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GRD2/GT-1 at ISO 1600 at night

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Mitch Alland

Guest
Last night I had dinner in a section of Bangkok that has a lot of very informal restaurants serving Thai, Chinese, and Thai-Chinese food, which is the glory of Bangkok. After dinner I walked around the dark streets — the main lighting comes form the restaurants themselves — and shot some pictures with the GRD2 and the GT-1 40mm tele-converter at ISO 1600.

It was the first time that I used the GT-1 converter at night, and I was shooting very "loosely": walking and talking with a friend — for most of the shots I didn't even stop but shot on the move. The exposures of the three shots below are at 1/60, 1/9 and 1/17 sec, respectively:














Using the 40mm tele-converter for this type of loose street photography, for me, is more difficult than shoot at 28mm or 21mm EFL because I tend to shoot from very close distance — 1.0–2.0m — and always feel that I'm getting too close too fast. Also, it's easier to avoid camera shake at the wider apertures. But the results at 40mm EFL are quite different in terms of perspective and the feeling of space.

I realize that such pictures are not to everyone's taste but I like them.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 
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Michael Rivers

Guest
Mitch, I really enjoy your work! I feel these pictures are more about peoples feelings and emotions more than their surroundings. There is something powerful about the impressionist facial expressions that are a bit dissociated from the background. What I have seen of your 28mm FOV work here has more information on the surroundings, which I enjoy as well, but these pictures seem more concentrated. Thanks for sharing these.

Michael
 

helenhill

Senior Member
These are Wonderful....the Movement & Feeling
Love the EXPRESSIONISTIC edge in their faces
the elements & emotions chiseled in black,chrome & shades of grey
We Want More!!

I was actually going to buy the 21mm today (I'm a wide angle girl)
but now my point of view is seeing differently........
Was there any cropping?.......helen
 

cam

Active member
Mitch -- i *love* those!!! the intimacy of the 40mm works even better at night, i think. there is a sense of intrusion that is palpable.
 

helenhill

Senior Member
Mitch -- i *love* those!!! the intimacy of the 40mm works even better at night, i think. there is a sense of intrusion that is palpable.
I never realized the aspect of Intimacy w/40 mm
and yet its sooo visibly apparent /and as you say "better at night"
and the sense of intrusion is pure magic /only a compact small sensor camera could do
and Where have you been *Cam*......we MISSED you

and *Mitch* I'm off to get the 40mm first / Thanks to you !
I tend to be abit obsessive so I want to push the limits in understanding & perspective with the 40
and then in Spring do the 21
Cheers to All ! helen
 

Maggie O

Active member
Mitch, you keep posting glorious shots like these and you're gong to drive me to empty my meagre bank account on a GR-D II and the pair of lenses for it!
 

Lili

New member
Mitch,
as always, superb, gritty and dramatic. The contrast, grain and even the movement blur add to that slice-of-night-life look!
 

kai.e.g.

Member
Great shots, Mitch. Bearing in mind that I've never seen a GRD (or GX100) first hand, let alone the accessory lenses or adapter, I'm curious about the comfort level of carrying the accessory lenses in your trouser pocket as you described elsewhere. I'm trying to relate it to something that I know. For example, I have a couple of fairly small L39 (Leica screwmount) lenses which I know I'm quite comfortable carrying in my trouser pocket, like a Jupiter-12 (35mm; an old Zeiss Biogon copy) and Industar-22 (essentially equivalent to the old collapsible Elmar f3.5/50mm). Do you know if these Ricoh accessories are roughly equivalent to these in size/pocket-ability? This is one question which is driving my choice between GX100 to GRD now.

I'll be in Venice sometime this month and am hoping that a particularly good camera store I spotted down there last time will have these Ricohs in stock so I can finally at least touch one :)
 
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Mitch Alland

Guest
Thanks, Maggie, Lili and Kai. I didn't stop to be able to steady the camera better to get this loose and fluid style, assuming that some camera motion might add to the effect. Also, I knew that Moritama Daido often shoots with the Ricoh GR1/GR21 film cameras by just waving the cameras around rather than framing through the viewfinder.

Kai, the little conversion tube (HA-1) is very light as is the 21mm converter lens; the 40mm converter lens is a bit more substantial, but still only 3.5cm deep and 6.5cm in diameter at its wide end and less than 4cm at its narrow end. These three items fit easily in my (normal) trouser pocket. I sppose the 40mm lens is the size of an old 35mm/f3.5 leica lens, as I remember it.

—Mitch//Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
 

johnastovall

Deceased, but remembered fondly here...
Mitch, you are killing me.... I just got my GR-DII about an hour ago and the battery isn't even charged and you've got me thinking about extra lenses.

Way to go! :D
 

kai.e.g.

Member
Thanks, Mitch - wow, even the 40mm converter which I knew was the bigger of the two is still significantly smaller than either of the two screwmount lenses I referred to, both of which are the smallest lenses I have. In fact, the dimensions of the 40mm are barely bigger than the old Tewe shoe-mount zooming viewfinder I have, which I don't even notice when in the pocket. I guess it's been hard to get a perspective on just how small this GRD and its accessories truly are without seeing them first hand!
 

Lili

New member
Mitch,
The new shots are terrific. Everything Helen says and more.
I just had an extended opportunity to use the GRD/GT-1 at a concert at a Pub here in Wichita Falls wide open at f2.4 and ISO 1600.
Lo light, 1/9sec, but the combo performed flawlessly, the longer reach was just what I needed and added grip area allows one to steady the camera perfectly.
Right now I am burning all the shots to CD for the band, after that I will choose just a few to post on flickr and here (no I will not post the entire series 200 shots is too much for even me).
I am completely sold on the GT-1 now. Both the 21 and the 40 are easily carried and I cannot overstate the advantage of keeping the aperture range the same over 21,28 and 40mm efl range.
Your Bangkok series with this lens inspired me to risk using it rather than my S6000fd and I must thank you :)
 

helenhill

Senior Member
Mitch , I"m probably going off the deep end with this thought
but I see abit of Robert Longo in this work .... in the sense of Capturing Pure Movement /Blk&White edge
(his lithographs:Joanna 1983 work / Larry 1983 work)
Obviously Longo's work is Staged & Exaggerated so there is no comparison in that sense but
Stretch the imagination and if you had no background just pure figure greatly enlarged
In your first series:2nd shot /that punk look of his
In your second series :3rd shot /melancholy girl alone
I could also see someone STRONGLY disagreeing but there is an element there
Cheers! Helen
 
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