GX GARNERINGS

^The video was apparently taken soon after the building collapsed as some videos taken later showed that the area was cordoned off. A tenement building around 50 y.o. was reduced into rubbles in Tokwawan (not Hung Hom), Hong Kong yesterday, killing several residents and leaving some missing. The tragedy was really horrible as it happened on the main street of this old area. When I was testing the GXR, I was two blocks away from this scene. I walked under many of like buildings then. An AFP report quoted a witness as saying, "I saw bits and pieces of earth and tiles sliding down the wall at the beginning. A woman was trying to climb out through the window. About 15 seconds later, the building fell like dominoes." An English news report can be watched here and read here .

While I am working on the post about the A12 module, let me take a break and share my impression on the 16:9 format of the GXR. 4:3 format versus 16:9 format. The 16:9 image stretches the width and crops the height a bit. I like the 16:9 format by the GXR a lot. It must have something to do with the characters of the images by the A12 (and S10 too for that matter) which are traditional to the Ricoh cameras. I will talk about these characters in the upcoming A12 post. There is an unexplainable reason to me that the A12's/ A10's 16:9 format awakes reminiscences of the aesthetics of Japanese movies which to me represent a mixture of some vague concepts including romance, cleanliness, modern classic and contemplation. ^The open-air wet markets in HK offer the best shooting chances ^Petitioning on a bustling street, which is an attraction to the Mainland Chinese visitors. How deplorable! ^The skyline of Central (HK's CBD) at night I love it so much that I...

I believe that not a few photographers looking for serious compacts are deterred and puzzled by the GXR for its concept about the lensor module rather than its performance.  That's why this field report series has been focusing on making clear of the concept.  (Of course, we will go deeper into the camera body and the two lensors later.  If you're wondering about the IQ, the previous A12-full-size-photo post is here .) For that matter, following the full-size-photo post, we came close to an answer to the question "how do we position this camera" yesterday.  I reasoned that we photographers needed cameras to be compact not just for the matter of size.  More importantly, we actually need compact cameras to be convenient in all aspects of its operations.  Compactness is only one of the dimensions. Does the GXR win in all the dimensions of convenience being a compact camera? The GXR is more compact than the GF-1, check.  It benefits user...

We left a question unanswered yesterday: How does the GXR system compare with the MFT system? In a sense, well, it is not necessarily useful to compare the GXR (with A12) system to the MFT system.  Let me explain why. There are several areas which cannot be compared directly between the GXR and MFT systems. Size-wise, the GXR is more in the class of serious compact. It weights one pound with either the A12 or S10 module but, probably for reason of weight distribution, feels like way less than a pound (The GF-1 weights one pound with the pancake and 1.5 pounds with the kit zoom lens). Ergonomics-wise, the GXR  is superior which we have to leave to a separate post. As regards the sensor, GXR A12's is not just bigger but integrated in an optimal construction factoring in the Low Pass Filter, flange back distance and back focal length. Ricoh achieves a good result as some review has found the GXR A12 outperforms even the Nikon D90 with the superb AF-S DX/NIKKOR 35mm/f1.8 ...

Yesterday, we discussed the rationale behind the birth of the GXR system, namely, in short, optimising optical performance, creating a system covering both the compact camera and SLR markets, catering for the needs of a new generation of camera users and giving unlimited expandability to the system. While these mission statements are somewhat philosophically distant, there is one basic and practical issue which lots of fellow photographers are musing: How does the GXR compare to the direct competitors? Pending the sale of Samsung's NX10, the direct competitor now is the MFT system. GXR A12 vs GF-1 kit zoom lens While I am penning my thoughts about the issue, hopefully to be published in the next post, let the images speak for themselves. No, we are not following the beaten track to pixel-peep the images for you. The meaning of tediously comparing these two systems for the IQ is not obvious to me. With the larger sensors, both systems can shot photos of a quality good enough ...

^(Clockwise) The GXR body, GF-1 the flashgun,  DW-6 the wide-converter, GR Lens A12 50mm f/2.5 Marco and S10 24-72mm f2.5-4.4 VC   Since Ricoh's launch of the GXR and the detachable modules, photographers have been as wonderstruck as puzzled by it. As the sensor is bundled with the lens in a single module, or dubbed as "Lensor", is the hollow camera body worthy of the admission price? What if the users wish to get a new lens without paying a dear price for the coupled sensor? What if the lens is damaged but the sensor is working like new? What if the sensor technology is dated but the lens works like new?  There are lots of questions to ask.      History has proven that evolution and revolution take time to complete. And in the marketing sense, timing is very important. Does Ricoh do it at an opportune time? Should users buy the idea and therefore the camera components instead of the other faddy photographic novelties?   ...