There was much said about the TAv "problem". The manual says on the infamous and thoroughly read page 42 that "The ISO speed will be locked to [AUTO] in TAv mode". When of course it is not locked at all and can only be limied to ISO 8000 by a work around. But when Ricoh was reliably contacted about the issue they responded by saying that there was no problem with the firmware and that the manual was in error. So while we have talked about it maybe no one else has made comment to Ricoh on the emperors suit of clothes?
I have thought that perhaps there is a mistake in the telling and the translation. Perhaps what has happened is that the mistake was that the manual should have said "locked to [AUTO-HI]" and that Ricoh looked no further and did not realise that the firmware did not do this but simply responded that there was an error in the manual which might well be true. On the other hand the general body of Ricoh users have shut down talking to Ricoh about it as they have accepted the response that the firmware is working correctly - as we all seem to accept - the firmware is not behaving very well at all and has run-away ISO in TAv.
It is not really bothering me. I don't generally use TAv and am too lazy to put a precise reasoned and to the point question to Ricoh to try and winkle out if they really truly see any merit in their TAv mode working this way. Especially after they have put a neat function whereby the user can choose the camera to auto-adjust either shutter speed or aperture once it hits its 25600 ISO limit (as if this were practical). The current situation simply does not make sense and maybe it is simply because users think that Ricoh did in fact want this nonsensical situation to exist.
Obviously if Auto-hi were the settable limit by the user in TAv mode than everyone would be happy. Certainly Auto would be too restrictive as much as 25600 is ridiculous. We have now had two firmware upgrades without addresing the problem - it could not be more than about 2 or 3 lines of code. Someone who seriously needs a workable TAv mode needs to wise Ricoh up on this. Preferrably a few so that maybe a bell will tinkle.
Meanwhile a small firmware upgrade billed version 3.0 is peculiar. Another post on the forum suggesting one GR vendor in Hong Kong is posting "discontinued" on the face of it is nothing much. Neither is a slab of A12/28 modules, A16/Zoom kits and a few GXR/M kits being sold off at a sudden and major discount.
But something is afoot (2+2+10 sometimes ends up being 24 when you find the rest somewhere lying around the floor). Often Ricoh gives one last firmware upgrade on the point of discontinuing a model, but the GR? Seems a stretch of crediblity ....
Tom