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From LOMO to RICOH?

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Guest
Hi All.
I'm new to these forums and was recommended to stop by here by Mitch Alland after i'd sent him an email regarding the Ricoh GRD/GRDII.

Let me introduce myself, I'm a Web Designer who's always had an interest in photography from a young age. My first camera in the very early 80s was a Olympus XA2 - which I still have. Good shout by my dad for buying a camera which still stands as a great "point and shoot" alongside the Zenith LC-A.

When digital cameras started appearing I got one and have used them for years, always compact ones (well, when they got small enough to BE compact anyway). And id found myself slowly using a camera less and less, the photos were too 'perfect' and didnt offer any inperfections which makes film photography so much fun.

Last year I decided to switch back to film and fell in love with photography again after getting myself a Zenith LC-A (and a Smena Symbol and a Holga too).

You can see the sort of photos i take at an online book i made of a collection of my photos ...
http://www.konspiracy.co.uk/empty/

I got the Lomography LC-A+ wide angle lens for my camera and as you'll see by a lot of those photos I fell in love with it and the distortion it gives.
I've also got the LC-A Fisheye lens and another 0.45x wide angle lens that attach to the LC-A too via a magnetic ring.

I've been realising that im spending a fortune on film and getting it developed and scanned to i'm thinking about going back to digital.

I'd initially thought about getting the new Fujifilm F100FD.
The reason being for this is that it seems on paper to be a great quality camera and wide angle too. But the big plus is that i'll be able to use my fisheye and wide angle lens (from lc-a) on this camera.
You can see some photos (latest 8) ive taken with the fisheye (ad fisheye slightly zoomed in to get rid of dark ring round edge) on my flickr page at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/konspiracy/
The writings in various forums about the "pink band" issue kind of put me off, but i guess if i got this camera and it was faulty i'd get a replacement.

I then stumbled across the Ricoh GRD being a wide angle PLUS being able to get the wider angle lens too. With it being a fixed lens too it kind of gave me the impression of this being a "digital lc-a" hehe. The lack of viewfinder doesnt really bother me with my shooting style as ive been used to just pointing and shooting with my lc-a with it being a rangefinder.

After a visit to a castle with my lc-a last week and taking "tourist photos" rather than "arty" ones i realised that the lack of zoom was an issue - not being able to get closer to details on the ceilings etc.
So this made me look at the Ricoh GX100. As well as the zoom, it also has the advantage of higher megapixels, 1:1 format (to replace holga too), and the faster RAW-write times.

Another camera i'd been considering was the Leica D-lux 3, but after speaking to a friend who has one, she says she's a little let down with it at lower light and higher ISO's. And another the Sigma DP1 with its DSLR quality sensor, but after reading some reviews about this, it seems it isnt worth splashing out on.

I've read extensively (maybe too much) on all the cameras, sometimes i feel you can read too much into peoples real criticisms over cameras when in fact they are perfectly good cameras.

Things like barrel distortion are not an issue for my style of photography and in fact that just adds more character i feel.
The only thing I am looking for is having a camera that is of the best picture quality (IQ i've read you guys calling it). And like i said, zoom would be nice.

A lot of people have recommended getting the GRD2 over the GX100.
Is there really that much of a difference?
And bearing in mind i wouldnt mind a zoom and that with the cash i saved i could get the wide angle lens too. What would be the arguement you could win me with that is better than the last two reasons?

With image quality probably being the biggest issue though, how do you think the GX100 (or the GRD2) would compare to the Fujifilm F100FD (which i would buy for under £200 and would already have two perfectly good lenses for)?

Hope some of you can answer some (maybe all) of my questions from above

Thanks
 
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Guest
kai.e.g.
yeah, these lenses from lomography.com
fisheye
tunnelvision
both attach to my little Pentax S5n (5megapixel) (as well as my LC-A and Holga) by sticking a metal ring onto the camera around the lens, and the bottom of the lens is a magnet so it "sticks" on.
Any major knocks and it'l fall off so not the BEST solution, but still works.

I'm not 100% the ring will fit around the lens on the F100FD, but when they come into local shops i'm going to go in and check with a spare metal ring i have.

These lenses arent GREAT lenses but they have a good effect (see my latest 8 flickr pics). Theres distortion round the edges, some of this could just be down to my S5n not being too great too though.

The other wide angle lens i have for the LC-A (this one) attaches to the LC-A via a faceplate, however the lens does screw off, the thread is about 28-30mm i guess, would be amazing if i could get a digital where this would screw onto the lens somehow as this lens is a LOT better than the two other afformentioned lenses. This is the one ive used in most of my flickr pics. Very little distortion/blurring around the edges of frame :)
 

kai.e.g.

Member
Hmmm - very interesting! Thanks for the info! Hope others can help with your quest... I've been in the same boat trying to choose the "right" camera.
 
P

pfogle

Guest
From your work, I'd guess you'd love the GX100 with the 19mm adapter - I do! You should definitely try it. Without the adapter, it's just another camera, but with it, it's really something else :D:D
 

Joan

New member
Hi,

Wish I could offer you some advice, have just gone through an agonizing process of elimination myself. The people here were very helpful!

Did want to tell you that I really like your Empty Edinburgh gallery, wonderful!

Good luck with your choice!
 

kai.e.g.

Member
Thanks for those links - unfortunately www.digitaltoyshop.co.uk seems to be offline at the moment, but your 3rd link is working. The "Alternative lenses for GX100" link sounds very interesting, so I'll keep trying!!

Cheers,
Kai
 

kai.e.g.

Member
OK, the link came up now. I wouldn't consider these so much "alternative" lenses, as possibly supplementary ones. The Ricoh DW-6 (19mm for the GX100) is going to blow most of those away in terms of quality, and the same goes for Ricoh's 2 GRD lenses... but some of those other lenses would definitely be a lot of fun to have for ultra wide-angle stuff. I'd probably get one of them just for the heck of it.
 
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Guest
one of the fisheye lenses there looks like the same fisheye lens you get for Holga's on Lomography.com
i saw some guy on flickr who'd used the adaptor for the wide angle lens for the GRDII to put a Holga fisheye on his GRDII.
looked a beast!!!

I assume that both the GX100 and the GRD/GRDII both use a adaptor with a 43mm thread.

Can anyone confirm this? do you have both cameras?
 
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