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from Seattle, WA on 7/7/2008
I am really amazed by this little camera. I was skeptical. But now I'm won over. I photographed my son's birth with this camera and left the DSLR at home. I had only had it for a couple of days too. It does have noise in higher ISO. But so does every other point and shoot on the market. This camera isn't for gear geeks. It is for someone who will use it for what it is, understand it's limitations, and embrace it's strengths. Then go and make really great photos.
My perfect camera hasn't been designed yet. But this is very close. I'm selling my DSLR stuff and buying another GRD and all the little gadgets that go with it. Then I'll wait until the little cameras can shoot at ISO 3200 without a hint of noise and I'll upgrade to the Ricoh GR7 or whatever it might be. In the mean time I'll be using my poor mans Leica and enjoying every 60th of a second.
My son's birth.
Tags: Made with Product
Tags: Made with Product
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
The Ricoh GRD2 is the best compact camera I have owned. It feels solid in the hand and is a great backup for professionals. I would not call this camera a standard point and shoot. The controls are very intuitive and that lends to fast operation. I am very impressed with the in-camera processing of jpegs. My black and white images in particular are sharp and have great contrast. They have a film-like quality. I do not shoot in RAW much, but when I have the write times are fast. I find images at ISO 400/800 to be very good. Many people see the noise as a negative, but others prefer this "grain" to create the look they want. The fixed lens is sharp and I don't miss the zoom at all. Low light performance is excellent. I have taken sharp handheld pics in low light with no flash at ISO 80. My Leica D-Lux 3 could not do this. Highly recommended.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
It does not get much better. A pocketable camera that shoots raw writes quickly with the ability for total photographer control. Images are super sharp just keep in mind the higher the iso the more noise/grain remember grain from higher iso films? There is no comparison between this and it's competitors,(canon g9 , nikon 5100, leica d-lux3 only because lack of viewfinder) lens quality is outstanding, viewfinder is outrageous, quickness virtually no shutter lag if you set the f stop and then zone focus or use the depth of field scale. Yes you have to know what you are doing to use this camera that is what makes it so great!!!
[2 of 2 customers found this review helpful]
I owned a Ricoh GR1v film camera (RIP) and hoped the GR Digital 2 would provide a similarly high level of image sharpness and color rendition, along with the 28mm fixed lens and great minimalist design. Thanks to [@] for making the GRD2 available in the US. Unfortunately, I was disappointed: the GRD2 is not the digital equivalent of the GR1v in terms of image quality. Color rendition was OK in good outdoor light, but images were not sharp and focus was inconsistent in all settings, even in SNAP and infinity. Write speed in RAW seemed OK to me, but it's probably not fast enough for someone looking to shoot a lot of action. When set to 3:2 the image isn't perfectly aligned in the view screen--it's as if the image is slightly rotated to the right. Maybe this explains the level feature? Regardless, the images seemed to be level on my computer. (It was always a pain to get images level with my GR1v.)Which leads me too...the overall build quality of the GRD2 is poor--maybe average for digital p&s cameras, but worse than the GR1v and not what you'd expect for [$]. The flash, for example, is a bit loose when closed. Another thing mail-orderers should know: the GRD2 is also a lot smaller than the GR1v. (This made me sad.)The ability to set aperture, film speed and exposure compensation, and the ability to customize the control functions, are great features, but the image quality is just not good enough to justify the price.I really wanted to love this camera--even like it--but the image quality just isn't there. Ricoh: please, please figure this out! People will buy a high quality fixed lens digital point and shoot with a great minimalist design, but the images have to be SHARPER than zoom point & shoots! [...]