Flowers

TG-4, f6.3, 1/400, ISO 200, RAW, 91mm

Flowers

X Play, f2.0, 1/1754, ISO 50, JPG

Blue and Yellow

X Play, f2.0, 1/60, ISO 64, JPG

Blue and Green

TG-4, f4.9, 1/200, ISO 800, RAW

Flower

GR, f2.8, 1/60, ISO 9000, RAW

Da Nang Workshop

The day started with a road trip to Da Nang and a road trip is not always great fun but the drive to Da Nang is very nice once you get to Lang Co and then over the Hai Van Pass and along the beach to Da Nang.

The reason for going to Da Nang was not just to take a road trip or enjoy the city (although it is a very nice city) but also to attend a workshop organised by the main Ricoh/Pentax distributor here in Vietnam.

It was a good way to meet everyone and some of the local photographers, while my Vietnamese is very limited it was still a fun event and I managed to make some new friends and contacts.

Additionally I also got to play with the Pentax 645Z, the Pentax K3-II and also the WG-5 (although for some unexplained reason it doesn't have an interval mode o this makes it useless for what I planned to use it).

The photos on this post are taken with the GXR A12-M and GR lens (which always gets people excited whenever they see it), the Pentax 645Z, Pentax K3-II and one with my OnePlus One.

Yellow and Green

OPO, f2.0, 1/270, ISO 100, JPG

Hiding

OPO, f2.0, 1/111, ISO 100, JPG

Blossom Mural

OPO, f2.0, 1/1099, ISO 101, JPG

Maybe a bit too much processing but I wanted this to look like a painting or wall mural and a bit abstract.
Sometimes it's not about being close to reality but having something different to look at and here I did like the result more than some other photos I processed a lot less.

In a Sea of Blue

OPO, f2.4, 1/148, ISO 100, RAW

Been a grey and rainy day so I took it easy but did go for a walk and to take some photos with my OnePlus One phone. I ended up mostly with colorful flower photos but it's the nice thing about spring here and a nice contrast to the grey skies today.

I took this photo as RAW in camera, edited it on the OnePlus One with Photo Mate but did post it from my Surface. This time I didn't use Snapseed to process it, although the new version of it is really good.

Daffodils

a7s, f5.6, 1/100, ISO 100, RAW, 50mm (Sony SEL 16-50mm)

Since I still had the Sony a7s and my NEX-3n doesn't work anymore, I figured I try the 16-50mm kit zoom on the a7s for fun and to see the results it gives. The 16-50mm kit zoom is not a very good lens on the APS sensor of the NEX-3n so it's pretty useless on the a7s. Still, it was fun using it in a Helga/Loom kind of way.

Kew Gardens

While in Kew attending and photographing a friend's wedding, I also got to use Tom's Sony a7s with the Pentax Limited 43mm f1.9 LTM lens on it.

The weather was not great and I didn't have much time to take photos of the gardens but I did get some photos while wandering around some of the green houses.

The a7s is a very nice camera and it works great with the Pentax lens on it. Walking around Kew gardens was also very nice despite the somewhat grey and cold weather.

The Lost Posts - Part 5: Flower

N5, f2.4, 1/796, ISO 100, JPG

Day 176 - More Flowers from Hue

Another hot and sunny day in Hue and at first I thought about heading out to the countryside to take photos. In the end, I decided to chill and stay in Hue but go for a walk around the park near the flower market.

They have done it up quit nice for New Year and the festival here, there re a lot of flowers and a big bonsai exhibition.

At first there were not too many people but as it got later in the afternoon more people came to take photos.

After the park it was time for another stroll round the flower market although I did not take too many photos there.

Afternoon Snack

GR, f2.8, 1/320, ISO 100, RAW

Took this while out in Greenwich Park for a walk, it was a bit grey and rainy but still warm so quite nice to be out.
Made some use of the macro mode of the GR, it is nit as good as on the previous GRDs thanks to their smaller sensors but it is still really nice to have and delivers great results.

White Flower

GR, f5.0, 1/250, ISO 200, JPG

In order to break up all the recent street photographs I decoded to post a simple flower macro. Not very exciting but a change of pace.

First Ricoh GR Outing and Impressions

This morning my GR sample finally arrived, taking it out and turning it on gave me a very familiar feeling. While on paper the GR is slightly bigger and heavier than the previous GRDs, when you have it in your hand it just feels right and you forget it's a new camera.

The day has been haze and grey mostly so not ideal to go out shooting, instead I spent some time to go into the menus and set the camera up, the new menus are nice and as usual very efficient but I doubt I will ever see them again now that I set the GR up as I like.

By late afternoon I had to go out and take some pictures. In use the GR is simply fantastic, everything has been improved and refined from the previous generations, the start up time, shot to shot time, AF, write time have all been improved and are now at least twice as fast when compared with the GRD IV or the GXR A12 28mm.

The image quality is equally great and beats the GXR A12-M in terms of noise, dynamic range and even detail (now I really want thus sensor in a new M mount module!). Even the JPGs (usually a poor showing from Ricoh) are excellent and the b&w JPGs almost rival the GRD I JPGs although they lack the film look due to the sensor being cleaner and having a higher dynamic range.

I will write more and post a full review in the coming days and weeks but for now I am hugely impressed, despite being sceptical at first.

This is a series of pictures I took during my walk, I wanted to show a varied selection of images so I hope you like them.