[Banon]

D noise 想嚇死人咩! :P
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/ricohgrd/page9.asp

Overall conclusion
The GR digital is one of those cameras you have to use - and use 'properly' to really appreciate. It has without a doubt the best control system of any compact digital camera on the market today for those who like to set their own apertures, shutter speeds, ISO, white balance and so on. I am constantly surprised that the designers of so-called 'serious' compact cameras have, with very few exceptions, not taken the seemingly obvious step of using the dual control dial system that works so well for professional SLRs. Instead most insist that you hold down extra buttons or use menus to change apertures and shutter speeds independently, and few offer 'live' metering (forcing you to half-press the shutter every time). The GR digital is the first compact I can remember using that is designed for a photographer, where the manual options don't seem to be an afterthought thrown in at the last minute to beef up the specification chart. Not only that, the interface and control system is highly customizable, ensuring virtually no redundancy, with every button doing something useful in record mode. If only all cameras aimed at the serious photographer were designed like this.

The lens is obviously very good, though - distortion aside - I wouldn't say it was significantly better than the 28mm end of the Canon PowerShot S80 or Panasonic LX1 (both cheaper, both more feature-laden), and you really need to be shooting raw to get the most out of it. Operation is generally very responsive (raw write speed aside), and the 28mm wide lens and pocket-friendly dimensions make it a fantastic 'walkaround' camera for landscapes and immersive street photography.

Unfortunately the superlative handling and speedy operation are not matched by the output; the sensor and JPEG processing let down the GR-D with results that are - whilst by no means poor - simply not that impressive. JPEGs are noisy at anything other than ISO 100, but they are also quite soft, a combination that makes post-processing for added sharpness difficult if you want to produce large prints. The noise is - at lower ISO settings - quite film grain-like, and the low noise reduction does produce quite natural results, but at ISO 100 and above color noise starts to creep in, and by ISO 400 the results are pretty painful. They do make nice gritty black and whites, but I wouldn't use them to produce a color print at even a very small size. Throw in highlight clipping, exposure and white balance issues and fringing and it's hard to justify something that doesn't cost a lot less than a budget DSLR. Ricoh is to be applauded for not ruining these shots with strong noise reduction; it's just a pity they're not that detailed to begin with.

So then, to sum up: The GR digital is a compact camera that offers an almost SLR-like experience from the look and feel to the fluid control of functions offered. It's one of those 'use me' cameras that encourages you to take more pictures, to experiment and to actually turn off some of the automatic functions and get stuck in yourself. Unfortunately it's also a camera that is only half as good as it can be, thanks to disappointing image quality. You can argue as much as you want about the 'love it or hate it' grainy noise and 'legendary' GR lens, but the truth is that the output is nowhere near as good as you could reasonably expect given that this is an expensive camera with a fixed prime (non zoom) lens and professional level controls. In the right hands, shooting raw, it's capable of good results, but they're really not in a different league to what you can get from any decent 8MP camera on the market today. What endears the GR digital to its many fans is the unique approach to design that puts the craft of photography before the desire to add pointless novelty 'features', now all Ricoh needs to do is to sort out the 'back end' stuff to give us a camera that can deliver results that do justice to the stuff up front.

A niche product, and one that Ricoh should be applauded for designing in a market stuffed with 'me too' cameras, but one that its hard to wholeheartedly recommend. If it had breathtaking image quality the price would be irrelevant, but as it stands you're paying nearly as much as a Nikon D50 outfit for the camera (and a lot more if you include the optical viewfinder), and a lot more than you would for one of the several excellent compacts on the market with a zoom starting at 28mm. If you consider the slimness and superb manual control worth the money, you'll love it. For everyone else it's a lot harder to justify. We ummed and ahhed over the rating on this one for a while, as it is very nearly deserving of a Recommended, but in the end it just doesn't quite add up.

Recommended for: Serious users not afraid of shooting raw and post-processing, nor of being restricted to wideangle, who don't care about noise or movie mode, and who aren't put off by the price. Anyone wanting a small camera that can do interiors.

Not ideal for: Anyone else, especially 'casual' snap-shooters.

Detail Rating (out of 10)
Build quality 8.5
Ergonomics & handling 8.5
Features 6.0
Image quality 7.0
Optics 8.0
Performance (speed) 8.0
Value 5.0

Above Average

[Obi-Wan]

RICOH, KODAK & PANASONIC are famous ot their noise.

[Obi-Wan]

d2c,

what's wrong with YOU &

RICOH, KODAK & PANASONIC's noise?

are their noise make u comfortable? or u want to create a bigger NOISE than them?

I have used RICOH: R3, KODAK: V550, PANASONIC: FZ30 & FZ20 (f2.8!!!)

I have & love my SONY R1 (DC for travel), EOS 30D (my working DSLR), EOS (350D, broken), Olympus C765 (my compact ultra zoom)
But I don't have used any FUJI.

Sorry for your mis-behaviour & mis-interpretation.

Moreover, I you don't know me, don't say silly words for me, just as I did not silly word.

[peterchan04]

以前 ricoh GR1 菲林 機.... 都有好多 "粉絲".

[Donnie Darko]

睇哂遍雞腸,不如去影影相.....

[Donnie Darko]

[Obi-Wan]

Donnie Darko

I am very happy to see a GR user post a photo, but what you posted is a "resized-black-&-white" photo which does not show the NOISE issue: because
1. noise & CA do not occur much in black-&-white photos (this is the fact from physics ---- monochromatic light does not create CA) and noise is does not show up easily in black&white photos
2. resize does removes a larger amount of noise

Can you post a 100% crop of a color photo with a light-to-dark gradation?

Thanks for your attention.

Remember:
"Discussion does not cause war
Discussion leads to the truth"

[Obi-Wan]

Donnie Darko

no need post lah, I saw the original colour photo in you profile.... taken at ISO64, all dark area full of noise, sorry

Bye, this end my comments on GR-digital
Good morning.

[Donnie Darko]

Remember the truth is
去影吓相吧啦.......著眼埋D100%noise多唔多.....100% crop of a color photo with a light-to-dark gradation........
post 都不会post這些啦!
我buy它影出來夠硬,唔知点講,所以未post吓D相出來lu...

[dcpower]

學某位網友話齋 對noise 要求高不如買panasonic 的fz7 la, iso 800 同1600 完全無noise :p

[photonovice]

唔駛睇la，總之 Fuji F30最好, 其他機?Sorry，企埋一面la。

搬屋搬寫字樓，F30 la!
油漆貼牆紙，F30 la!
掃地抺窗，F30 la!

F30 乾淨企理，能屈能伸，克苦耐勞...........
記住哩個商標： FUJIFILM
代言人：Banon

仲有， o個條鬼佬o既review o係聖旨，你仲唔買F30，係咪想人頭落地?

F30，你今日買左未?

[cct147]

各位請移玉步往本討論區的“GR Digital 俱樂部”睇睇d相。

請問d所謂勁noise係邊？我可以聲明我在那區post的相95%以上冇做除噪。

朋友，係人用機，唔係機玩人啊！

[peterchan04]

"Discussion does not cause war
Discussion leads to the truth"
=========================

... so... what is the truth here...?

[kingkonghk]

==========================================
唔駛睇la，總之 Fuji F30最好, 其他機?Sorry，企埋一面la。

搬屋搬寫字樓，F30 la!
油漆貼牆紙，F30 la!
掃地抺窗，F30 la!

F30 乾淨企理，能屈能伸，克苦耐勞...........
記住哩個商標： FUJIFILM
代言人：Banon

仲有， o個條鬼佬o既review o係聖旨，你仲唔買F30，係咪想人頭落地?

F30，你今日買左未?
==========================================

咦~~ 除左一向o係度蒲o個個sony fan屎之外, 今期多左個fuji fan屎, 唔知2個蟹后時會唔會炒野呢?

[peterchan04]

D noise 想嚇死人咩! :P
==================

the truth is .... noise...? 未 驚 過.