Ricoh GR Digital?

2Thumbs · 7 Mar 2011

I'm in the market for a new compact. Small and inconspicuous are key requirements with RAW output being preferable. But with this my budget would struggle to reach S95-LX5 levels.

Today I came across the GR-Digital range (second hand) by Ricoh and seems perfect, I find the fixed lens would be a plus as I'm used to using primes and very rarely zoom when I've used a P'n'S in the past.

Has anyone used/owned one of the 3 GR's? How did you find it? I've read reviews which seem favourable compared to the brands more consumer based camera's.

Many thanks!

sinar · 8 Mar 2011

Hi,

I bought the original GRD when it first came out and I still have it, its an excellent little compact when the light is good.

The build quality is second to none and the ergonomics are excellent, having 2 control dials is really nice, as is the little rocker switch.

In good light, using the base ISO image quality is great, the lens is outstanding for a compact, however, upping the ISO creates a significant amount of noise, by ISO 400 it is looking quite bad, over that almost unusable by modern standards (of coarse that is a subjective opinion)

I have only recently started to post process and have not used my GRD in a couple of years so have never used noise reduction software on the images, so don't know how well they clean up.

I tended to just shoot B/W if I had to push the ISO.

I have not used any of the later versions so don't know if they are any better, I would have thought they would be.

So, if you plan to use it mostly in good light I think it would be a great choice, if you find yourself shooting in a lot of low light situations it might not be a smart choice, depending what you want to do with the images (small prints and web use would probably be OK at higher ISO's)

Hope that helps, if you have any questions please ask!

Julie

paulcamcas · 8 Mar 2011

GRDIII is a terrific camera. Great to use, excellent interface. Beautifully made and very good IQ. The lens is superb - I've not come across a better lens on a small-sensor camera. If the field of view is right for you, don't hesitate.

There is a very friendly and helpful specialist forum for Ricoh cameras here. If you have any particular questions, they'll put you right.

sinar · 8 Mar 2011

Just another thought, on the GRD original the Raw shot to shot times are very long, frustratingly so, something to consider.

2Thumbs · 8 Mar 2011

Thank you for the informative replies. I'm still umming and ahhing over it all lol. SRS are selling a few new Mk1's with a 2 year warranty which is sorely tempting.

Julie, has yours got the latest firmware installed? I've heard that shortens the raw processing time to a degree.

B3R · 25 Jul 2011

Interesting, If I had some spare money, I would like to get a GR-Digital. I mostly shoot long exposures at night (at ISO 100), any comments on how well the original GR-Digital does at this?

garry71 · 25 Jul 2011

The GRD1 is reckoned to have the best jpegs and B&W of the 3 models.
RAW is very slow to save though.
The GRD1 also can have a freeze up problem caused by the back dial button, but I've never had any trouble with mine.

B3R · 26 Jul 2011

I doubt slow RAW would bother me as I mostly take my time, using a tripod, long exposures etc. edit, just googled and it looks like the RAWs take like >10 seconds, that might be a bit iratating, but still its not like waiting to get a film developed so I may be ok with it.

edit: Hmm the GRD2 is tempting, doesnt seem much in it second hand, plus it takes SDHC cards which most of mine are, plus the extra pixel count may be handy for more cropping especially with the lack of zoom (wont normally be an issue, but just for them odd times).