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GRD2 Desiderata: "focus switching" and ND filter deployment

M

Mitch Alland

Guest
Having shot my "first roll" with the 40mm tele-converter (the GT-1) on the GRD2 there are two things that I would like to have on this camera.

Firstly, shooting with the the GT-1, which has less DOF than the 28mm EFL, accurate focusing becomes more important than with the 21 and 28mm EFLs. For street photography I've been using MF and switching between the 2.5m of the SNAP focus setting and about 1.0m using the "up-and-down" buttons. Although this works, it's a bit "fussy" and not that convenient. What I would like to see is some way of switching back and forth between the 2.5m of the SNAP focus and 1.0m — or better yet between two user-defined — focus lengths. Can anyone think how this could be implemented (in firmware) on the current camera. On a future version of the camera there a focusing wheel, as I believe Sean has suggested would be useful, but I would like to see the focusing wheel have two "detents" for user-selected focusing points.

Secondly, and perhaps even more urgently desirable, would be the facility for deploying the ND filter manually. With the GRD2 I like the "grainy" look of ISO 400 much better than the look of the slower speeds, but because the the fastest shutter speeds cannot be used at the wide apertures I am forced to use much smaller apertures, which are negatively affected by diffraction as Sean has shown in his review. Manually deploying the ND filter would solve much of this problem. Does anyone know whether this could be implemented in the firmware?

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

Otto

New member
Mitch, I don't own a Ricoh, at this time, but couldn't you use an ND filter on the conversion lens adaptor (barrel)?

Otto...
 
S

Sean_Reid

Guest
Having shot my "first roll" with the 40mm tele-converter (the GT-1) on the GRD2 there are two things that I would like to have on this camera.

Firstly, shooting with the the GT-1, which has less DOF than the 28mm EFL, accurate focusing becomes more important than with the 21 and 28mm EFLs. For street photography I've been using MF and switching between the 2.5m of the SNAP focus setting and about 1.0m using the "up-and-down" buttons. Although this works, it's a bit "fussy" and not that convenient. What I would like to see is some way of switching back and forth between the 2.5m of the SNAP focus and 1.0m — or better yet between two user-defined — focus lengths. Can anyone think how this could be implemented (in firmware) on the current camera. On a future version of the camera there a focusing wheel, as I believe Sean has suggested would be useful, but I would like to see the focusing wheel have two "detents" for user-selected focusing points.

Secondly, and perhaps even more urgently desirable, would be the facility for deploying the ND filter manually. With the GRD2 I like the "grainy" look of ISO 400 much better than the look of the slower speeds, but because the the fastest shutter speeds cannot be used at the wide apertures I am forced to use much smaller apertures, which are negatively affected by diffraction as Sean has shown in his review. Manually deploying the ND filter would solve much of this problem. Does anyone know whether this could be implemented in the firmware?

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/
I envision the focus wheel having detents at various distances.

Unfortunately, an ND filter would require more than firmware. Canon has the lead here.

Cheers,

Sean
 

trisberg

New member
What I would like to see is some way of switching back and forth between the 2.5m of the SNAP focus and 1.0m — or better yet between two user-defined — focus lengths.
I don't have a firmware solution, but couldn't you use MY1 and MY2 for two different MF focus distances like 1m on MY1 and 2.5m on MY2?

Thomas
 
M

Mitch Alland

Guest
Mitch, I don't own a Ricoh, at this time, but couldn't you use an ND filter on the conversion lens adaptor (barrel)?...
Yes, Otto, but that only works for the 28mm EFL and cannot be used with either the 21 or 40mm EFL converters. And I prefer to use the basic 28mm camera without the barrel to keep it "pocketable".

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

trisberg

New member
That's certainly possible but it's as ungainly to switch rapidly between MY1 and MY2 as it is to use the arrow keys in MF — more ungainly, actually.
Yes, making the camera so small makes some operations a bit fiddly. Would be nice if you could use the zoom control for focusing distance and the up/down buttons for AE compensation.

Thomas
 
C

Colman

Guest
Actually, on the GW-1 a cokin holder and filter hangs nicely enough on the front of the adaptor. The GT-1 is just a mm or so too big though. I've packed two ND filters, a holder and an adaptor ring into my "big" pack for the GR-D, which weighs almost a kilo including an external flash and is about the size of think paperback book ...
 
C

Colman

Guest
Sean, isn't there an ND filter in the GR-D that deploys in Auto mode but can't be chosen otherwise, or am I confusing cameras somewhere?
 
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