Vintage Digital Therapy: RICOH GR Follow Up

This post is a mash up. Have posted many vintage digital posts and analog therapy posts.

Vintage digital is a fairly arbitrary designation for me. In general this describes years old digital cameras typically no longer on the market. Most were released more than 5 years ago. Have seen even older cameras listed on other sites. Many with fairly terrible image quality. Which is fine. But here I try to concentrate on cameras that can still produce a solid image even though their specs may seem inferior compared to the latest and greatest cameras on the market. But with that there are often also perks. Most often the prices are significantly lower. This lack of preciousness can lead to using them more often in situations where you might hesitate to use newer gear. There can also be advantages to older tech. Like being forced to slow down and be more careful due to slower AF and staying more in the moment once slow card write times keep you from constantly checking your last shot on the back of the camera and missing what is going on in front of you.

Analog has its similarities. With the lack of preciousness and encouragement to slow down there is no ability to review your shots. And on top of that there are added levels to the therapeutic aspects as you own more of the process. It started with shooting film and having my local camera shop develop and scan my film. Then I picked up an Epson V600 and started scanning 35mm and 120 film. Along with owning more of the process, this saved $10 a roll. Next I started developing my own black and white film. This also saved $10 a roll of film while also removing the days to weeks wait time for my local camera shop to develop my particular film in batches. Then I started developing my own color film. This only saved $5 a roll but allowed me to develop my color film whenever I wanted to and adding a bit of therapy to the process as did the stages outlined above. The next step will be developing my own slide film. This has a longer wait time than black and white film because my local camera shop sends this out to be developed. Have purchased the chemicals, but I have yet to shoot more slide film.

On to the camera.

Have written a preview and a review of the RICOH GR.

I do not believe I have mentioned this in these posts, but I had wondered if purchasing this first gen GR would just end up with me wanting to get the gen III model. As mentioned previously the WiFi added for gen II was not a large enough difference. And to my surprise, I had become too attached to the 28mm full frame equivalent focal length to consider the gen IIIx and its 40mm equivalent focal length. So what of the III? Well:

• On paper, I thought I might want IBIS but in practice, I have yet to miss it. If this were my only camera I might think differently, about IBIS as well as the IIIx’s 40mm focal length, but I was good. Case in point here is a low light sample photo.

• On paper, I thought the III’s hybrid contrast and phase detect AF would interest me. But in practice, the combination of a 28mm equivalent focal length and snap focus have made AF a non-issue for me. Snap focus sample.

• And having now had a GR with flash I would miss it. The flash metering is done very well and creates a pleasing image.

To be clear I am not saying that the III and IIIx are not worth the additional cost. What I am saying is the gen I GR is more than good enough for me personally.

What I can also say is that while there are other great, portable all in one cameras on the market the GR is best for me. Great lens. Great colors. Small. Portable. Great macro mode. One handed use is a breeze. Great controls. All the things everyone says.

On to the photos. Nothing special. Scenes seen while going about my daily tasks.

Last thoughts.

This camera is fun. Not only is it fun it has occupied a space I did not even know I was looking for. It has become a functional replacement for the Contax T2 I let go of by addressing the few issues I had with that camera. A great camera. But it was a bit too precious to be used as a portable image capturing device. Had been displaced after a comparison with the SIGMA dp2 Quattro. The GR is even better for me because it is less precious while still offering small size and great image quality.

Well done RICOH.