First of all, thanks to everyone here in the community for the information that has been created throughout the forum here. This is my first post here on SC, and the forum was invaluable to me in buying a new (and first serious compact or other) camera recently. I especially want to thank Ray for his well-balanced comments on this site on the Nikon A, and also tallahassee for his excellent examples. If it is allowed, I'll post a little bit of background about how I ended up with my Nikon A, in the hope that perhaps it can be interesting to others deciding between the GR and the A. It's perhaps more a personal review than showcasing my not-yet-trained skills, but hopefully still welcome. Before I bought the A, I had had a simple Pentax Optio S5i consumer for almost 9 years. My dad is a hobby photographer, and I decided I now had the inclination to for the first time experiment with his hobby for myself as well.
I started my search for a new camera with testing the Ricoh GR IV limited white edition for a week, comparing it to a friend's Powershot S110 at the same time. The ergonomics of the GR IV blew me away, it was like a revelation. Why did all this other crap exist, if a camera could be like *that*?? I was madly in love. But also, I was dissatisfied with the colors and brightness from both the GR IV and the S110 (although opposite directions). So I moved on to the Sony NEX-3N, already more pricy than what I wanted to spend. The menu and settings were an insult and the camera too heavy and big for my taste, but I liked the picture quality. After a short interlude with the Samsung EX2F, next considered were the Ricoh GR and the Coolpix A. Where I live, you have to spend roughly the same for both, for some reason. The A I could get used for a good price with a return period, but the GR only used without a trial period. So I compared literally hundreds of pictures between the two on review sites, here on SC, and on flickr. I thought I disliked the GR's more faded colors, and went for the A - and I never regretted it one second. Yes, it's not as ergonomic, I miss having the GR IV around (a friend bought my trial model, in the end), and there are plenty of design insults to curse all day about. But the color and image quality are just amazing to my (untrained) eye. I've not seen such colors from the GR anywhere online, and even from those that were heavily post-edited, which I don't do. Despite never having had photography as a hobby before, I do have a good idea of my use pattern already: always straight out of cam jpg (no time for editing combined with a sense of purity or simplicity). Easy to take along, because I don't have the time to go shooting in itself - it must be with me with my normal activities and ready when I see something that fascinates me. Good colors and IQ. No shoots that violate my sense of others' personality rights (so not much street "pornography"..). And with SOOC, I mean even no cropping or b/w conversion. In summary, I found that the A perfectly fits my needs. By now, I also tested the GR in store, and wouldn't trade.
But enough said, here are some results with comments:
DSC_0063 by
pflaumenjoseki, on Flickr
DSC_0056 by
pflaumenjoseki, on Flickr
DSC_0073 by
pflaumenjoseki, on Flickr
The above three were some of the first I took, and after them, I was sold for the Nikon A. The reflections and sweat drops in the window of the first, and the colors in that dimly lit bathroom in the second and colors and detail in the third's cafe interior blew me away.
DSC_0130 by
pflaumenjoseki, on Flickr
For the above, I never even stopped walking. I was visiting a friend, saw the scene, pulled out the A, turned it on, fired, and voila - it looked exactly how I saw it. That's what I like about the A: the pictures look _exactly_ how I saw the scene at the time. But while it's quick to turn on, there are some AF issues sometimes indeed... :
DSC_0092 by
pflaumenjoseki, on Flickr
DSC_0144 by
pflaumenjoseki, on Flickr
For the first above, I had tried to take a much nicer shot of the little orange cleaning wagon in a scenery.. But the AF never locked because it was driving at 3feet/s..!!! So I had to wait until the driver stopped for a chat. This was a bit disappointing, and in the second one, I also tried to quickly get the yoga girl, but somehow it ended up out of focus, at least I think it is, because usually it's sharper at that distance..
And one to close this post off, thanks for reading/viewing:
DSC_0190 by
pflaumenjoseki, on Flickr
