Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/02/01

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Subject: [Leica] Pana GF1 and Ricoh GRD
From: pswango at att.net (Phil Swango)
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2010 22:19:24 -0700

Steve Barbour wrote:
I'm wondering with the recent interest in the Panasonic GF1 with the 20mm
pancake lens and an external optical VF, has any used/compared this to the
Ricoh GRD-III with its 28mm lens and the optional external viewfinder..
=====================================

Steve, I'm a little late on this but here's my take on the Ricoh (I've never
used, or even seen, the Pana GF1).  I have the first version GR.  I bought
it used on the LUG and I love it.  First, it's beautifully made -- really in
a class by itself among digicams I've used and not a stretch to compare it
to Leica in the build department.  Small enough to pocket but big enough to
hold properly and the controls don't confuse.  The 28mm efl f/2.5 lens is
great -- no vignetting and little or no rectilinear distortion -- a welcome
relief from the usual p/s zoom issues.  Image quality is VG for the sensor
size (1/1.8 -- same as the Canon G series).  Raw processing is slow, as
mentioned, but for this kind of camera I shoot jpeg so not a prob for me.
 Noise not a prob up to ISO 200 and film-like at 400, and Lightroom 3 cleans
up the chroma noise in a sec.  No zoom?  Great -- since none of the Leica
primes I've used for the last 50 years were either and the IQ advantage is
significant.  LCD brightness is not as good as the more recent models but
I'm OK with it, and it has an accessory shoe (!) if you want to use an
optical finder.  It took me a while to get used to having 28mm as my
standard lens but now I'm kind of liking it, and cropping to 35mm (or 40) is
no issue really.  No way I would compare it to the GF1 (which I crave) but
the Ricoh's what I have in my pocket all the time these days.  And did I
mention that it's beautifully made? ;-)


-- 
Phil Swango
307 Aliso Dr SE
Albuquerque, NM 87108
505-262-4085