X100 and GRD3 at a street fair

Ray Sachs

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Location
Not too far from Philly
Name
you should be able to figure it out...
OK, so I've been intrigued by the great stuff I've been seeing from the GRD3 and when I saw one for close to $400 I jumped on it. I'm stupid that way - sometimes I just have to try something. Which is why the GF1 is for sale and the LX5 may follow. In any case, last night was the first of monthly Thursday evening street fairs in my small town, it was a beautiful evening, and my wife and I walked the two blocks to the center of town and partook. Two bands (a pretty damn good Allman Bros cover band and a closer to purist blues band) at either end of the street. And I got a chance to carry both of these cameras around and compare 'em for street shooting.

Well, the GRD can't compare to the X100 for low light shooting - nothing I've used can but the Nex and the m43 stuff does better than the small sensor cams like the GRD and LX5. But the GRD isn't bad at all and its gotta be the most discreet camera I've ever shot with. Particularly with the snap focus turned on to either 1 or 1.5 meters, you can just shoot endlessly at very close quarters without anyone being alarmed. I don't really have a feel for the camera yet, but I like it. I like the sharpness and clarity of the lens a lot - I think I'm getting more and more sold on the idea of fixed lens cameras where the single focal length is really well mated to the sensor. The X100 and GRD are the only two of these I've tried and I really like them both a lot. I also love having something a bit wider than the X100 available. And the GRD fits very comfortably in a front pants pocket, which the LX5 doesn't. As others have said, it really disappears into your hand - highly transparent in use. GREAT LCD too, a shame it doesn't tilt up! I could see getting a lot of mileage out of just these two cameras - one on a strap, one in my pocket.

So, enough of that, here are some images from both, intermixed. I'm betting you'll mostly be able to tell which is which, but guesses are welcome:

-Ray

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Ray - wow, you really nailed the night! I wish I'd been there to relive my "Eat a Peach" days - and grab a crab cake sandwich! My first reactions are that these all look great, but my two faves are the bicyclist policeman and the Sausage Truck. Mr. Clown pictures, too, but I find clowns quite creepy...so I'm sticking with the others. I really do like them all, very much.

Congrats!
 
Great pictures Ray! The GRD3 is a fantastic camera. I think it will grow on you more and more. I recognize the GRD3 rendering in the pictures above, which I like a lot.

On an artistic note, it would be better if all of the B&W images were processed the same way, subjectively speaking. It's a great set, a mini project, and stylistic consistency would strengthen it.
 
Thanks BB and Andrew. BB, clowns are a bit creepy by nature but those are the same ones at EVERY street fair I've ever seen in this town, so they don't scare me anymore! And the crab cakes were right across the street from the Allman Bros guys, so you'd have been in luck. Andrew, I never really think of these as "sets" or "series" when I'm processing them, but I probably should. I put 'em up and they're always sort of disjointed. At least now I'm careful to do tones from at least the same general tan/gold or blue/silver family sort of consistently (these are all one level or another of coffee or sepia toning), but they definitely look very different as I scroll through.

I definitely have too many cameras now. Its tough to part with any of them because they all do some things really well. The GF1 does things well that I have covered a lot of ways, so I'll sell if I can, but even THAT's hard to do because I always really enjoy shooting with it. I just don't see doing it much anymore.

-Ray
 
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