Amsterdam Meet

(Taken with the NEX-5n and the Sony 50mm f1.8 lens) 


Yesterday, I met with Björn in Amsterdam for some drinks, photography and some gear talk.

We met at the Hortus in Amsterdam where we had a coffee to start off the meetup and give us time to play around with the cameras and enses we brought along. I had my GXR with A16 zoom and the A12 Mount with Voigtlander 12mm, Ricoh GR 28mm and the Jupiter 50mm lenses and Björn brought his Sony NEX-5n, NEX-7 and the Sony 50mm, Zeiss 24mm and the Zeiss Sonar 50mm M-lens.

It was a great and fun meetup as always and I enjoyed the conversation very much. We are quite similar in our view of cameras and photography and while we don't care too much about gear, we do like to discuss it.

We then set off to take some pictures around the botanical gardens and while Björn was using my GXR to get a feel for it, I was using the NEX-7 to see how it performs. I think we were both quite surprised as to how much we enjoyed the cameras and how easy it was to use them.

The NEX-7 with the Zeiss 24mm lens is a very nice and light combo and the AF is fast enough and does not really get in the way. The tri-navi system is very easy and fast to use and takes only a little getting used to but works as intuitive as the Ricoh interface with all the main controls easily reachable. I ended up accidentally changing settings at times but this should not be a problem in longer use.

What is a problem on the NEX-7 is the use of M lenses. While it performs well with the 50mm lenses, it does not really work with the 12mm and GR lenses and the corners and sides are very soft and lose details next to the purple colour shift.

I also found the Sony peaking not as easy to use or as accurate as Mode 2 on the GXR, at times it was not easy enough to see on the edges and other times it seemed to overwhelm the picture, this should however not be a problem with more practice and still remains one of the easiest ways to manually focus.

After my experience with the NEX-7, I would say that it is the best handling camera next to the GXR at the moment and it is quite impressive how much Sony has managed to get into such a small package, the LCD and EVF are fantastic and being able to flip the screen is great and something I want to see in more cameras, especially the GXR.
Unfortunately as nice as it is, the performance with M lenses is not very good so it will not work for me in it's current form. The Zeiss 24mm and Sony 50mm are both nice lenses but I would hesitate to buy into another electronic system after the m4/3 and don't really need interchangeable AF lenses, here the GXR A12 28mm or 50mm modules would do the job for when I am to lazy to manually focus.

So a thanks to Björn for showing me around and for the (as always) interesting conversation.

(Taken with the Sony NEX-7 and Zeiss 24mm lens)

(Taken with the Sony NEX-7 and Zeiss 50mm f1.5 M-lens)

(Taken with the NEX-7 and Voigtlander Heliar 12mm lens, the corner and edge smearing is quite obvious and makes this lens a no-go on the NEX-7)

(Another shot with the Heliar 12mm but here the corner smearing is not too distracting)

Morning in Amsterdam

This post will only cover the morning part of today. The afternoon part will be covered in a separate post.

Although the weather forecast was not great, the morning started off with great sunshine and mild temperatures. I took a walk around Amsterdam and used only the Voigtlander 12mm lens, the last picture is the only exception where I tried out the Zeiss f1.5 50mm lens wide open using the electronic shutter.

Back to Amsterdam

Arrived for two days in Amsterdam. I have been here a few times already but like the place and it's a nice change after the last 2 weeks in Germany.

Had my GXR with A12 Mount and the A16 zoom with me but only used the A12 with the Ricoh GR 28mm, Voigtlander Heliar 12mm and the Jupiter-8 50mm lenses.

Tree in the Front

GXR A16, f6.3, 1/233, ISO 200, JPG, 24mm

Checking the Timetable

GXR A16, f4.1, 1/125, ISO 766, JPG, 35mm

Escalator

GXR A16, f4.8, 1/125, ISO 320, JPG, 70mm

What's On?

GXR A16, f5.5, 1/97, ISO 3200, JPG, 70mm

Window View

GXR A16, f4.1, 1/125, ISO 16385, JPG, 35mm

Selling Crepes

GXR A12-M, f5.6, 1/125, ISO 218, JPG, 75mm (Jupiter-8 f2.0 50mm L)

Solms and Montabaur

Went to Leica country to check out the photo fair in Solms. It was very interesting from the people attending to the choice of 2nd hand and new Leica stuff to buy.
I could not get away empty handed so bought a few LTM to M adapters and a M macro adapter which will surely come in handy.

After the fair we drove to get lunch in Montabaur and check out the caste, unfortunately the castle (as most of the town) was closed but it was a nice stopover nonetheless.

I only took my GXR with GR lens with me and had quite a few people interested in it although the GR lens was not the only one there, there was one to buy in almost mint condition next to a Epson RD-1s.

A Duck in the Fountain

GXR A16, f5.7, 1/125, ISO 383, JPG, 80mm

Mercedes

GXR A16, f3.9, 1/125, ISO 1903, JPG, 28mm

Cycling

GXR A16, f5.4, 1/540, ISO 200, JPG, 70mm

Windows

GXR A16, f5.7, 1/760, ISO 200, JPG, 85mm

Took this on my way to work in our Frankfurt office. I like taking architecture pictures of modern buildings in the morning of evening when you get all the reflections of the low sun.

Impressions from Munich

Spent the day in Munich for client meetings and had some time for photography. It is actually quite convenient to just have a kit lens module along with AF and a silent shutter for the times you don't have time or are in the mood for real photography. The module performed very well and got some very nice results although it does tend to underexpose at times.

Sitting and Watching

GXR A16, f5.5, 1/810, ISO 200, JPG, 50mm

The image quality of the A16 Zoom is very good and it is silent in operation.
The feel of the module is something I still don't like as it feels to plasticky but the upside is that it is light and carrying it around is not a problem.

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.

Chill in the Sun

GXR A12-M, f6.3, 1/3500, ISO 200, RAW, 42mm (Ricoh GR f2.8 28mm L)

Took this during a quick stop in Frankfurt today. Tomorrow, I will be in Duesseldorf and will get to try out the new A16 zoom module for the GXR so it should be interesting.

Light My Fire

GXR A12-M, f5.6, 1/233, ISO 200, JPG, 42mm (Ricoh GR f2.8 28mm L)

Took this on my way to work this morning, not 100% in focus but I still like it.

I have edited it with the latest version of Photo Editor on Android, you can find it on Google Play. It is a great app, it's free, supports now fullsize picture editing and has all the tools you need. Would recommend over Photoshop Touch.

Jameson or Death

GXR A12-M, f2.8, 1/28, ISO 3200, RAW, 42mm (Ricoh GR f2.8 28mm L)

Took this at a preview screening of the Norwegian movie Headhunters, showing as part of the Jameson Cult Film Club. It was a fun event and I also enjoyed the movie.

Classic Bike

GXR A12-M, f6.3, 1/30, ISO 519, RAW, 22mm (Voigtlander Heliar f4.5 15mm L)

Look Right

GXR A12-M, f5.6, 1/660, ISO 200, RAW, 22mm (Voigtlander Heliar f4.5 15mm L)

I took this on my way in to the office for a later start this morning. It is funny how empty the City gets in between the morning and evening rush hour and lunch break. It is almost a different place, this spot in the morning would not look as peaceful but would be bustling with people and cars all standing in each others way.

Standing Alone

GXR A12-M, f6.3, 1/3000, ISO 200, RAW, 42mm (Ricoh GR f2.8 28mm L)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

GF1, f1.4, 1/15, ISO 125, RAW, 50mm (Voigtlander Nokton f0.95 25mm)

A rainy and busy day today, did not really have time for photography or for celebrating St. Patrick's day in a Irish pub but there was still time for some Guinness.

The upside is that I got my home backup and media centre sorted and can now access things easier from all my computers.

Walking to Princess Street

GRD III, f1.9, 1/30, ISO 351, RAW

Heavy Machine

GXR A12-M, f8.0, 1/203, ISO 200, JPG, 18mm (Voigtlander Heliar f5.6 12mm L)

This might not be the most exciting picture, although I like industrial themes, but I wanted to give Photoshop Touch on my Asus Transformer a go.
Aside from the stupid idea to limit the maximum resolution to 1600 pixels, it is actually a pretty decent program and quite capable, it is also quick on the Transformer. The size limitation is really bad though and I hope Adobe will increase this.
I hope Snapseed for Android will be released soon since it supports full size editing on my iPhone 4 and I guess iPad but the iPad is limited in all other ways.

The more Google improves Android and the more capable the apps available for it get, the easier it is for me to do almost everything on the Transformer. For me the Transformer is the future of computing because it is flexible and replaces two devices rather than being a 3rd device nobody really needs. It is also very nice to use.

If someone would just port RAW Therapee on Android I would have no real reason to use my notebook anymore, other than for work this is.

On another note, Ricoh has released a new firmware update for the GXR today. It is version 1.50 and includes features like the ability to enter copyright information to the EXIF,the ability to continue shooting when keeping the shutter pressed, bulb mode and also one feature I never understand but lots of people want for some reason, the ability to shoot RAW only. Can someone please tell me what the point or big deal is to shoot only RAW and either have a tiny embedded JPG in there but useless for even reviewing focus or a fullsize JPG which makes the RAW bigger by the same size a JPG would take?

So if you are still reading and have a GXR, what are you waiting for, go to the download page and update the firmware. You can get it here.

Ricoh certainly listens to it's users and shows again exemplary support of their cameras.

Chaufeur

GRD III, f3.2, 1/250, ISO 64, RAW

Door

GRD III, f2.5, 1/125, ISO 64, RAW

Break at the Barbican

iPhone 4, f2.8, 1/548, ISO 80, JPG, Hipstamatic app

Turning Back

GRD III, f3.2, 1/250, ISO 64, RAW


Took this while out for a walk enjoying the fantastic weather today. The guy turned round but not because of me taking a picture but to call his girlfriend who was walking just behind me. I was hoping he would do this so waited to take my shot till the right moment.