Ricoh GXR A12 Camera Mount - Between Tick and Tock

[Godfrey]

... It Arrived!

Our regular postman is great. He remembered I had told him that I was expecting a package and had my hand-written note permitting him to put it in the lock box.

My partner also received a toy in the mail today, a present for his sister.

First photos out of the Ricoh GXR + A12 Camera Mount ...

​

Skopar 35mm f/2.5, ISO 200 @ f/2.5 @ 1/55 second
Click on image above for a full resolution rendering.

Skopar 35mm f/2.5, ISO 3200 @ f/2.5 @ 1/90 second​

I'm pretty happy...

 

[ustein]

Congratulations!

My NEX-5N is in too.

 

[Godfrey]

Congratulations!
My NEX-5N is in too.

Excellent! I'm eager to read what you think of it.

A little gushing: The detailing with the Ricoh GXR, A12-M and Skopar 35/2.5 is exquisite! I added a full resolution JPEG of the portrait ... the little web-rez JPEG doesn't do it justice. Click on the portrait image above to see it: it's about 2.9 Mbtyes in size. I'm particularly pleased that the complex pattern on his shirt did not induce any moire or other pattern artifacts.

 

[Braeside]

That's great you two - the little Skopar is a super lens. I have the LTM version of that.
Uwe - looking forward to your NEX-5N report in due course.

I may get some time today to compare the M8 and the GXR Mount, but even without doing direct comparisons I can say that I have found nothing not to like with GXR so far.

 

[scho]

Re: ... It Arrived!

Our regular postman is great. He remembered I had told him that I was expecting a package and had my hand-written note permitting him to put it in the lock box.

My partner also received a toy in the mail today, a present for his sister.

First photos out of the Ricoh GXR + A12 Camera Mount ...

​

Skopar 35mm f/2.5, ISO 200 @ f/2.5 @ 1/55 second
Click on image above for a full resolution rendering.

Skopar 35mm f/2.5, ISO 3200 @ f/2.5 @ 1/90 second​

I'm pretty happy...

Congrats Godfrey. Looking very nice. Have you done any "tuning" with the in camera controls for distortion, etc. using the 35 Skopar?

 

[woodmancy]

Well done, Godfrey. You had mentioned that you were doing a write-up on the m-mount - did you finish that?

Keith

 

[Braeside]

Had a bit of time to put the M8 and GXR on tripod this morning and shoot a brick fireplace indoors.

I used the Leica Elmarit 28mm ASPH for the test as it is a very sharp lens indeed.

I shot with the UV/IR filter on the M8 and without on the GXR.

Took shots at f/2.8,4,5.6,8 on a tripod with 2 sec timer.

All Auto white balance. ISO 160 M8 and 200 GXR.

Distance 1.6m in both cases (so different FOV with different sensor sizes).

I did not have any peripheral correction on for shading or colour in the GXR. On the M8 I had the Lens detection on for UV/IR filter.

Aperture priority AE.

Used Apple Aperture for RAW processing.

First thing I noticed was that the M8 image was warmer and better corrected for shading and possibly colour in the corners.

The sharpness was almost identical between the cameras, even in the corners wide open. Of course there did appear to be more detail in the GXR with the greater magnification.

I tried a quick play around with peripheral shading/ colour corner correction in the GXR just to see how it did and it only affects JPG not DNG. At least in Apple Aperture.

I then played around in Aperture with De-vignetting and white balance and could get the files to look as nice as the M8 does.

Now this test was not to laboratory standards, I had varying light levels as the weather changed outside. I only tested one lens, at one distance and one ISO. So I'm not about to post them here or anywhere else for all the pixel peepers to criticise the methods used, however it was enough for me to see that with a tiny bit of post processing I could at least equal the M8 image quality at base ISO.

Oh, one more test I did, checked if GXR had any odd colours due to IR, no change with/without IR filter on lens (in centre anyway). That's good. The M8 does show quite a change on some fabrics in my house with/without the filter.

What I may do is actually go out and shoot some photographs and see if I find any problems in the real world. :deadhorse:

 

[Godfrey]

Re: ... It Arrived!

Congrats Godfrey. Looking very nice. Have you done any "tuning" with the in camera controls for distortion, etc. using the 35 Skopar?

Thank you.

No, I have not made any in-camera corrections at all. I expect the geometric corrections are only apply to JPEGs (these images were captured and processed from raw in Lightroom, mostly using the LR defaults). I'm hoping that the adjustments for color shifting might apply to the raw files, but I have to construe a test for that.

I made a total of 16 exposures last evening - quick tests of the A12-M with the Skopar 35, Nokton 40, Nikkor-H 85 and Micro-Nikkor 55. All work beautifully ... and you can see the lens characteristics easily. I was particularly interested to see the Nokton's drawing: it's quite soft and glowy when wide open (but still sharp enough for a good ultra-fast performance), becomes sharp at f/2 and very sharp at f/2.8. I think they achieved a fine classic look with it. Both Nikkors render just as I expected them to. (BTW, I have both Rayqual and COMA mount adapters for Nikon ... the Rayqual is better finished and seems to fit both lens and mount better, although both work well.) The Skopar 35 is as you see: a superb performer.

I hope I get time to do some shooting today. Perhaps I can find some time this evening.

 

[Godfrey]

Well done, Godfrey. You had mentioned that you were doing a write-up on the m-mount - did you finish that?

I've been snowed under for the past few weeks as I just started a new full-time position ... it's cramping my time, but then I don't really mind ;-) ... so I didn't finish my "first impressions" write up. Sean Reid's article on Luminous-Landscape.com pretty much said everything I was going to say in that article, plus or minus.

Presuming I find the time to do some shooting in the next few days, I'll have more to say and can revisit and expand on what I was going to say. I'm not a quick reviewer ... I like to spend time to learn a piece of equipment thoroughly. I have to learn how to set up the custom configs with the lens info, etc, too.

But my initial impression is expressible in a single sentence: "The Ricoh GXR+A12 Camera Mount is very close to the 'digital Leica CL' that I've been dreaming about and hoping for since 2002."

I find my first test snaps with it extremely encouraging and look forward to learning it more thoroughly. Thank you again for bringing this camera to my attention, Keith.

 

[Braeside]

Excellent Godfrey. Lots to check out.

My M to FD adaptor arrived from Hong Kong this morning. Very nicely made, looks the same as others shown on the forums. Quick check with my Canon FD 50mm F/1.8 lens and it works fine. Focusses past infinity quite a bit, so maybe they erred on the safe side.

 

[Godfrey]

Had a bit of time to put the M8 and GXR on tripod this morning and shoot a brick fireplace indoors.
...
I tried a quick play around with peripheral shading/ colour corner correction in the GXR just to see how it did and it only affects JPG not DNG. At least in Apple Aperture.
...
What I may do is actually go out and shoot some photographs and see if I find any problems in the real world.

Thanks David! That's pretty much what I was expecting. I'll do some similar testing of the shading corrections, particularly with the Skopar 21mm, just for the amusement value, but overall what my first glance is saying is that the lens correction capabilities that Lightroom provides will do the job just fine.

I'm much more interested in the real world imaging characteristics than in these constructed tests! Based on the very little bit of testing I did yesterday evening, I don't think I'll be disappointed.

 

[Godfrey]

Excellent Godfrey. Lots to check out.

My M to FD adaptor arrived from Hong Kong this morning. Very nicely made, looks the same as others shown on the forums. Quick check with my Canon FD 50mm F/1.8 lens and it works fine. Focusses past infinity quite a bit, so maybe they erred on the safe side.

That's RJ's (jinfinance) adapter, right? Yes, he wants to be sure that you can focus at infinity ... it's pretty tricky with some lenses. Works fine for TTL focusing. It's a little annoying when you're zone focusing as the distance index is off, but zone focusing with a 50mm lens on this format is a bit tricky anyway.

 

[Braeside]

Godfrey, it looks the same as RJ's but isn't actually from him, and doesn't have his initials on it. I suspect they come from the same place.

Yes the distance scale is off, but no matter, at least it is easy to focus. Its great to get the use of my old film lens again. I have also bought used 55/1.2 FD lens, it is getting a CLA done just now so have not tried it yet.

Let us know how the Skopar 21mm goes, that is one I have not used.

 

[Braeside]

Wonder why Ricoh crippled the electronic shutter in the A12 mount so much? - having it just available in scene mode only and no AE seems very odd. Hopefully they can improve that in a future firmware upgrade.

 

[Godfrey]

I think the 'all electronic' shutter, on this size and density sensor, is still a technology under development, not quite ready for prime time.

 

[Braeside]

Still, it does seem to work Godfrey, totally silent and vibration free. I still can't think why they made it easily accessible in a scene mode but not anywhere else.

 

[Godfrey]

No idea really, but I think it is intended to limit use of the feature for whatever reason.

 

[woodmancy]

Had a bit of time to put the M8 and GXR on tripod this morning and shoot a brick fireplace indoors . . . .

Thanks for the test report David, now I know what to expect. Mine is now being given the once over by customs and the post office

Keith

 

[Braeside]

Hope it arrives soon Keith.

I got my Canon FD adaptor from HK and I am amazed how well the old FD 50/1.8 SC lens works, I knew it was good on film, but it is outstanding on the A12 Mount when stopped down to F/2 and has a nice glow at F/1.8 fully open.

 

[gDallasK]

Mine's now here!

But so is the rain and a pile of day-job stuff I have to deal with!