Green Thumbs and Green Hands

I have walked to some gardens with the EX1, seeing the plants meticulously cultivated by the caretakers with their green thumbs, and taken shots of the mind-smoothing green setting. As evidenced in the images, the Schneider lens of the EX1 manages to reproduce the images with good tonal transition from brightness to grey areas (crop at left). Certainly it is no high-grade lens costing thousands of bucks. Corner softness is noticeable. It was taken at about 50mm. But it is not any worse than its competitors.

Some green hands in photography have asked whether the F1.8 capability of EX1 has an advantage in giving bokeh to the shots. The answer is yes... if you shot in macro mode like the close-up shot of the flower below.

The answer is no otherwise for normal shots since the sensor is tiny and the focal length of 24mm to 72mm is only a conversion of the actual length of 5.2mm to 15.6mm. The following shot shows how the F1.8 will give out in normal shots. But the extensive DOF has many advantages. Of course, any veterans know that.

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New Low Prices

The window shopping some hours ago has almost provoked my AgIDS illness. Just in case you’re in Hong Kong or are coming here, and have the money to burn (All in HK$/ body only): GX200 = $3,280 GRD2 = $3,380 LX3 = $3,180 G10 = $3,280 Prices are available form a gear shop on the 1st floor of the Mongkok Computer Centre. Besides these new low prices, I found that Wing Shing Photo (55-57Sai Yeung Choi St., MK Tel: 2396 6886/ 91-95 Fa Yuen St., MK Tel: 2396 6885) is offering a Sony A700 + Carl Zeiss Lens package for HK$9,980 (hopefully, a bargain will make it some hundreds cheaper).

Mini Review of GRD II by Colin Bradbury

Today, we are going to learn some useful insights from Colin Bradbury in his mini review of the GRD II. Colin is a professional photographer stationed in Hong Kong. Photos are copyrighted to him. (St Agnes, Cornwall. 'Environmental' portrait) By COLIN BRADBURY: Just back from 2 weeks in rural England with the family over Christmas. Since this was a family holiday and not a photography trip I wanted to travel light. On that basis I left my DSLRs at home and took the GRDII as my only camera to save weight but also to see how useful it would be as the only camera in a variety of photographic situations. I have to say I was very pleased with it and didn't miss having a zoom or longer lens at all. The 28mm is a perfect single focal length and proved itself useful in a variety of situations. Landscapes are clearly well suited to the 28mm but less obviously I have also found it to be great for portraits. With a 28mm you are forced to do 2 things. First, to get in closer ...

Respite

(Ricoh GRD4) Yahoo! I found the invoice for the GRD4 and sent it to the dealer for repairing the malfunctioning manual focus, which rendered the snap mode totally useless. I hope it will be soon for the GRD4 to be up and about.

GX GARNERINGS

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