Street Food

TG-4, f4.2, 1/50, ISO 3200, RAW

Are You in the Market?

GRD, f7.1, 1/640, ISO 1600, JPG b&w

It's been a cold and grey day so I didn't really do much photography but did take some photos on my way to the shops.

Looking at Reflections of St. Paul's

GXR A12-M, f5.6, 1/189, ISO 200, RAW, 53mm (Voigtlander Nokton f1.2 35mm)


This is looking in the opposite direction from where I took this picture, just a few months later and with a different lens.
I really like the details that the GXR managed to pick up in this picture..

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.

Enjoy a Glass of Wine

GXR A12-M, f5.6, 1/111, ISO 3200, RAW, 53mm (Voigtländer Ultron f1.7 35mm L)

Walking Together

GXR A12-M, f5.6, 1/540, ISO 200, RAW, 53mm (Voigtländer Ultron f1.7 35mm L)

GXR Mount A12 at London Open Day 2011

A small series taken during my short visit to City Hall during London's Open House event today.
The pictures have been taken with the GXR Mount A12 and the Ricoh GR 28mm lens (1. and 3.), the Voigtlander Heliar 15mm lens (2. and 4.) and the Zeiss Bigon 35mm lens (5.), all are JPGs out of the camera. The module is fantastic and it feels great to use, shame I did not have more time to take pictures for today. One thing I hope we'll see in a GXR II body is a flip screen like on the Sony NEX though, this would make things so much easier.

Arrived

GXR A12-M, f2.8, 1/500, ISO 125, RAW, 42mm (Ricoh GR f2.8 28mm L)

Today, I got my GXR Mount A12 module so on my way home I decided to take the boat so I have a nicer journey and can take some pictures on the way. This was shot using the electronic shutter scene mode, I still don't understand why this is hidden away in the scene modes so I will have to send Ricoh an email and see if it can be moved to the normal shooting modes.

Thames Festival 2011

I borrowed a friend's Fuji X100 for the day and headed to the Thames festival. It started off as a hot and sunny day with a few clouds before it changed completely and the rain started to come down. This was a good reason to take a break over a pint but was not very good for photography.

This is a small series of some of my favourite pictures from the day, all converted from RAW. Not much has changed from my initial impressions of the Fuji X100, it's a great camera marred by a beta firmware.

Enjoy the View

RD1, f6.3, 1/724, ISO 200, RAW, 42mm (Leica f2.8 28mm R)

Giving Lip

GRD, f2.4, 1/80, ISO 400, JPG b&w

Waiting

GRD, f3.5, 1/200, ISO 400, JPG b&w

Stop and Look

GXR S10, f3.7, 1/1230, ISO 100, RAW, 24mm

Hidden Texting

GRD, f2.4, 1/15, ISO 1600, JPG b&w

Reading the News

GXR S10, f4.4, 1/470, ISO 100, RAW, 72mm


Reading the news in London for the past days has not been very nice with all the riots going on, the streets on my way home were all deserted with shops closed but at least the pubs were open. No matter how bad it gets, nothing will stop you from getting a pint in Britain.

Short Fuji X100 Impressions

Today, I had a little bit of time to take some pictures with the Fuji X100 so I thought I post my first impressions.
First, the design is great and I still want one just for that, you can see that the Fuji engineers had a great time designing the camera.
The camera is quiet and it's fast to change settings using the dials on the camera, this is unless the camera is writing to the card where you're out of luck and need to wait till it finishes. The rangefimder style controls are all very well thought out, aside from the silly and useless focus-by-wire ring.

The firmware and operational speed is something where Fuji needs to out some serious work into, they need to buy a GXR and see how to implement controls and how a proper firmware looks like.

There are no real deal breakers ther but some things are simply more cumbersome than they need to be for no obvious reason.
For example changing ISO using the FN button, in OVF mode you can simply press the button and change through the ISO settings with the rocker switch on the back but not so in EVF or LCD mode where you need to use the directional pad to choose the ISO from a list. This makes absolutely no sense and is not even consistent with the much better way of doing this when using the OVF. There are quite a lot of things like this, all of them should be easy enough to fix in firmware so I hope Fuji actually does so.

The biggest problem however is the slow write time which basically locks the camera but not compltely since some things you can still change but not others, again without any reason why it needs to be like this or any indication what you can change and why you can't change the other settings.
Next to this is my hated screen freeze when focusing using the LCD or EVF and the very slow refresh times of the EVF and LCD in anything but good light. Another funny thing is that the speed of the MF ring goes in hand with the screen refresh rate so it's actually faster in good light than in low light for some reason only Fuji knows.

I really like the camera and if I would not have the GXR here I would be very tempted to get one despite the apparent beta firmware on it. I will still look to get one at some point because I love the look of it and the OVF is really cool and so much better than the one in the RD1.

I hope I will be able to test it more and maybe even do a quick review on it, or maybe I should just publish a list with firmware bugs and inconsistencies with suggestions of how to fix them for Fuji. I guess using Ricoh cameras spoils one to expect only well thought out and customizable cameras ;).

By the Pond

GXR A12, f2.8, 1/111, ISO 200, RAW, 28mm

Calling

GXR A12, f6.3, 1/217, ISO 200, RAW, 50mm

Looking out for the Bus

GXR A12, f6.3, 1/2500, ISO 200, RAW, 50mm

Friends

GXR A12, f6.3, 1/203, ISO 200, RAW, 50mm