Ricoh argghh my GR rant

I actually don't think at the price point there is another camera to touch it (especially as it has no OLP filter in front of the sensor) and it has more than decent sensitivity up to iso1600 in my experience.

Now that the Coolpix A is down to $699 (evidently in anticipation of a new model with a 24mp sensor), I'd say there's at least ONE other very similar camera that touches it, arguably touches it in most of the right spots. The GR is a great camera, but there are so damn many of them these days, I find it harder and harder to make statements like this. Most of the differences are just a matter of taste any more, not better or worse...

-Ray
 
Now that the Coolpix A is down to $699 (evidently in anticipation of a new model with a 24mp sensor), I'd say there's at least ONE other very similar camera that touches it, arguably touches it in most of the right spots. The GR is a great camera, but there are so damn many of them these days, I find it harder and harder to make statements like this. Most of the differences are just a matter of taste any more, not better or worse...

-Ray

I'm curious if they'll let themselves really innovate with the next coolpix A model or not. It could be amazing or they could take the cannon approach of incrementally improving existing tech. We'll see but I'm betting their starting price will be around the original Coolpix A price so it'll really need to compete tech wise, IMO.
 
I'm curious if they'll let themselves really innovate with the next coolpix A model or not. It could be amazing or they could take the cannon approach of incrementally improving existing tech. We'll see but I'm betting their starting price will be around the original Coolpix A price so it'll really need to compete tech wise, IMO.
I think if they were trying to compete for the same shooters as Ricoh, they'd have priced the original much more aggressively. That they didn't, and that they seem to be getting ready to release a second version, tells me they've got an installed base of Nikon DSLR shooters looking for a camera like this with an interface they're familiar with, that can use Nikon flashes, etc, and that they're not really trying to compete directly with the GR. And they must have sold more of them than I'd have thought if they're carrying the idea forward... Kind of ironic in my case that I liked the Coolpix interface so much that I was more interested in checking out Nikon's DSLRs as a result and now I'm in THAT fold. So it sort of worked in reverse with me. Really, I'm not sure what they can do to the Coolpix to make it better. I mean, I have a couple of firmware changes I'd make if it was up to me, but they're not big deals. I can't see getting the new one just to get 24mp unless that sensor is REALLY special in all sorts of other ways too (which it might be given their full frame 24mp sensors and the DR rating for the 24mp sensor in some of the DX DSLRs). I'm just glad that they see enough in the format to keep working on it - the Coolpix A and RX1 are two of my favorite cameras ever and I hope they make more like them...

-Ray
 
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