Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Ricoh GXR P10 / S10 cameracide

The S10 module arrived a few days ago. Caught some kind of bug and been chomping antibiotics for a couple of weeks and haven't gotten out to shoot with the new module yet. One easy test is to shoot myself and look for how well the camera renders skin and details, including white balance. I've read from other camera nuts that they decided to keep the P10 because of it's greater range even though the S10 renders better. That's counter-intuitive for me. I'll almost always prefer a better quality photograph.  But I just shot a series and tried to set both modules the same and I have to admit that even though the P10 shows more noise via pixel peeping, it is a decent comparison. I have noticed a better color rendition from the S10 (more robust) but now I'm wondering. Here are the two shots I picked out of a group because they're apples to apples. The S10 has the auto close cap on so you can tell which is which. It fits either module and I only have one.



Not scientific, exactly but I'd say they're pretty close. I do like the 24mm of the S10 but the much greater range of the P10 is strong.

Friday, March 22, 2013

EOS-M noon outing shots


Nothing special here. Grabbed the pocketable EOS-M with 20mm 2.0 pancake on the way out. Figured it's fast lens and good high ISO performance would allow good indoor, low light shots and it did. I'm not posting them all but every shot came out fine. Left it wide open in aperture mode at 2.0 and let the ISO slide as necessary and the shots are all out of camera and jpg's. Should have shot RAW but got lazy. One point, however, some of the cameras I have, I MUST shoot RAW to come out with anything acceptable. Not the case with the EOS-M. The jpg engine works great. Of course there's not much noise so the photos aren't degraded by the jpg engine because it doesn't need to smooth things out much. I also like the 35mm effective FOV for this kind of work. I had it in a case with the Pentax Q and well, the EOS-M is about the same size (with pancake lens, of course) which I think is extraordinary as the Q is the smallest interchangeable lens digital camera. It's a good camera and lens combo. Canon was smart to include this fast, small lens with this camera as a kit. They both hit a sweet spot. Uh, the Canon could use the built in level that Ricoh provides. A lot of crooked shots but they were snapped quickly. Wouldn't have happened with the GXR. The level would have informed me even on point and shoots, like these and I would have adjusted appropriately. I did have the grid turned on. Didn't help me much.































Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Ricoh GXR


Still like the A12 28 module but I picked up a used body and P10 cheap. I now shoot RAW and low contrast B&W as my default. I like the RAW better than any JPG and of course can get a nice B&W rendering out of camera. The above are out of the A12 with a three shot bracket through PS. The following are some first experimental shots from the P10. The sensor (obviously) can't compare with the APS C but the wide range gives you some interesting options for shots which are not possible with the prime.






 There's nothing terribly wrong with the P10 module. It does give you a small footprint for carrying around and you can print up to 8 1/2 x 11 with no trouble. You need to shoot low ISO, of course, the lower the better and there's evidence of noise at 100 (not bad but it's there). Leads me to believe B&W would be a way to go here. The shots it makes are not enthusiast photographs. They are meh. That said, I got it cheap and I'm glad to have it for the occasion I need to go long. The kid, above, who was taking a golf shot then skipping up to the green was @ 50 yards away and I couldn't have gotten much of a shot capturing the action otherwise with the GXR. You can also go long to isolate backgrounds, foregrounds, which I sort of demonstrate above with the flashlight/stylus shot. I found a cheap S10 last night and will try it out next week. I really like the GXR as a camera. It is a photographer's dream for settings and it is a quick operating camera, especially when you can shoot RAW. I don't know if I've ever had a camera with so many darn settings and so many darn ways to accessing those settings. Amazing. The opposite of a consumer camera. I'm really looking forward to the S10 though. I've always liked the output from the GX100. What I read, the P10 is faster, so we'll see. As far as operation is concerned, I really like the GXR p10 combo. In the weeks ahead I'll see how much I use it.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Ricoh R10


The bargain Ricoh R10 arrived today in a padded envelope. It needed cleaning. Came with a 2GB sd card and no charger, but that was part of why it was so cheap. I took a few shots with it set at high ISO at 400 and well, 400 is too high. Probably 200 is too high but we'll see. The reviews of the camera complain about a noisy sensor and it's true, unless you stay at base ISO, which will be the plan. I like the camera and it's rubber grip. Great screen. Ricoh makes great cameras. The menus were in Japanese and the internal memory held some pictures from Japan. For samples of what the camera can do, especially in Japan, where it is at home:







My experience at base ISO is the camera takes great shots and the shooting experience with such a small, pocketable camera is good. I need to set up a a couple of hours to shoot with it alongside the CX1 for comparison.
 

Friday, March 8, 2013

Ricoh R10

I've got a few Ricoh's. I just impulse bought an R10 off fleabay for $30. The closest camera to the R10 I still have is the CX1, which is, by all accounts, a better camera. I had an R10 for a year and sold it to finance another camera. I went back and looked at a few of the shots and they're meh but then again, the camera is small and adjustable and has a great build quality. I look forward to seeing what the new/old Ricoh can do on the odd days I carry it around in my pocket. Here's some R10 shots. The best part(s) are: small and responsive and well built. I always like the R10s shots even though the camera didn't get a lot of respect.