Alright, I’ve gone and ordered the stupid quadcopter… It should be here any day now. Now that that’s done, I’ve got to unload some other cameras in order to fund this one.
If you want or know anyone that wants a great camera, I’ve got a Fuji X100 on Ebay right now. It’s a great camera, and only very lightly used.
This is not quite, but almost, officially my next obsession… I’ll need to work into it slowly – these cats claimed they were 20K into this setup. I’ll have to start with the flying GoPro…
I’d been thinking of a way to do a low budget dual camera rig for a while now, and thanks to the tragically defunct Google reader (yeah, yeah, Feedly’s alright), the solution popped up on my reader radar one evening. Photographer and blogger Eric Kim posted a great article on just how cool a setup like this could be. I jumped on the opportunity to try it. Well, at least the opportunity to build the setup.
I ordered some Hot Shoe to 1/4 threaded adapters and had them in a few days. The ones I got are okay – one of them needs a little sanding to fit better into the hotshoe, but I ordered three (anticipating this) and two of them seem to work alright. This is the kind of thing where I thought I needed the metal ones and that’s what I ordered, but in truth ones made of delrin or some other durable plastic would probably be fine for this.
I’m not in love with how high the Go Pro sits with this setup, and in playing around the house with it, it’s a little unwieldy and certainly top heavy. Less so with the little Sony on the right. The added bonus of the Sony is that it’s focal length (24mm in 35mm eqiv.) more closely matches that of the Ricoh (28mm eqiv.) when compared to the 12mm equivalent of the Go Pro. On the flip side, the Go Pro’s extreme wide angle is pretty cool and in Eric’s video it’s interesting to see all the composition options he had and then see the one he selected on the Ricoh’s viewscreen. It’s a cool contrast. I think the Go Pro would probably benefit in this scenario from using just the “Frame” mount accessory – at least it wouldn’t be as top heavy.
Kudos to Eric in his video for pointing out his hesitation at 2:14, and kudos to him for overcoming it. Even after being a river and tour guide for years – meeting new people every week, I find it difficult to approach strangers. It’s the biggest obstacle in my Cameras Of Canyonlands project. I’m always hesitant to approach folks – even in country where I feel at home and comfortable. I’m hoping I can incorporate this setup into some shooting in the next couple weeks – when I finally do, I’ll post the results.
Thanks for looking. _____________________________________________________________________
I’ve written and illustrated two children’s books that are now available in print and digital versions; Coyote Life, and The Cat’s Glasses. If you’ve got kids, check them out. If you enjoy them, please leave a review, tell your friends, etc. Thanks.
Coyote Life is a short, rhyming children’s book about coyotes in the Southwest.
Don’t forget to check out some of the fine art prints for sale in my Etsy shop.
My wife Leah also makes and sells some pretty cool leather stuff like minimalist wallets and camera straps. Check out her Etsy store for some cool gear.
I ordered the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20 a while back because I needed a camera that could stand up to dust and wind and all the good stuff that comes from working outdoors all the time. It was on sale, and photo quality was a secondary concern. I’ve been playing with it for a few months now though, and there are some settings that are intriguing. Not mind-blowing, not killer image settings, but settings that sound purely consumer oriented that I kind of like to use. One is called “rich tone monochrome”. Without reading about it in the manual (Heaven forbid!) I think it takes 3 images and mashes them together in one, in-camera HDR image, but in black and white. It’s an idiot mode for sure. It has the potential to make some interesting images though. I’ve been too busy with work lately to do much more than a quick post, but here’s some heavy equipment shot with the “rich tone monochrome” settings applied. Some of the shots show a little noise or grain, if you can call it that, but it’s not, to my eye, objectionable. All shots are straight out of the camera, only cropped for size. On a side note, the video feature of the camera is pretty darn good, and I find myself using it much more often than I anticipated.
Thanks for looking. _____________________________________________________________________
I’ve written and illustrated two children’s books that are now available in print and digital versions; Coyote Life, and The Cat’s Glasses. If you’ve got kids, check them out. If you enjoy them, please leave a review, tell your friends, etc. Thanks.
Coyote Life is a short, rhyming children’s book about coyotes in the Southwest.
Don’t forget to check out some of the fine art prints for sale in my Etsy shop.
My wife Leah also makes and sells some pretty cool leather stuff like minimalist wallets and camera straps. Check out her Etsy store for some cool gear.
I’m really beginning to enjoy the Ricoh GR high ISO capabilities. I’ve been using the new Ricoh GR now for a month or so, and it continues to impress me. It’s quick to focus and the high ISO images are much better than the Ricoh GRDIV. I always added grain to the tune of 40, 40, 40 in Adobe Camera Raw (amount, size and roughness) with the GRDIV, and I quit doing that around ISO 1600 in the IV. Now with the Ricoh GR I have to add some grain and grit to get the same feel even at 6400. The new sensor is pretty smooth.
Thrift shopping in Moab is always an adventure. It seems like there couldn’t be too much turnover in a small town, but there actually is. Lots of good stuff to find. The old Memory Lane store seems to be under new ownership; it’s called the “Three Sisters Thrift“, and while it’s still a little dark, it’s much cleaner and nicer than it was before. I even noticed a computer at the counter! A real step up from the old Memory Lane days.
These photos should demonstrate to a degree the Ricoh GR High ISO ability. All of these photos are taken with the new Ricoh GR shot in manual mode at ISO 6400. I’ve processed them the way I normally do, with a little curves adjustment and a little added grain. I think the new Ricoh really is a decent step up from the GRDIV, but it’s still essentially the same camera – just better. A real pleasure to shoot with.
Thanks for looking. _____________________________________________________________________
I’ve written and illustrated two children’s books that are now available in print and digital versions; Coyote Life, and The Cat’s Glasses. If you’ve got kids, check them out. If you enjoy them, please leave a review, tell your friends, etc. Thanks.
Coyote Life is a short, rhyming children’s book about coyotes in the Southwest.
Don’t forget to check out some of the fine art prints for sale in my Etsy shop.
My wife Leah also makes and sells some pretty cool leather stuff like minimalist wallets and camera straps. Check out her Etsy store for some cool gear.
UPDATE – Sorry about the lack of images – Imgembed folded and stopped hosting images. I still love the Ricoh GR and it continues to be one of my main cameras. I use it almost daily. Check out tons of Ricoh GR and now GRII images on my Tumblr, my Flickr, and if you “like” my strayfoto Facebook page you’ll see I usually post a photo a day. Thanks -Quinn.
I’ve been shooting and playing around with the new Ricoh GR since I got it last Friday. I’ve noticed a few things about it – mainly the way it contrasts with the Ricoh GRD IV. The GRD IV didn’t focus slow and it rarely hunted other than in very low light. The new GR blows it away in practical use. It’s speedier to use all around. I wrote before I didn’t think it turned on much quicker, but in real-world, day-to-day use I was wrong. It’s noticeably quicker to turn on and much faster to turn off.
I recently drove slowly from Vernal to Moab and since I had the new GR with me I took some shots along the way. These are processed the way I normally would handle a file from the GRD IV – shot in raw, tweaked and converted in Adobe Camera Raw. The files are easy to work with.
In color, the settings in ACR require a little different treatment. While I felt I could select “auto white balance” 90% of the time with the DNG’s from the GRD IV, selecting the same and applying it to the GR files results in a much warmer color than a I was used to with the GRD IV files. I’ve found it’s better to select “as shot” or to manually adjust the temperature balance with the GR. The only difference in the two images below is the white balance selection in Camera Raw. I have no idea how it will display on myriad screens, but it’s dramatic. And actually, I’d choose some sort of manual setting that’s somewhere in the middle I suppose.
As you can see, the “auto” setting produces files that are noticeable warmer than “as shot”. It’s not really a big deal but it’s much different than what I was used to doing with the GRD IV.
If you’ve driven south along the 191 you’ve probably photographed this sign.
Thanks for looking. I’ll be on the river again this week, and hopefully I’ve have more river shots and some video of the pathetic low water rapids we’re plagued with this year.
Thanks for looking. _____________________________________________________________________
I’ve written and illustrated two children’s books that are now available in print and digital versions; Coyote Life, and The Cat’s Glasses. If you’ve got kids, check them out. If you enjoy them, please leave a review, tell your friends, etc. Thanks.
Coyote Life is a short, rhyming children’s book about coyotes in the Southwest.
Don’t forget to check out some of the fine art prints for sale in my Etsy shop.
My wife Leah also makes and sells some pretty cool leather stuff like minimalist wallets and camera straps. Check out her Etsy store for some cool gear.
Some of my favorite packaging tape to see on the porch.
The Ricoh GR really doesn’t seem any larger than the Ricoh GRDIV, but it feels quite a bit larger in the hand. It’s actually more comfortable to hold, but it doesn’t fit in a pocket as easily.
I think the startup time of the GR is quicker by a hair, but the shutoff time is much quicker than the GRDIV.
It’s very close to the same camera, almost the same size in the photos, but it real life it’s larger, there’s no denying it. Thankfully the menus are pretty much the same. Anyone familiar with the GRDIV should feel very at home with the new GR.
The new Ricoh GR weighs one ounce more than the Ricoh GRDIV with the battery and memory card installed.
The charging system is pretty lame, requiring the battery to be installed in the camera and the camera plugged into the wall. This makes it really difficult to charge a spare battery – especially if you want to use the camera in the meantime.
The following sample shots show little difference at sizes commonly displayed on the internet. At 800 pixels wide, the difference is not that great at all. I shot both the GR and GRDIV side by side using aperture priority. The cameras selected different shutter speeds at times, but never more than one stop’s difference. I noticed the Ricoh GR seems a little warmer in some shots. A little more yellow/green. It’s not really good or bad, just a little different. I’m not trying to do a full-blown, in-depth comparison here; that’s what DPReview and DXOMark are for.
I think the Ricoh GR has a little more detail in the shadows. This stands to reason – the sensor is much larger and newer.
I usually shoot photos in raw, and I love that Ricoh has chosen to use the DNG format. All these are shot in DNG and converted using Adobe Camera Raw. I used some global adjustments and applied the same adjustments to similar images. For the black and white conversions I used a preset that I saved and use all the time.
Very excited about the new camera, and excited to get out and use the camera a little more. I’ll post more photos as I take them.
Thanks for looking. _____________________________________________________________________
I’ve written and illustrated two children’s books that are now available in print and digital versions; Coyote Life, and The Cat’s Glasses. If you’ve got kids, check them out. If you enjoy them, please leave a review, tell your friends, etc. Thanks.
Coyote Life is a short, rhyming children’s book about coyotes in the Southwest.
Don’t forget to check out some of the fine art prints for sale in my Etsy shop.
My wife Leah also makes and sells some pretty cool leather stuff like minimalist wallets and camera straps. Check out her Etsy store for some cool gear.
Alright, I’ve gone and ordered the stupid quadcopter… It should be here any day now. Now that that’s done, I’ve got to unload some other cameras in order to fund this one.
and had them in a few days. The ones I got are okay – one of them needs a little sanding to fit better into the hotshoe, but I ordered three (anticipating this) and two of them seem to work alright. This is the kind of thing where I thought I needed the metal ones and that’s what I ordered, but in truth ones made of 
the minute it was available at 
