Ricoh The GXR lives...

Ray Sachs

Legend
Location
Not too far from Philly
Name
you should be able to figure it out...
I had a GXR 28 for a while from late 2011 through mid-2012. As much as I liked it, I didn't see any reason or justification for keeping it once I got the X-Pro last year, so I sold it and kept the GRD3. But having gotten used to shooting with sensors that had some latitude, I got pretty tired of the GRD3, even as a minimalist camera, and found myself not using it much and rarely being satisfied with what I did shoot with it. Which just shows you how psychological a lot of this stuff is - I'd loved the GRD3 for quite a while before my expectations got raised. Anyway, I sold the GRD3, found myself missing that Ricoh mojo and interface, saw Paul's GXR-28 come up for a very good price, and bought it. I bought it back for somewhat less than I'd sold the previous one for, so I didn't feel like TOO much of an idiot over the whole sillyness, but anyway I've had a GXR agains for a couple of months or so now. Before today I hadn't done much shooting with it yet. Some minor but unpleasant asthma issues have kept me from getting out as much as I'd like to for the past few weeks - getting into Philly is kind of a big deal at the moment - but today was a beautiful day and I figured I could at least go walk around my hometown for a while. And because it was such a nice day, there were actually quite a few people out and about, which is rare, and I managed to do a bit of street shooting, which I usually don't manage unless there's a street fair or something. Nothing terribly interesting, but street shooting is sort of like life blood to me, so it felt really good, even if its pretty run of the mill stuff.

I'd been thinking about this camera a lot lately because of the Nikon Coolpix A, which seems like it might be a replacement for it, being far more pocketable and probably with better image quality. But after shooting with the GXR again today, I'm reminded just what a great little street camera it is. A great little ANYTHING camera really, for shooting at 28mm - and 28mm is where I pretty much live. So I came away thinking the Nikon is going to have to be pretty damn special to displace the GXR again. Its hard for me to imagine it being much better and although the GXR isn't pants pocketable, its easily coat pocketable and is very discrete to shoot with. I'm not sure how or why I'd justify a major expenditure to replace something I like this much for relatively minor gains in areas that don't matter that much. Anyway, without further ado, a few from today. I've been coughing and wheezing most of the rest of the day to pay for my little extravagance, but I was really glad to get out nonetheless.

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West Chester GXR-23-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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West Chester GXR-45-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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West Chester GXR-29-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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West Chester GXR-34-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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West Chester GXR-25-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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West Chester GXR-30-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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West Chester GXR-10-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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West Chester GXR-54-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

-Ray
 
I've been fighting some GAS since I saw some RIDICULOUS low prices on the GXR body and modules at Henry's Shop for Digital Cameras, Compare and Buy Digital Cameras - Henry's best camera store in Canada and here for the modules ...... Search - Henry's best camera store in Canada
Yeah, really good deals there and elsewhere. They seem to have everything BUT the 28mm module. Incredible deal on the 24-85 zoom, though. If you like zooms, that seems to be a really good one and kind of unbeatable for $250.

All of which seems to mean that the whole line is either due for a major upgrade or is about to disappear altogether. So I don't know what to suggest. I wouldn't look to a future system with it, but if you like it and want to get a body and a module or two, this seems to be a good time. I personally love the 28 as sort of a standalone fixed lens camera, but never found any other part of the system I was interested in.

-Ray
 
I hope that you're feeling better again soon, Ray. There's no doubt about it; the GXR is a great camera, and no matter how many AA filters they remove or dynamic range they expand in the future it will always produce images that will be well and truly good enough for just about any need I would have. I wish that I could say quite the same about my old Olympus E-P1, of which I would likely still own if that had been the case. I only mention the E-P1 because the GXR reminds me of that "vintage" of camera in how it operates.
 
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