Ricoh GR Digital 3 0 Inch Backlit

Ricoh GR 16.2 MP Digital Camera with 3.0-Inch LED Backlit (Black) (Electronics) I've worked in a number of genres over the years, and have always enjoyed street photography, but had always been impaired by the use of general purpose cameras like SLR's, TLR's, and even P&S's like the Yashica T4, Canon Powershot S95, or Canon G12. This purchase had been my first investment in a real purpose-built street camera. My budget had been considerably higher, and the final cameras in the running were this, the Fujifilm X100S, and the Sony DSCRX1R. My budget was clearly much higher than what I spent.

Not to be understated is the difference between (effective) 28mm focal length and 35mm. With a 35mm effective focal length, the photographer must be fairly close to the subject, but can still assume a somewhat safe distance. At 28mm, you must be right in the thick of things, so close to your subject that they can lay hands on you (if they were so inclined) without taking a step. I'm finding a certain intimacy at this focal length that was somewhat diminished at 35mm.

The Ricoh GR is insanely pocketable for such a high quality camera. As a result, I take it with me everywhere. When I go out on the streets, even just to walk to lunch from my office, the camera is in my hand. It's small enough, and low-key enough (almost entirely black, minus a fairly low-key "GR" on the front) that my subjects almost never appear threatened by the presence of the camera.

If you're running in one of the manual modes, the controls are right at your fingertips without having to shift your view away from the viewfinding screen. They are very well laid-out and I've found them to be convenient. I have very large hands and have not had a problem here.

I generally shoot in one of the three user-programmable modes. For daytime outdoor use, I'll preprogram it for TAv (Shutter-Aperture Priority) where I dial in the aperture and shutter speed I want, and the camera picks the best ISO for the job. For my work, I don't mind a little grain/noise if the camera goes high on the ISO but I do want more control over depth of field and shutter speed when I'm on the go. The metering of this camera has been outstanding and I have not regretted using this mode. There is also a snap focus mode, but the auto focus is very quick and accurate in the daylight. This camera will hunt for focus in low light, be warned.

The flash is almost always turned off for me, but I've found that when it is needed, it is fairly pleasing (as much so as on-camera flash can be).

I've had no problem importing & processing the RAW files in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5]. I also like Street Presets, which are not available through Amazon.

I debited a star for one major reason: battery life. When I'm walking around and the camera is turned on all the time, I can't even fill a 4GB card before the battery goes kaput and the camera unceremoniously shuts off. Spare batteries are expensive and largely unobtainable, even at Ricoh's high price. Aftermarket batteries are not available at the time of this writing, as best as I can tell.

If you want to see examples of photos I've taken with this camera, and stylized in Lightroom, follow @Ralwegians on Twitter, or check out Ralwegians fan page on Facebook. The Ricoh is my primary street camera (though not exclusive) so most of what you see there will be taken by the Ricoh.


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