Waiting

GXR A12-M, f4.0, 1/2, ISO 400, RAW, 42mm (Ricoh GR f2.8 28mm L)

Today, I met fellow bloggers and photographers Iesha and Tom for a mini Ricoh meetup. It is always great to meet other photographers and especially Ricoh users since it quickly becomes clear why we are all using Ricoh cameras, no other camera offers the same handling and image quality in a compact package.

First Ricoh HK Meetup

Today, was the first Ricoh meetup in Hong Kong so let me start by saying thanks to Nevin and Laikok for organising this meetup.
There were only 20 seats available but over 100 applications for this meetup.

Unlike the last London meetup we had a wider variety of Ricoh cameras with the GRD cameras being the most prominent, followed by the GXR with M mount and then some GX200 and CX cameras.

There was a relaxed atmosphere and some games and speeches held by some of the local bloggers, including Nevin.
Since my Cantonese is none existent I could not follow all of it but it was great to talk to some of the people attending.

As a treat for the people joining this meetup Ricoh released some information about the upcoming GXR zoom module.
The official announcement will be on Monday so you have to wait till then for all the details but you can get a very good idea what to expect from reading my last London meetup report.

With this my holiday is over and tomorrow will be my flight back to London.

Toy Story Fighter

GXR A12-M, f1.4, 1/126, ISO 2167, RAW, 53mm (Voigtlander Nokton f1.4 35mm)

Today, I had a small Ricoh meetup with Duane, who could not make it for Saturday. It is always great to meet other photographers and this one of the great things about starting this blog, it allowed me to meet some great people from around the world.

4th Ricohforum meetup

What better way to start my article about the 4th Ricohforum meetup than with a picture of the new Ricoh GRD IV and of course a thanks to Ricoh for attending this meetup.

Today was the 4th Ricohforum meetup and it was intersting in a lot of ways, not least because of the Pentax buyout by Ricoh but also because of the GXR Mount A12 module for the Ricoh GXR system.
This meant that this time the focus was also on legacy M lenses and not just on the Ricoh cameras, wether this is a good thing or bad thing is certainly up for debate. Still, seeing that the GXR Mount A12 modue is one of the most successfull cameras for Ricoh and hard to find, I believe it to be a very good thing for Ricoh.

We started off with coffee and a chat about Ricoh cameras and lenses. It was interesting to see the different lenses we had on te table and the unique character and look each produced. It was also intersting to see that everyone used Mode 2 to manually focus the lenses and we agreed it is the best way to focus once you get used to it and way superior to the peaking Mode 1.

We also had a Leica M9 there and while a completely different class of camera it was great to have the ability to swap lenses around, the GXR also handles the Voigtlander 15mm lens much better than the M9 but it is of course not full frame and the crop should make it easier. There is no question though that it is easier to frame and focus with the GXR when using ultra-wideangle (under 28mm) or telephoto (90mm-135mm) lenses where it's not possible to eiher have or see the framelines well enough.

I also got a change to try out the new Ricoh GRD IV camera and I was quite impressed, it is indeed a small step up from the GRD III but it feels more finished and more refined due to the changes Ricoh have done to both the body and the firmware. Althogh they have put in the often requested (and in my view pointless) RAW only shooting mode, Ricoh needs to start saving a higher resolution embedded preview file since it will be pretty much improssible to check focus or anything from the RAW only review image.
There are a lot of other changes and adjustments and I hope to get a review sample at some point after my upcoming holidays to be able to better compare it to the predecessors.

I have asked Ricoh about a GXR roadmap or more details of what will come out of the Pentax buyout. It is still early days for Ricoh and the Pentax buy certainly has changed a few things for Ricoh so before comitting to any more GXR modules they will have to first evaluate the different camera lines and see how to best integrate everything. They are however aware of the demand for a FF mount module and a K-mount module and looking at the success of the GXR Mount A12 module it seems clear where the focus for the GXR system should be.
For the Pentax users out there, the dSLR line will be continued since it complements Ricoh's own offerings, the most changes will probaly emerge for the lower end compact camera lines.
It's still early days though so nothing concrete is known yet until Ricoh had a chance to evaluate the different cameras lines. They will provide an update as soon as there are details and I am sure the next Photokina will be interesting for both Ricoh and Pentax users.

The already announced GXR Zoom module has been delayed due to the floods in Thailand and the reduced availability of sensors from Sony, which will most likely also impact the GXR Mount A12 availability.
What I could find out is that it will have a zoom range similar to the GX100/200, so from 24-80/85mm, it will not be GR labeled and will not have a constant aperture.
It should be available early next year from the looks of it.

Afterwards we headed out for a photo walk and checking out some camera shops to try out some legacy lenses and also got the change to play around with the Nikon V1 and the new Fuji X10.
I was really underwhelmed with the Nikon V1, it felt cheap and plasticky and had only a slow kit zoom lens attached to it in similar size to the Olympus m4/3 kit lenses.
The Fuji X10 looks very nice and looks like a muc better camera than the V1 but it's not the hoped for Panasonic LC1 replacement, the OVF is pretty useless and has no point being there and the firmware seems as bad as on the X100 at first look. So I was again not tempted.

Wat really tempted me was the Voigtlander Nokton f1.1 50mm lens (pictured above) which seems an excellent lens capable of producing some very nice images and it's actually lighter than expected although not small as ou can see. Now I just need to try out the Nokton f1.2 35mm before deciding which one to go for. Having the GXR Mount A12 certainly is not a good thing for my bank account ;) .

While trying out lenses and cameras we also got a few people very interested in our GXR cameras and after seeing how well they performm and the easy of using the MF assist functions with legacy lenses it was not difficlut for them to see why the GXR is such a great system for using legacy lenses on.

The last stop of the day was the British Museum to take some more pictures before heading to a pub for a well deserved pint.

It was a great day and I like to thank everyone who joined, I hope you all enjoyed it.

3rd Ricohforum Meetup

After the 3rd Ricoh meetup has been postponed we have rescheduled it for today.

Unfortunately Pavel could not make it for this meetup but this time we had both Tohru from Ricoh and Frazer from Alpha Digital attending. It has been great to see both again, especially together at a meet up.


The Bridge Lounge was as usual a great venue to meetup since despite the central location it is a very quiet and relaxed place in the moning to simply have some coffee and chat about cameras and photography.


It is always great to meet new people with the same interests, this time it was mostly GRD III and GRD II users attending. People enjoyed themselves and could share tips about the GRDs but also try the GXR system with all threee modules available for it.
Unfortunately only a few of the people who signed up for the meetup actually came, this is a shame and not so good considering both Tohru and Frazer had to travel in to London for this meetup.



For the last meetup we had a walk scheduled with stops along the way but this time I decided to see what people were up to and only had a final location planned with the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. We took the long way there and went over Borough Market and the Tate Modern and back to Tower Bridge before heading towards Wapping.

500th Post :-)

CX1, f3.3, 1/32, ISO 1600, JPG, 28mm

Today, I reached my 500th post on my blog. I would not have thought I will get to 500 posts and certainly not by posting every day.

It was great so far and since starting the blog a lot has happened. I met some great people and fellow bloggers (see blogroll), have met some great people from Ricoh at Photokina 2008 and other occasions, had a factory tour kindly arranged by Ricoh and organized not one but two unofficial and one official Ricoh meet-ups in London and another one is coming up in just two days, I even started to write my own reviews about Ricoh cameras and accessories.

I really enjoy posting here and the comments I have recieved from people, both on the blog and via email, are what keep me going so thanks to all of you.

Everything started with the Ricoh GRD, that I carried around every day and just needed a reason to make use of it every day. This blog provides me with a very good reason to keep taking pictures and post here every day.

Macau Meet-up

If you're in Hong Kong a visit to Macau is a must and it only takes 1h on the ferry. It is very different from HK and feels more like a Mediterranean city by day and like a mini Las Vegas by night. This is only if you stick to the main roads though. Step into the small side streets and it all changes though, it loses the glitzy facade and Mediterranean feel and remains the Chinese small city character. I find it quite fascinating and think it definitely deserves a slightly longer photographic excursion next time.
More pictures from the side streets as usual on my Dropbox gallery here.


One of the best things about going to Macau was the chance to meet fellow blogger and Ricoh GRD lover Mike (http://www.photoblog.com/eelekim). We got in touch through my blog and exchanged some tips and observations about the GRDs. He is also the only person I know to own not only most books written about the GRD but also the blue anniversary edition GRD I. It was great to meet him and spend some time talking about the GRDs. Unfortunately we did not have much time but we'll definitely keep in touch and meet up next time. This made it the first unofficial 'Ricoh Macau meet up' ;), next time we'll try to organize an official meet up.

Ricohforum London meet up

Ok, today's post is more about the reminder for the 'Ricohforum London meet up' than about photography although the picture is taken with the GX200 and demonstrates the impressive macro capabilities the camera has at the tele end. Ricoh cameras are known mostly for their excellent handling and controls but also for their great macro capabilities.

In exactly one week, on the 29th November, we will have the first official Ricohforum meet up in London. It will take place at the Bridge Lounge from 11am and we will be joined by Ricoh representatives but also a few other guests. This is the chance to meet up with other Ricoh users from London but also to give feedback and ask questions directly to Ricoh. There will be a photo walk along the Borough Market and more. Head over here to find out all the details.
If you can't make it but would like to forward any questions or feedback to Ricoh please post this here or in the Ricohforum.