Originally posted by lesmore49 Excellent photography. I didn't realize that you have a Ricoh GR series camera.
I have a Ricoh GR ll. Great camera. Robust, large ASP-C sensor, small body, love the 28mm F 2.8 lens...very sharp.
I got mine to replace my old carry around camera...which was my ancient Leica 11f (1951) and even older Leitz Elmar collapsible 50mm F 3.5 lens. I still have the old Leica, and have had since about 1982, but don't a lot of film work anymore.
The Leica is small, robust and capable of sharp photos...same as the GR ll.
Thanks, Duke!
I first got hold of a second-hand GR because I was curious, and quickly realised what a great little camera it is. Just about when the GR III came out my old GR got problems. The lens mechanism started to fail. At first I could get it to work by following a certain routine involving swithcing it on, pull the battery, switch it on again, but it hardly left room for quick shots. Then even that failed and I had to do the paper roll trick to force-twist the lens when switching it on.
But since the GR had more than paid for itself (by taking the only picture I've ever sold
) I figured I could justify buying a new GR II. Why not a GR III? Several reasons, the main one being that the III cost twice as much and, in my opinion, it's not twice as good. I'm not a huge fan of touch screens, I'd rather have more physical buttons. And I already had two GR II compatible batteries. Battery life has never been a strong point for the GR series (although not bad for a small camera).
Of course, the GR III has a newer 24 mpix sensor and IBIS. And is smaller. Not sure if the smaller size is purely positive - I find the GR II juuust large enough for my hands.
All in all I'm very happy with my GR II. The perfect carry around camera, and the perfect companion to a DSLR.