Ricoh Gx-100

[BernardLanguillier]

Dear all,

The much awaited Ricoh GX-100 was released in Japan today and all the camera available were sold out by 6PM today in Shinjuku.

I had the chance to play with one in tonight, and the first impressions are positive, although i didn't have the opportunity to shoot in suitable conditions, nor to review the results in detail. The lens seems to be excellent at 24 mm.

The one thing that might disapoint some is the write time of RAW files. Per my rough measurment, the camera was unusable for about 30 seconds after taking one image in RAW mode. I couldn't check the type of SD card used, fast cards might be better.

I would personnaly not find this to be a major issue, but many would probably disagree.  

cheers,
Bernard

[julian_love]

RAW write times seem to be the Achilles heel of all the high end compacts. 30 seconds really is just too long. I am sure the manufacturers are wary of increasing the cost of cameras that are already the most expensive in their category, but given the target market I am sure that most of us would be happy to pay $100 more or whatever to have a better buffer... I am sure this is why Canon removed RAW from the G7 - if they leave it in they get criticised for slow handling, and they are worried tthe camera will cost too much if they add more buffer.

Julian

[BernardLanguillier]

Correction to what I write above, the camera I tested seemingly was using its internal RAM.

On a slow SD I get now 12 seconds wait between images, while others have reported around 6 seconds with a faster card.

Regards,
Bernard

[naisan]

Correction to what I write above, the camera I tested seemingly was using its internal RAM.

On a slow SD I get now 12 seconds wait between images, while others have reported around 6 seconds with a faster card.

Regards,
Bernard
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=113635\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

6 seconds is acceptable in my mind.

Can you briefly talk about manual handing:
1) what is it like to change aperture
2) to change shutter
3) change focus

And for all of these, how much feedback (e.g. live histogram vs through the viewfinder? or what do you see change? as you're doing these) do you get?

Also - how is the viewfinder and how quickly does it shoot assuming that you pre-focus?

Thanks!

Naisan

[BernardLanguillier]

Dear all,

Please a full size sample below. This was shot in DNG and converted with Lightroom.

I used highlight recovery and fill light to bring the image to where I felt it had to be. This tends to worsen the noise in the shadows compared to default rendition, but why use RAW if nothing can be done on the image.



Regards,
Bernard

[BernardLanguillier]

6 seconds is acceptable in my mind.

Can you briefly talk about manual handing:
1) what is it like to change aperture
2) to change shutter
3) change focus

And for all of these, how much feedback (e.g. live histogram vs through the viewfinder? or what do you see change? as you're doing these) do you get?

Also - how is the viewfinder and how quickly does it shoot assuming that you pre-focus?
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=113660\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I have only just stated the camera, so these comments might need to be refined based on further usage.

The interface is OK, pretty similar to a Nikon DSLR with front and rear wheels to change speed/aperture. There is no S mode though, only A and M.

There is live histogram display mode, but you cannot directly change speed/aperture when you are in that mode. It is in that mode that you adjust exposure compensation, which makes sense obviously. On the other hand, the histogram is a small, it is difficult to critically assess the extend of blown highlights.

I have not yet had the chance to use the viewfinder.

Overall, the camera is nice, the lens is impressive on the wide end, very sharp at 24 mm even in the corners.

Some will be disapointed by the amount of noise, already visible on screen at 80 ISO in flat areas like skies,... It would probably not show in print though. Anyway, I wish they had built this camera based on a 6 MP sensor.

The ability to use DNG is nice, but I'll have to compare the jpg and RAW files to assess to what extend something can really be gained.

Cheers,
Bernard

[BernardLanguillier]

I have only just stated the camera, so these comments might need to be refined based on further usage.

The interface is OK, pretty similar to a Nikon DSLR with front and rear wheels to change speed/aperture. There is no S mode though, only A and M.

There is live histogram display mode, but you cannot directly change speed/aperture when you are in that mode. It is in that mode that you adjust exposure compensation, which makes sense obviously. On the other hand, the histogram is a small, it is difficult to critically assess the extend of blown highlights.

I have not yet had the chance to use the viewfinder.

Overall, the camera is nice, the lens is impressive on the wide end, very sharp at 24 mm even in the corners. There is distorsion, but not worse that a 18-200 on my d80 for instance. I hope that DxO will support this camera.

Some will be disapointed by the amount of noise, already visible on screen at 80 ISO in flat areas like skies,... It would probably not show in print though. Anyway, I wish they had built this camera based on a 6 MP sensor.

The ability to use DNG is nice, but I'll have to compare the jpg and RAW files to assess to what extend something can really be gained.

Cheers,
Bernard
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=113688\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

[BernardLanguillier]

I have to say that I am surprised by the apparent lack of interest of this forum for the Ricoh GX-100.

It has everything we have been asking for, and even more actually, but still doesn't seem to raise much interest.

Arguably, it is expensive if you pay the list price.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Paulo Bizarro]

I am very interested in this camera. As you say, it holds a lot of potential. As a former user of the GRD, I like the zoom range (I have a 24-70 zoom for my EOS 1V, it is my most used lens), and particularly that the option for 24mm does not degrade the image quality.

Also, the faster RAW writing times are a blessing; 6 seconds is ok, much better than 12 seconds with the GRD.

The sensor will be noisy, but perhpas there will be enough detail left  after good noise reduction processing. Also, it is important to consider how big a print you end up making. Up to A4, I am not expecting noise to be an issue, even at ISO 400.

But in the end, there are just too many megapixels in such a tiny sensor...

[ivan muller]

thanks for all the info so far Bernard!
I have been offline for a few days and I am very pleased to see your post. Actually I have been reading everything I can get on the GX100. On paper at least it seems to be the almost perfect compact camera. I have taken photos with the G7 a few times - in the camera shop-, but I must say I just cannot get used to it. The optical viewfinder is terrible. Once one has become used to raw why should one settle for jpeg.  I have also tried the powershot640. Handles a lot better but once again viewfinder is terrible. Taking photographs looking at the screen, for me is not an option, thus I will be very interested in your observations regarding this. I would love this camera to give me nice grainy but sharp pics. Just like my contax G1 did. If I want no noise I will use my ZD.. What I am really looking for in this type of camera is that quality feel of old film cameras like the contax and sharp lenses with a good viewfinder. I will be happy if it can give me a good quality A3+ print. What I also like is the square format option. Another feature that sounds great is the two preselects. Image at the turn of a button one can select iso,focal lenght, format, hyperfocal distance  etc etc.
Thanks Ivan

[julian_love]

I too am very interested in this camera - I want a high end compact with 8MP, RAW mode and an optical viewfinder, and GX-100 seems like it might be the best thing available.

I tried the GRD and G7 in the shop - the GRD is just too slow in RAW mode and the optical viewfinder on the G7 is terrible (and of course no RAW mode) although it is otherwise a very nice camera.

I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts Bernard. Especially how it handles...easy to change aperture / exposure compensation, quality of optical viewfinder etc.

Thanks, Julian

[BernardLanguillier]

I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts Bernard. Especially how it handles...easy to change aperture / exposure compensation, quality of optical viewfinder etc.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=114013\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Julian,

Reading the manual more in details would help, but so far I find the interface to be a bit of a problem in that regard.

You need to enter in exposure compensation mode to see the histogram, that's done by a double click on the Adj button - OK so far - but it seems that you cannot change directly the aperture in that mode.

There might be a way to configure this better.

Anyway, the more I use this camera the more I like it. I'll post more images later today.

Cheers,
Bernard

[BernardLanguillier]

Also, the faster RAW writing times are a blessing; 6 seconds is ok, much better than 12 seconds with the GRD.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=113953\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I could confirm the 6 seconds time reported by others thanks to the use of a faster SD card. The one I use now is a Panasonic card, the fastest SanDisk might event result in faster write times, although the camera throughput might be the bottleneck.

Cheers,
Bernard

[DaveLon]

A brief review on line reported the the RAW files are not MAC friendly.

Any comments.

Dave

[markpsf]

If any of you guys are still watching this thread...

I'd like to know if any of you are using an optical viewfinder with the GX100.

My guess is that optical one used on the GR (or a Voigtlander) is much brighter and probably has a larger image than the EVF on the GX100.

I rely on a viewfinder for my work. Disliked the one on a Panasonic FZ50 despite it being fairly large and the one I just tried on a Sony H-9 is depressingly small.

So any viewfinder input appreciated.

I may try a new thread on this since I realize this thread may now be forgotten.
Thanks.

Mark