where we checked out the picture gallery from their last contest. I was also very eager to see how the new micro 4/3 system was since the recent announcement of the G1 and see if it would be a sort of modern day epson rd1 with controls similar to a ricoh that would accept interchangeable lenses, this way my voigtlander lenses could be mounted with an adaptor. next on my list was the olympus digital pen or whatever they decide to call their new ultra small interchangeable camera.

I was quite impressed with the panasonic G1 and it s EVF. on almost all cameras i have tested, the evf i find useless and uncomfortable to see with. manually focusing is also usually quite an exercise, however on the G1 its really quite usable and crisp. would have preferred an absence of any viewfinder all together and it to be sold as an accessory a bit like the Ricoh GX100.
The controls are quite OK and even if i prefer old school controls like the RD1 i could learn to like them. they added a push wheel and i am a big fan of wheels for controlling aperture and shutter. the wheel can even be pushed.the refresh rate of the screen leave the competition behind and is very very fast, maybe a bit too fast. they adopted a LCD folding feature like the rd1 that in my opinion is a bit pointless as you need the menu to make adjustments. on the RD1 it makes sense because all the controls are physical. perhaps its intended for another purpose.

At the Ricoh booth we had the chance to discuss cameras and our view of possible improvements of the GR series of cameras. I think the biggest points that came out of the meeting was the rocker switch in replacement of the GRD1 wheel and differences in jpeg quality. this subject is covered in every possible detail in the Ricoh gr diary. Ricoh staff are extremely friendly people who listen very carefully to their customer base.

The Olympus digital pen prototype looks almost too good to be true. it looks for now like a silver version of the sigma dp2 except the lens is changeable. if the interface is good, i may buy this camera or perhaps Ricoh will surprise me with the GRD3.