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1. what flash options are available for the Ricoh (and which must be able to trigger remote flash units), and
2. considering a three-lens kit, and starting with either the 12 or the 15 CV, what are your recommendations? I am thinking a ~40—50 EFOV normal, and one short tele (80–100mm EFOV); this covers most of what I need.
And a final Q. before ordering: how does the Ricoh EVF compare to the Panny one for the GF-1? ...
1- 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) and cut off the end that fits in the camera hot shoe. Glue or bolt the shoe 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 c 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.
2- What lenses and focal lengths you want is always a very personal choice. My three lens kit, what I use more than anything else, consists of a 21, 40 and 90 mm. IN 35mm equivalents, that's about a 30, a 60 and a 135 mm FoV. I only rarely want wider ... I have the A12 28mm camera unit (18mm optically) for a bit wider FoV.
If you're a 'wide' person, starting with either the CV 12 or 16, the next lens I'd want is the Zeiss 25/2.8 ZM for a roughly 38-40mm equivalent or your favorite 35mm for a normal, and then a 50mm for a roughly 75mm FoV. But I like the 21-40 pairing on APS-C a lot.
The Ricoh VF-2 is much nicer than the original Panasonic EVF for the GF1 and somewhere just shy of the quality of the Panasonic G1 and Olympus VF-2 EVFs. I think it's more a matter of magnification than actual imaging performance ... it looks smaller than those two (which actually helps me due to my glasses). It's not up to the NEX 5n optional EVF; I'm hoping Ricoh updates it.
Have to tell you, I'm delighted with the GXR kit. Best compact digital camera I've owned in all respects. It's not a pro-grade DSLR in various ways, but for what I do it's responsive enough and the image quality it produces is right up there.