Holding On

The weather has been fairly nice again so I decided to head out and take some comparison pictures for my GR review. I packed the GRD I, GRD IV, GR and the GXR A12 28mm and did a few real life shots around Greenwich.

There will be more extensive comparisons in my full review but for now a quick teaser to how the cameras perform.
The GR and GXR A12 28mm are obviously the most detailed and have the highest dynamic range, there is not really much difference between them in most cases so both are very capable although the GR retains more details. The GRDs are fairly well matched and the biggest difference is that the GRD I has more noise but it also looks more crisp and more 'film like'.

The below are out of camera JPGs taken in b&w mode at ISO 400 and f2.8, the image names shows the camera but top left is GR, top right GRD , bottom left GRD IV and bottom right GXR A12 28mm.
To see the below crops at 100% open the image in a new tab and change the URL to say /s1920/ instead of /s1600/, e.g. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zeQ05gj5LDc/Uctmnsb3vfI/AAAAAAAAcd4/FfSgrgqdRq8/s1920/26-06-2013_02.JPG

Below are the DNG files processed with RAW Therapee wit the Neutral and the BW1 profile respectively.

Ricoh GRD III Review – Part 8

After looking at the features and the image comparisons it is time to move on to the final part of this review, the image quality and the conclusion.

Ricoh GRD III Review – Part 7

This part will briefly compare the RD1s with the 28mm GR L-mount lens with the GRDs.
It was planned to be published before Christmas but got delayed. I got the chance to try out the new Ricoh GXR with 50mm lens so put this review on hold for a bit in order to have enough time to try the GXR and see if it could be included in this review for comparison.
After having tried the GXR for a while now and only have the 50mm APS lens module, I felt it did not make sense to include it here and it would have taken too much time to go out and reshoot all pictures for comparison. There will be a review of the GXR coming up.

Lets move on now and see how the cameras and lenses compare. This comparison is more out of curiosity and is not meant to determine which camera is better since the GRDs are completely different from the RD1s.

Ricoh GRD III Review – Part 6

In the last part we had a look at the low ISO b&w pictures from the 3 GRDs and as with the low ISO color comparison there was not that much difference between them.

Now it's time to see how they compare at ISO 400, 800 and 1600. This should be more interesting and also more revealing since it will be more obvious how much luminance noise the cameras have.

Ricoh GRD III Review – Part 5

When the GRD I came out most people only ever used it in b&w mode and still a lot of people are using the GRDs mostly for b&w. Thus it's important to look at how the different cameras perform in b&w mode.

This part will look at the low ISO b&w mode and compare the cameras at ISO 64/80 and 200.

Ricoh GRD III Review – Part 4

While the low ISO comparisons revealed some interesting things about the GRDs, the image quality differences were only minor between them.
In this part I will look at how the image quality compares at ISO 400, 800 and 1600. This should be more demanding for the cameras and especially the JPG engines which have to deal with more noise. Therefore we should see bigger differences between the cameras.

Ricoh GRD III Review – Part 3

After looking at the features it's time to see how the image quality compares between the GRDs.
The first test is between the three GRDs at low ISO and color.

Ricoh GRD III Review – Part 2

With the GRD III Ricoh has introduced a lot of new features requested by previous GRD users.
There are to many features to mention all of them but I have created a summary of the most important below.

Ricoh GRD III Review – Part 1

After some delay due to various reasons and some travels in between I have finished my GRD III review.
With the GXR announcement a lot of emphasis is put on the new camera system but the GRD III is still an appealing choice for some and will remain Ricoh's flagship camera.

My review aims to give an overview of the GRD III and will also compare it with the predecessors and even briefly with the Epson RD1s equiped with the famous GR L-mount lens.

The review will be split in 8 parts and will be partly based on the structure of my book 'GRD III - A Serious Compact'.

Part 1 - Introduction, Lens, Build and Controls
Part 2 - Features
Part 3 - Image Comparison GRDs - Part 1 (Color: ISO 64, 100 and 200)
Part 4 - Image Comparison GRDs - Part 2 (Color: ISO 400, 800 and 1600)
Part 5 - Image Comparison GRDs - Part 3 (b&w: ISO 64 and 200)
Part 6 - Image Comparison GRDs - Part 4 (b&w: ISO 400, 800 and 1600)
Part 7 - Image Comparison GRDs & RD1
Part 8 - Image Quality, Conclusion and Samples

Read on for the first part of my review...