Day 260 - Matsumoto Blossoms

A warm and sunny day with a clear blue sky in Matsumoto so perfect for a walk and a hike around the Alps Park near the castle.

Day 247 - Seoul

Arriving in South Korea or Japan, no mater where you come from, always feels like you arrived in civilization. Everything is clean and efficient, you don't need to worry about people stealing your stuff, there are free toilets everywhere, free and fast wifi, proper public transport and the people are nice on top of that.

Barbican Blossoms

GXR A12-M, f8.0, 1/1230, ISO 200, 42mm (Ricoh GR f2.8 28mm L) 

Another picture of blossoms, taken during lunch at my favourite spot to have lunch and chill.

Spring Blossoms

GXR A12-M, f5.6, 1/380, ISO 200, RAW, 42mm (Ricoh GR f2.8 28mm L)

Spring is finally here with some nice weather and blossoms, I just hope the weather stays like this.
If this were Japan people would be taking pictures of the cherry blossoms even when just out to grab lunch, this being London however people are not really all that interested and just walk by without really looking.

Today, also saw a  leaked video of the new GRD V or just the Ricoh GR. You can view the video here and get a feel for what the camera will look like. I have been pestering Ricoh for details on their new cameras for a while but did not hear anything but some people certainly did to be able to not only leak the specs but also the full promo video. At least this will get people talking about Ricoh cameras again after more than a year of silence on their part. It is very disappointing though hat Nikon has beat Ricoh to the punch by announcing and already releasing the Nikon Coolpix A which seems more or less the same as the GR but without tyhe excellent Ricoh handling.
Having watched the video a few times and also looked at the leaked specs before I am still not quite sure what to think of it. On one hand it is finally what the GRD III or latest GRD IV should have been but on the other hand I am not sure if other than size and a newer sensor it really offers that much more over the very capable A12 28mm module.
I am certainly curious to try it out and will try to get a sample to compare it against the older GRDs, the GXR A12 28mm module and the GXR A12 Mount with GR lens.

A16 Zoom First impressions

Today, I got a sample of the new GXR A16 Zoom module. It is a 'kit-lens' module for the GXR sporting a 24-85mm lens and a 16MP APS sensor without AA filter, unfortunately the lens is not very bright at f3.5-5.5 and the APS sensor only has a max. ISO of 3200.

Still, let's look at how it actually performs since specs alone are meaningless in actual real world use.

This is just a first hand impression and I have simply taken pictures with it so it will not be very analytical.

Blossoms

GF1, f1.4, 1/3200, ISO 400, RAW, 80mm

Today I went into town and bought a spare battery for the GF1, since I did not want to pay Panasonic's rip off price, I got a equivalent Energizer battery. Now, I have read of Panasonic being difficult with them accepting 3rd party batteries but guess my surprise when the camera refused to use this battery with a 'This Battery Can Not Be Used' message and there is no way to force the camera to use the battery.
If there is something I really, REALLY hate is locking devices down for no reason and using proprietary stuff to force me to buy the manufacturers own accessories.
So shame on you Pansonic!!! This is NOT how you go about things, either sell your own batteries at competitive prices or allow people to use any battery they want in your cameras.

I HATE proprietary stuff and being locked down for no reason, which I why I would never buy any Sony products for example. I am actually very tempted to return the camera just for this. It certainly is my last Panasonic camera that I bought unless they change their stupid policy.

So while I could recommend the GF1 before, now I can only say stay away from it and any other Panasonic camera until they change this behaviour.

Blossoms at Night

GRD II, f2.4, 1/15, ISO 200, RAW - Taken on 31/03/2008

Think I might enjoy looking through some of my old pictures too much recently.
But since I won't be able to go and see the cherry blossoms in Japan this year, I thought this is at least one alternative.