new GRD I firmware with some of the GRDII features!

[odklizec]

EDIT: The firmware 2.40 is now available for download!
Windows:
http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/download/firm ... gr-240.exe
MAC:
http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/download/firm ... gr-240.hqx

The number of changes and additions to GRD seems to be much higher than the initially mentioned. See this PDF:
http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/download/firm ... _vup_E.pdf
I think Ricoh does fantastic job for customers' satisfaction!

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According of the dc.watch.impress site, there will be a new FW upgrade available for existing GRD users, which will bring some of the GRDII features to the original GRD! This is a definitely great news, because some of these additional features were asked by GRD users from the initial GRD release

New features form GRDII:
- Flash compensation feature by ±2.0 EV by 1/3 EV steps (THIS IS DEFINITELY A LONG AWAITED ADDITION!)
- New Black&White photographing modes with new optional red, green, blue and purple color filters! Color depth, contrast and sharpness can be set in 5 levels!
- Added compatibility with GT-1 tele conversion (40mm) lens.
- Synchronized monitor off mode if the VF is used, the LCD will show only the status information (like aperture, time, iso, etc).

New GRD firmware will be available for download from November 22nd 2007. Full details about new FW can be found at Ricoh web:
http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/press/release ... al_f5.html

Due to the older (or missing) GRD HW, it's not possible to add some the new GRDII features like NR OFF, AutoRotate, horizon leveler, or 1:1 RAW. However, the Ricoh step with releasing new FW with some features from upcoming GRD successor is a very generous and uncommon step in these days! I think the Ricoh deserves a great appreciation from all GRD users! Well done Ricoh!

[VladimirV]

That's great news and should show everyone why paying that much money for a GRD was worth it.
With this they address a lot of the issues people reported and that's for free. I am impressed with Ricoh and how much they care about their products.

[PPL]

It's amazing...

[lucridders]

Yes, if every company should do what Ricoh is doing for his customers, we should have lots of advantages. Ricoh is the best for service, no doubts about it.

[Tom Caldwell]

Pity that they could not incorporate NR off into the GR-D - I will accept that this is a hardware issue or at least buried that deep in the firmware that it might be near impossible to tweak.

Like the camera info on the screen when it is switched off - not so sure about the FV compensation - the EV compensation attached to my zoom rocker lever is great and I imagine that we will have to delve deep into the menu to get at the FV settings. Also they will have to be balanced with EV settings - overall it will mean better control and that must be a good thing.

Perhaps they have found it possible to extend the adjustment level controls to one further menu access to incorporate FV settings. The trouble is that the adjustment control works so well because the number of items is limited and to put too many controls up there is to make it menu-like and therefore a growing problem.

However I have noted Ricoh's propensity to add new menu controls at the end of their menu list and to a certain extent they lose the context and relation-sensitive location this way. If the FV setting is buried at the end of the menu tree it is going to take a few button presses to get there - must not look a gift horse in the mouth but it might repay Ricoh to look at the listing order of the menus.

My suggestion (radical?) is that items the user choses to make accessable through the adjustment lever are then "demoted" to the end of the menu itself. Therefore you could set up the adjustment lever for the most commonly used and the next most commonly used could be on the first menu screen and with a bit of juggle-buggle the less comon items or those on the adjustment lever could be re-directed into the depths of the menu tree only to be dug out when absolutely necessary.

Tom

[odklizec]

New GRD firmware 2.40 now available for download! See the initial post.

[VladimirV]

I installed it this morning and am really happy with it.
Really like the color filters and the Info Display mode is very nice to have. Did not try the flash compensation yet but might do later today.

Especially the color filters really make the GRD stand out as a great camera for shooting b&w. Really like all the options you can configure for this.

[odklizec]

I'm really curious about the BW color filters! From what I saw in official Ricoh marketing docs, these filters just add a selected color tint to BW image? Or am I wrong? I personally hoped for true "BW color filters", which make the BW shots more dramatic (according of the selected filter and photographed scene). In other words, the same effect, as can be seen for example at bottom of this page:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/OlympusE500/page13.asp
Of course this can be done in postprocessing. But wouldn't it be nice to have such effect directly in GRD? Many people love to shot directly in BW mode. And it may be especially useful if one shot in RAW+JPEG. The BW JPEG can be then used as a reference image for RAW postprocessing.

[VladimirV]

I thought the same about the color filters but as they are, they just add the color tint to the b&w image. Still usefull to create some nice effects and the color strength can be set manually.

[odklizec]

Ah that's a pity. So there is still a room for improvements I will add this to FW wishes and definitely pass it to Ricoh.