GRD II arrived! Let the testing begin!

[odklizec]

I'm happy to announce the package from Ricoh just arrived! I would like to thank the Ricoh Europe for providing the camera sample so fast!
Too bad the two Panasonic cards I bought last week on the ebay did not arrive yet. So I will now have to use a slow 1GB card and swap it between the cameras like a mad

I'm now charging the battery. But I think I should tell you about few quick tests?

Many GRD owners complained about too noisy focusing. I already tried both GRD and GRD2 and all I can hear in case of GRD2 is almost non-audible focusing noise. A bit louder sound can be heard in Macro mode. But also this sound is greatly improved. In short a 100% improvement in this area!

The GRDII screen is really gorgeous and represent exact colors!

The GRDII internal parts seems to be better fixed inside the camera body. If I shake (gently of course ) with GRD and GRD2, I don't hear any moving parts in GRD2, while there is definitely something moving in GRD.

The start button is now more sunken in the camera body and there is also a tiny protective border around it. So it's now much harder to turn the camera ON by an accident

There is something I did not like on GRD2 right after unpacking. From some strange reason, Ricoh decided to replace the back buttons with matte finishing with new glossy ones. In my humble opinion, the previous matte GRD button finishing appears more exclusive and less distracting

GRD2 back side

grd2.jpg (62.91 KiB) Viewed 8272 times

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EXIF-Data

Image taken on: Sat Nov 24, 2007 10:27 am

Focus length: 5.9 mm

Shutter speed: 1/17 Sec

F-number: F/2.4

ISO speed rating: 154

Whitebalance: Auto

Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

Camera-model: GR Digital

Exposure program: Normal program

Exposure bias: -7/10 EV

Metering mode: Pattern

GRD back side

grd.jpg (68.43 KiB) Viewed 8259 times

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EXIF-Data

Image taken on: Sat Nov 24, 2007 10:26 am

Focus length: 5.9 mm

Shutter speed: 1/15 Sec

F-number: F/2.4

ISO speed rating: 154

Whitebalance: Auto

Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

Camera-model: GR DIGITAL 2

Exposure program: Normal program

Exposure bias: -7/10 EV

Metering mode: Pattern

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I will frequently update this post with other observations and of course, as you all expects, also images. Stay tuned!

[lucridders]

When the colors are produced accurately, I will be happy. For flash, colors will never be accurate as there is no white balance for it!! The GX100 and R7 both have quite difficulties to have correct colors and to manage the white balance well in several ligh conditions. About the noise you do not hear anymore, I have several worries as in the past I heard all the time that when moving the cam and the noise you hear is a normal noise(even not affecting picture quality on the GX100, while I have done tests prooving the opposite), so, now we will miss it and camera will function not that good anymore!!! Or have they find out how to fix some parts in a normal way .

[odklizec]

Some timings:

START/END
(in secs)

Code: Select all

GRD2:
start - 2.4
end   - 2.5

GRD:
start - 1.9
end   - 2.3

CONTINUOUS MODE
1GB Transcend 80x

Code: Select all

GRD2:
20shots 10MP JPEG Fine - 8.8secs - 2.3fps (you can immediately take another shot)

GRD:
20shots 8MP JPEG Fine  - 24secs - 0.8fps (after releasing the shutter GRD freezes for about next 5 secs to write the last shots)
First 4 shots with GRD are pretty fast (about 2.7fps) then slows down due to small writing buffer.

Tested 20 shots in a row, but it seems that with GRD2 you can get as many shots as you want until you fill the card (without dropping the frame rate). However, the frame rate is highly dependent on the used card! With slow card like 1GB Sandisk rs-mmc I was able to get only 5 consecutive shots, then the frame rate dropped to unbelievable 0.5fps! But with such slow card is pretty slow almost any read/write operation So if you are a continuous shooter, get as fast card as you can afford. I'm pretty curious about the results with Panasonic Class 6 cards.

[Player]

odklizec, when I ordered my cards, I had a hard time making a decision, especially with the GRD2's sdhc capability, but I ended up getting a couple 2GB Lexar Pro 133x cards. Do you think these cards will be adequate? Thanks.

[lucridders]

Sounds good already. n item I should like also for street photography is when the camera comes to your eye that it is starting to work. Will save lots of time in several situations to capture right moment. Maybe a hint for Ricoh and making it in such a way that you can set it off and on.

[odklizec]

odklizec, when I ordered my cards, I had a hard time making a decision, especially with the GRD2's sdhc capability, but I ended up getting a couple 2GB Lexar Pro 133x cards. Do you think these cards will be adequate? Thanks.

It's hard to say Player. While this card is one of the fastest on GRD, on GX100 is its performance rather average. However, the 4GB version of this Lexar is one of the fastest on GX100? So maybe the 2GB version tested with GX100 was just a bad piece or maybe fake Lexar? In these days you can easily buy a fake sandisk on ebay, but I did not heard about fake Lexars? See, my mediocre 80x Transcend works fine with GRD, so I believe the Lexar Pro 133 will work as well. Maybe not fastest but I believe the differences between the fast cards will be small (if there will be any) . One or two additional blinks are nothing to worry about.

[Player]

odklizec, when I ordered my cards, I had a hard time making a decision, especially with the GRD2's sdhc capability, but I ended up getting a couple 2GB Lexar Pro 133x cards. Do you think these cards will be adequate? Thanks.

It's hard to say Player. While this card is one of the fastest on GRD, on GX100 is its performance rather average. However, the 4GB version of this Lexar is one of the fastest on GX100? So maybe the 2GB version tested with GX100 was just a bad piece or maybe fake Lexar? In these days you can easily buy a fake sandisk on ebay, but I did not heard about fake Lexars? See, my mediocre 80x Transcend works fine with GRD, so I believe the Lexar Pro 133 will work as well. Maybe not fastest but I believe the differences between the fast cards will be small (if there will be any) . One or two additional blinks are nothing to worry about.

Thankyou sir! That's reassuring.

[lucridders]

My experience for the moment, is that transecnd is really the fastest, even faster than he panasonics I have at least in the GX100. In holland you can buy them very cheap.

[odklizec]

There were discussions at dpreview about the missing phase detection in GRD2. There were arguments that the phase detection allows Ricoh cameras focus pretty fast and accurate. And as in any good discussion, there were also counter-arguments So yesterday and today I played both with GRD and GRD2 and tested if the phase detection really helps or not. The results are mixed

On the first sight and under ideal combination of contrast scene and available light, the phase detection really seems to be faster. But! In many (most) cases, when the available light is not enough for phase detection, the camera is automatically switched to CCD focusing, which is noticeably faster in case of GRD2 (especially under low available light). The speed of AF via CCD is well visible if you switch to SPOT focusing. I need to do some timing.

I personally think it's a pity Ricoh decided to drop this additional focusing system. It's not only fast and helpful feature. But the camera also looks good with it

There is also another feature removed from GRD2 menu. In GRD, there is an option to record sound (limited only by card size) and also an option to take the picture with a sound memo. (up to 8 secs) I have to say that I don't really understand why were these two features remove? Yes, the quality of recorded GRD sound is very low. But still, in many cases, recording sound may be a very useful feature? And because movies are still recorded with sound, I really don't see any obvious reason why the Ricoh decided to drop these two features? Really strange..

[John Carolan]

whats the performance like when taking shots in RAW mode? How long is the delay between shots?