Finally – Ricoh GR

[Kevin B]

Yo dudes,

Long story short I absolutely adore the camera. It was a joy to use out in the mountains. I've been working on the photos for some time now, hopefully going to publish everything soon. I'll make sure to put up a note here when I do.

[Daniel Collins]

I now have the GR set up for landscape work and will post photos "soon".
I added the lens adapter and the 21mm Wide Angle lens which is good glass.
To that I added a 62* to 72 mm step up adapter to install a 72 mm circular polarizer from B+W. The reason I used the step up is to get the edge of the polarizer out of view.
So far so good. Now I'm working on finding a lens hood that works.
A 72 mm pinch style lens cap tops it off.
It all fits in a weatherproof Lowepro AW100 chest pack along with spare batteries and cards. I will probably be adding a ziplock bag and silica gel.

* The wide angle lens instructions say that a 62 mm accessory cannot be mounted to the lens but I found that it CAN be.

Since i just got a new canon 70D I have not been playing with the Ricoh lately but will get back to it soon …..

[Justin]

I've now taken my GR to Catalina and Joshua Tree, and I've been very impressed with the capabilities of this camera.

Here are some of the photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/113549364@N04/

I can fit both the camera and an ultra-pod into the same pants pocket. It's possible to pull out the camera, turn it on, take a photo, turn it off, and put it back in your pocket all with one hand. Really easy and quick. It's quite the difference having been lugging around a DSLR for a while. It does seem like the metering isn't perfect and it will occasionally under/overexpose. If you shoot in RAW, it's mostly a non-issue.

I've also been getting about 450 pictures/battery. This is with the LCD on for post-view, and some paging through the images during the trip. At 25 grams a battery, it doesn't add much to bring extras.

[Maxwell Walrath]

I thought I would add this question to this thread since the Ricoh seems to offer wider shots at 28mm than similarly priced competitors. I am looking to carry a quality camera for the first time on my hiking and camping trips and I'm using this forum and dpreview as my primary sources of info. I am in the process of lightening my other gear so I can carry things like dedicated cameras, maybe a chair, and definitely some good whiskey a little bit easier. My trips tend to be 4-8 days in length, usually in tough terrain, so something that fits in a pocket and can be easily reached dozens of times per day without taking off a pack is my first priority. With that said, I wouldn't be opposed to carrying a lightweight tripod for slowing down and getting better pics at camp.

I am a complete rookie with photography, though I have taken tons of pics on trips mainly with an iPhone and I am planning on taking a few photography lessons. I tend to like huge landscape pics, from what I've gathered the Ricoh excels with them. My first question, probably with a few follow-ups, is what do you guys use, if anything, for large landscape shots? Do some of you carry DSLRs and attach 14-16-22mm lenses? Is that feasable for week-long hiking trips in terms of size, weight and cost? I have not thought about a budget…but I could not imagine spending for than what a Ricoh GR costs so we could say that is just about my ceiling.

Anyway, thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any advice & input.

[Bob Gross]

"Do some of you carry DSLRs and attach 14-16-22mm lenses?"

Yes, and my short backpacking lens is 18-200mm. If I really knew that I would need a primo wide scenery lens, then I would carry a 10-20mm zoom. Typically I can get that done with 18mm on the short zoom. It is rare for me to shoot more than 10% scenery on any given backpacking trip. I'm more of a wildlife guy.

–B.G.–

[Maxwell Walrath]

Thanks Bob. What camera and lenses do you carry?

Is it right to assume that the larger sensor on the Ricoh will give me higher quality shots, with the obvious huge downside being only being able to shoot from 28 to 45 (??)mm?

– Max

[Bob Gross]

"larger sensor on the Ricoh"

Larger than what?

I use Canon DSLR bodies (APS-C sensors), although normally I carry only one at a time. Since I am a wildlife shooter, I carry the short zoom and then one of the following: Canon 100-400mm, Tamron 150-600mm, Sigma 300-800mm.

–B.G.–

[Maxwell Walrath]

""larger sensor on the Ricoh"

Larger than what?"

That comment stemmed from not using the sort function on dpreview's camera search function incorrectly. On second look there are a number of dslr's with APS-C + sensors. Sorry, please disregard.

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