A few GX100 pictures I can post...

Amazing and atmostpheric images. Did you use 50 to 72mm lenssettings for these images? I personally hardly use the long end, but I find it challenging for me to try it. Besides some specific post processing did you do anything special with the camera settings like underexposuring?

I used the long end of the zoom because that way I could compress the perspectives a bit. Anyway, sometimes you just stand where you can and use the zoom to try to compose the shot you had in mind. Actually, I would have liked a longer zoom to increase the flattening. Focus was set to infinity because there wasn't enough light to do it any other way. Exposure was simply a question of lookng at the histogram, knowing that underexposure would give me noise problems later (which I wanted to avoid). The original files are pretty fully exposed. The exposures were long. Development in Raw Developer, then Photoshop and sometimes a final tweaking of the TIFFs in Lightroom.

Beautiful images. Thank you for sharing.

My GX100 boots up at 50mm, and I use
the 72 a lot of the time, and also wish
that Ricoh would create an even longer
conversion lens.

I haven't done any systematic tests, but
the sharpness on the 72 end does vary
widely across apertures.

Do you have a sense of which is the
actual sharpest aperture when using
the 72?

I don't think very much about sharpness. I figure that if I really want sharp pictures I should stop drinking coffee or improve how I hold the camera before I worry about lens aperture... I just work on the basis that I won't stop down more than about two stops below the maximum f stop. With these cameras the depth of field is so great that you don't need to go smaller and to do so increases the risk of image softness and seeing the dust that has got into your camera. I also work at full aperture when required, only trying to avoid it because it obliges me to focus more carefully. It all depends on the situation... The GRD2 in snap mode, stopped down to f6.3 and used with Pocket Wizards and off camera flash is a fantastic tool...

I do relate to your attitude, David, and your results bear
it out. I am not a sharpness freak either, usually simply
finding what works and going with it. However in terms
of the close-up portraits, for eyes that really pop, battling
unnecessary softness with pp sharpening isn't as effective
as playing to the lens's strengths at the shooting stage.
I am not a "tester", and I guess a bit lazy in that regard,
so rather than searching through the exif data of a bunch
of recent portraits, I was hoping for a definitive answer
(from you, or Sean, or anyone who has come to a basic
conclusion) regarding the sharpest aperture at the 72mm
focal length. But yes, two stops or thereabouts closed
down sounds safe.

I forgot to say that, as far as I am concerned, getting your local contrast boost right (either via the "clarity" slider in Lightroom or maybe a 50:20 sharpening in Photoshop) will have a greater effect in creating a sharp looking image than worying overmuch about lens sharpness. I keep saying it (anyone listening?) but correct processing of raw files from these cameras really makes or breaks the images. More, in my experience, that with raw from DSLRs. Lightroom's "detail" slider can really mess things up if overdone, for example...

Anyway, back to your original post, there's so
much romance and atmosphere in your photographs,
and I really respond to that ... they're beautiful.
How you're making these pictures is interesting
and informative, but compared to the pictures
themselves, truly an afterthought.

Cheers.

Ok I have to say it; I think it's a mistake to
underestimate in a general way how seriously
anyone here approaches RAW conversion. I am
not sure what has given you that impression.

I raised an issue that is definitely lens-based,
but I do read your posts with interest, and did
investigate and experiment with RAW Developer
at your suggestion back on the dpreview forum.
I am still using ACR as my primary converter,
and getting pretty astounding results from my
GX100 files. That said, I imagine I will continue
to benefit from what you choose to share here.

I am "listening." I bet others are too.

: )