- Name
- Miguel Tejada-Flores
Well, call me foolish for buying an 11-year-old camera with a tiny sensor, but after years of admiring from a distance the photos which Wouter Brandsma, Josh White (aka jtinseoul) and occasionally Eric Kim have taken or used to take with this little Ricoh, I couldn't resist when I found one in clean shape for a reasonable price. My first thought when it arrived was: damn, this thing is small! Compared to the 1st generation APS-C Ricoh which came out about 5 years ago, which I owned briefly, and which I thought was on the small side back then, the GRD is tiny. You can't really tell from looking at photos of it--
-- but the adjective which immediately comes to mind is diminutive. Actually, I'm unscientifically guessing that its dimensions may be close to the Lumix GM1 I shot with for a few years before gifting it to a good friend who needed a small camera. It's approx the same length as my ancient analog Rollei 35 (which however is notably thicker), and it's a tad smaller than my old Olympus Infinity Stylus compact. And it feels much smaller than my former favorite almost-pocketable digital compact, the Lumix LX7, although I believe the two cameras share the same sensor size (1/1.7"), the GRD's is a CCD while that of my LX7 was a newer CMOS. But, hey, those are technical quibbles....my real question (which I know is going to take awhile to answer) is: how does it feel? and what kind of pictures will it take?
The answer to the first question, so far, is - it feels very nice in hand. In spite of the tiny size, it seems to be more of a one-handed camera than either my LX7 or GM1 was. The LCD screen ain't bad either though in sunlight, it helps to increase the vividness of the display to the max. Here are a handful of my first two days worth of pictures --
The first, taken during a walk to the local Post Office, in the quasi deserted downtown of the small Oregon town I live in--
On the way back, a detail of an area where smokers used to congregate (and apparently still do), near the local bus stop--
One of the things I loved the most about my small-sensor LX7 was its macro abilities - somehow that camera always seemed to let me get closer to my subjects, something which neither the APS-C GR. nor the Nikon Coolpix A I briefly owned, were all that good at. So I'm trying the GRD3 out on a few odds and ends in my house -
This is the tiny head from an antique Japanese doll which (don't ask) currently lives atop a pencil & pen holder on my writing desk -- this was taken late at night, with minimal lighting --
While this shot, of a strange candle I bought at a local bookstore (back in the days when bookstores were still open - alas, now in corona-time, they are not deemed an 'essential' business though, for some of us, reading is essential), was taken in daylight--
Here is the photographer himself, in another available-light situation, wondering if the GRD's autofocus will actually focus where I want it to---
And finally a shot of my rural street, complete with my mailbox and Dead End sign--
I haven't tried out the snap-focus feature which generations of street photographers swear by....but since there's nobody in the streets these days, I guess I'll have to wait a little before I can. All of these were shot in RAW, and lightly processed via LR6 and one or two plug-ins I often use.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
-- but the adjective which immediately comes to mind is diminutive. Actually, I'm unscientifically guessing that its dimensions may be close to the Lumix GM1 I shot with for a few years before gifting it to a good friend who needed a small camera. It's approx the same length as my ancient analog Rollei 35 (which however is notably thicker), and it's a tad smaller than my old Olympus Infinity Stylus compact. And it feels much smaller than my former favorite almost-pocketable digital compact, the Lumix LX7, although I believe the two cameras share the same sensor size (1/1.7"), the GRD's is a CCD while that of my LX7 was a newer CMOS. But, hey, those are technical quibbles....my real question (which I know is going to take awhile to answer) is: how does it feel? and what kind of pictures will it take?
The answer to the first question, so far, is - it feels very nice in hand. In spite of the tiny size, it seems to be more of a one-handed camera than either my LX7 or GM1 was. The LCD screen ain't bad either though in sunlight, it helps to increase the vividness of the display to the max. Here are a handful of my first two days worth of pictures --
The first, taken during a walk to the local Post Office, in the quasi deserted downtown of the small Oregon town I live in--
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
On the way back, a detail of an area where smokers used to congregate (and apparently still do), near the local bus stop--
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
One of the things I loved the most about my small-sensor LX7 was its macro abilities - somehow that camera always seemed to let me get closer to my subjects, something which neither the APS-C GR. nor the Nikon Coolpix A I briefly owned, were all that good at. So I'm trying the GRD3 out on a few odds and ends in my house -
This is the tiny head from an antique Japanese doll which (don't ask) currently lives atop a pencil & pen holder on my writing desk -- this was taken late at night, with minimal lighting --
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
While this shot, of a strange candle I bought at a local bookstore (back in the days when bookstores were still open - alas, now in corona-time, they are not deemed an 'essential' business though, for some of us, reading is essential), was taken in daylight--
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Here is the photographer himself, in another available-light situation, wondering if the GRD's autofocus will actually focus where I want it to---
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
And finally a shot of my rural street, complete with my mailbox and Dead End sign--
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
I haven't tried out the snap-focus feature which generations of street photographers swear by....but since there's nobody in the streets these days, I guess I'll have to wait a little before I can. All of these were shot in RAW, and lightly processed via LR6 and one or two plug-ins I often use.
