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My feeling about the Sony's raws as well but the Ricoh's are somewhat more MF or Leica like i feel in that they need less sharpening than the formers. Might come from the fact that the Ricoh's sensor has no AA filter perhaps i don't know.Oh - none - I've just looked - the point really was a criticism of the Sony jpg files rather than a criticism of the Ricoh RAW (and ricohs have always produced good jpgs). But when it comes to RAW, the sensor in the NEX5n is really excellent - the extra resolution isn't wasted, the dynamic range and high ISO are excellent, and the colour is also good. I use Aperture.
Can't speak about the Sony's but the Ricoh files are subtantially sharper then what comes out of my GH2.
Michiel
The rear dial of the NEX can be used as a shutter speed dial.Do any of the Nex or similar cameras have a proper shutter speed dial or is it all done by menus or auto-exposure? That, and the absence or otherwise of an optical viewfinder would be the determining factors for me. I bought a RD-1 when they first came out (late 2004?) and was pretty underwhelmed at the time but I'd take the RD-1 any time in preference to shoehorning an M lens onto what looks like a glorified P&S digicam.*
*Maybe I'm missing something but putting M lenses on these Sony things seems about as attractive a proposition (from a user/ergonomic perspective) as sticking a lens on my iphone.
Just one parenthetical note. Because Leica M lenses have manual aperture rings one will always achieve best focus by doing so with the lens wide open. If you try and focus with the lens stopped down to shooting aperture, particularly at smaller apertures, depth of field can lead to some inaccuracy. My method of working is to open the lens wide (counter-clockwise), focus, and then stop down to shooting aperture. Once you know how many "clicks" it is to a given aperture one can do this with the camera at eye level.
With wides as well?...OVF can't match the accuracy of a zoomed in EVF. Focus peaking is also a nice tool to use.
What the Luminous Landscape quote says is accurate, but it's a matter of what works best for you. The GXR doesn't care or enforce any particular methodology ... how you focus the lens is your preference.i've read that GXR's like to be focused wide open then stopped down for the shot?
from luminous landscapes:
There's a difference between accuracy and use. Rangefinder focusing with wide lenses allows you to align the images and obtain a precise setting very easily in use, but exactly how accurate it is you cannot tell until after you make the exposure and check the results. The accuracy depends upon how well calibrated the focusing system in the body and the lens are.With wides as well?...OVF can't match the accuracy of a zoomed in EVF. Focus peaking is also a nice tool to use.
Famous last words.Occasionally you can find the R-D1 available at around that money. At present, there's one listed on Ebay for $1400 BIN from Matsuistore in Japan ... but camera, charger, battery only, not mint. I am tempted myself, but then I think to myself, "That's money that I could keep in the bank for an M9-P next year."
Although I'm champing at the bit, the truth is that I'm horrendously busy right now and even the GXR-M is only getting light use. I think I'm just going to force myself to be patient and acquire what I really want, the M9, next year when I planned to. ...
Thanks for posting that! I am now waiting for the A16. Hopefully there is a possibility to use the EVF and the hotshoe for flashes.I now have both the NEX and GXR (and had used an M8 for quite while *g*) and have to say that, as long as you do not really want/need a rangefinder (for the fact that you see what you exclude during composition, which I love), the GXR is superb.
to my surprise, focusing is easier than with the NEX for me. Mode2 (the grey highpass one) is just so much better. Also, focus assists and Zoom are so much better implemented.
for example, it shows the full color, zoomed out (total) view when you halfpress the shutter. This allows for a focus and recompose method, that you use with an M oftentimes. Basically, I always have the screen zoomed in (Fn1), focus, halfpress shutter, recompose, shoot. Quite fast.
I posted this on another thread with respect to flash and the GXR. I don't expect anything to change unless they add a flash sync terminal...Thanks for posting that! I am now waiting for the A16. Hopefully there is a possibility to use the EVF and the hotshoe for flashes.
Ricoh makes a dedicated flash but I don't own or use much in way of dedicated flash units. I usually use simple manual or on-board auto flash units triggered by either optical or RF remotes.
a- If you want to use the EVF while shooting with a flash, using optical remotes is easiest: the popup flash on the camera can be set into manual mode and you can adjust power output down to 1/64 power. Add a little IR shield and fit optical slaves to your flash heads and you're off and away.
b- If you don't need to use the EVF, you can fit an RF transmitter to the hot shoe and receivers to your flash heads. You're off and away.
c- If you want to use both EVF and an RF trigger, it's a little more fussy to set up. I got this trick from someone using a GF1 with RF flash triggers: take any hot-shoe extender cable (you know, one that slides in the hot shoe and allows you to put the flash on the other end - I understand the Canon or Nikon cable might work well) and cut off the end that fits in the camera hot shoe. Glue or bolt the shoe end to a bracket that you can bolt onto the camera using the tripod socket. Determine the wires going to center and side terminal ... those are the flash trigger trigger wires, not the control protocol terminals ... and mark them out. Trim back the other wires. Bare the ends and tape them to the center terminal and to the hot shoe shoe itself with thin tape. Be careful not to connect one wire to two terminals. Now carefully slide the EVF in over the taped connections. Voila! you have a remote RF trigger hot shoe camera.
(This works because the EVF does not use any of the flash terminal connections, it connects to the camera through its own rear mounted plug and just uses the accessory shoe to physically secure it to the camera. It might take a little fussy work to make the connections fit, but once you've got it set up it'll work great. And yes, I wish they'd put another flash sync terminal on the body ...)
I mostly use method b as I most usually use flash when shooting tabletop work on a tripod where I prefer the LCD or at parties where precise framing isn't such a big deal. I have both Cactus V2 and Cactus V5 RF remotes and they both work very well.
Yes.I posted this on another thread with respect to flash and the GXR. I don't expect anything to change unless they add a flash sync terminal...