Ricoh Settings & Handling of Ricoh GR

[Booka]

I thought we could use a new separate thread to talk about actually using the GR and what different preferences everyone has for daily use. I'm sure they will all change as time goes along but it might be interesting to see how different people are using the camera.

Generally shoot in RAW but with b&w screen setting
Mostly in Aperture priority, spot focus(presnap2.5m), center metering, -0.7EqComp, adjust ISO manually for desired shutter speed.

Street photography day/night settings
MY settings 1 Av mode, f11, snap 1.5m, Auto iso
My settings 2 Av mode, f4, snap 2.5m, Auto Hiiso25600, min shutter 1/60

Here's a simplified Depth of Field Chart for the Ricoh GR, I might try to tape a copy of this onto the bottom of the camera...
Modified from Depth of Field Table

And one of my favorite simple Ricoh quirks, the wrist strap(with sinching hairband) through the lower loop keeping the strap out of the way from the dials and fingers.

Yes it's upsidedown.....

 

[sohcsleeper]

Thanks for the post and DOF table.

Quick question, when you have the camera in Aperture priority with Snap activated on full shutter. I see you have it set at 2.5m. My question is what aperture will the camera use when you use snap?
What if the camera is in shutter speed priority and you activate Snap, will the camera then automatically choose the aperture to maintaing chosen shutter speed?

Also why b&w screen, is it because you mainly post process in b&w?

 

[Isoterica]

My second copy of the GR so far seems to be a good one. As for settings, I am in the testing everything phase first and have yet to determine what I like and where I want to put it though I am liking 2.8 1:1 and B7W combo. I might create a setting for it. Also shoot in both raw and jpg so when I use in-camera effects I still have the original copies as well.

 

[Ray Sachs]

I think it depends on what you're shooting. For day to day architecture and scenery and flowers and other relatively slow (or non) moving subjects, I'd just shoot in Aperture Priority and auto ISO with a minimum shutter speed of about 1/60 or 1/125 and probably a max ISO of 3200, maybe raise it to 6400 in really low light. And generally auto focus for this type of shooting.

For street shooting in good light, I experimented with a few setups and ended up just using the same setup I had on the GRD3 and GXR in recent years. Snap focus at 2 meters (occasionally move in to 1.5). Aperture priority with the aperture at about f6.3 or 7.1 (this is consistent with the GXR, not the GRD3). I'd use manual ISO control with the ADJ lever enabled to change ISO with the left and right controls. And I 'd just go shoot, keeping an eye on the shutter speeds and adjusting the ISO if they were getting too low or, rarely, too high. I played around with TaV mode, but its really no different than using aperture priority this way. The differences is you keep an eye on ISO and adjust shutter speed (with the same ADJ controls) to keep the ISO level reasonable. Its six of one, half a dozen of the other and I was just more used to keeping an eye on the shutter speed and adjusting ISO.

For street in low light, you could use that same setting as above, but I usually used Aperture Priority with auto ISO turned on with the max ISO at 6400 and minimum shutter speed at the top end of 1/250. You're not gonna be able to exceed that shutter speed often anyway and the camera will force it down when it has to, so there's one less thing to worry about monitoring... And, oh yeah, I'd usually open the lens up to about f3.5 and just take care to be aware of the limits of your in-focus zone...

This is one camera that I don't think there's any reason to need a DOF chart - the DOF scale on the screen is spot on - perfectly consistent with DOF Master and I've found it very adequate in use. If I didn't feel like I already knew my DOF settings pretty much by rote with this particular focal length/sensor size, I might have chosen the GR just for that. Its a really nice feature when you're just figuring out the settings that will work for DOF.

-Ray

 

[aleksanderpolo]

Thanks for the DOF table, very helpful. I am usually in AF mode so the DOF scale only show up on screen when I use AF lock. Wish it would show up in half press too.

I don't do much or any street, so here's my landscape/scenery setting:
A mode, F4, ND filter auto, snap focus distance 5m, +0.3 EC, center metering, exposure bracket mode on with -1 and -2 stop bracket, continuous mode off (need to be off for exposure bracket to work). Adjust exposure in post (I am lazy in metering).

 

[Booka]

I tested out the camera a little more this weekend and have a few new thoughts. I tried out the Tav mode at the weekend market and it seem to work great, previously i would have used Av mode with a set iso and then have a variable shutter speed, sometimes you could get motion blur 1/50 or have an unnessarily high speed like 1/2000 when you could have increased the dof or lowered the iso for better quality.
With the Tav mode this weekend i set the aperture at f11 and shutter speed to 1/320 the iso stayed mostly between 200 and 1600 which are all usable iso's on the GR.
One thing i did notice though was that my pictures from the weekend weren't as sharp as they had been previous days. I'm pretty sure this has to do with diffraction(lens sharpness) at f11. Geting a dof .6m to 2.97m or .75m to inf is great at f11 but I think I might change my standard setting to f8 or 5.6. I read through a DXo mark test and knew the result but didn't think they would be so apparent.
Here's a link to a Dxo lens test, click through to 'measurements' - 'sharpness' - 'fieldmap' to see the differences between apertures.

DxOMark - Ricoh GR Lens

Didn't think it would be such a difference but i definitely noticed a difference from previous days shooting at f2.8-f5.6.

 

[Ray Sachs]

I tested out the camera a little more this weekend and have a few new thoughts. I tried out the Tav mode at the weekend market and it seem to work great, previously i would have used Av mode with a set iso and then have a variable shutter speed, sometimes you could get motion blur 1/50 or have an unnessarily high speed like 1/2000 when you could have increased the dof or lowered the iso for better quality.
With the Tav mode this weekend i set the aperture at f11 and shutter speed to 1/320 the iso stayed mostly between 200 and 1600 which are all usable iso's on the GR.
One thing i did notice though was that my pictures from the weekend weren't as sharp as they had been previous days. I'm pretty sure this has to do with diffraction(lens sharpness) at f11. Geting a dof .6m to 2.97m or .75m to inf is great at f11 but I think I might change my standard setting to f8 or 5.6. I read through a DXo mark test and knew the result but didn't think they would be so apparent.
Here's a link to a Dxo lens test, click through to 'measurements' - 'sharpness' - 'fieldmap' to see the differences between apertures.

DxOMark - Ricoh GR Lens

Didn't think it would be such a difference but i definitely noticed a difference from previous days shooting at f2.8-f5.6.

I don't think I'd shoot with this camera much beyond f8. At 2 meter focus distance. f7.1 is beyond hyperfocal and f6.3 is almost hyperfocal, so I wouldn't see much need to go beyond those. Maybe as high as f8 if I was moving in really close when I'd adjust the focus down to about 1 - 1.5 meters. No need for hyperfocal there - if you're shooting at those distances there's no need to have infinity in focus too I wouldn't think.

-Ray