Musings on photography both analog and digital
Ricoh recently announced the GR IIIx, a standard-focal-length version of the GR III. By standard, I mean the truer standard, 40mm, not the long-standard which was so prevalent during the early rangefinder and film SLR age. Whereas 50mm has just a bit of telephoto effect, 40mm is closer to life, with a tad more peripheral… Continue reading Thoughts on the New Ricoh GR IIIx
A selection of recent shots from the delightful little combination of Olympus OM-D E-M5ii and legendary Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens. No deep thoughts to be had here, this time. Just a few shots. E-M5MarkII LUMIX G 20/F1.7 20mm f/5.6 1/1000s ISO 200 E-M5MarkII LUMIX G 20/F1.7 20mm… Continue reading Street Notes from Smalltown
Ricoh likes to call GR users “GRists.” If you stumbled over that odd-looking word at first, you’re not alone. It’s part of Ricoh’s overarching marketing strategy for the GR series, and, while it may be a bit awkward in English, it does convey a sort of special quality about GR mainliners. The suffix “-ist” denotes… Continue reading Ricoh GR III Two-Year Review, Part Two: Camera Ethos
I got my hands on a GR III as soon as they were available in the US, which was March of 2019. Since then it has become a constant companion through thick and thin, economic boom and pandemic turmoil alike. Though I use other cameras, the GR III is small enough to ride along with… Continue reading Ricoh GR III Two-Year Review, Part One: The Hardware
I promised a while back to give a third and final part of my review of the Panasonic GX9, focused on image quality. Truth be told, I hesitated so long because I don’t own the camera anymore. Years of Micro Four Thirds use are behind me, for the time being, as the GX9 was my… Continue reading Lumix GX9 Review Wrap-Up: The Image Quality
I've started shooting and posting a photo a day, on an online community. It's a pretty common project, the photo-a-day. You can find all sorts of permutations all over the photographic web. I've done several of these in monthly installments, but this time it's open-ended. Like always, the importance of daily photo challenges is to… Continue reading Turn Something In
When do we come to the end of wanting to produce "competent" photographs? I have been pondering this question as I go through my catalogue of photographs taken - many of them remembered, some forgotten, and some re-seen as I encounter them again after sitting in cold storage on a hard drive. Few are the… Continue reading Value of a Back Catalogue
Things have been upended, we all know this and deal with it on a daily basis. Even in my neck of the global woods (shout-out to the podcast Stuff They Don't Want You to Know for that line, which I shamelessly stole), daily life has not been the same for quite some time now. Most… Continue reading Street Notes, July 2020
Micro Four Thirds cameras are frequently criticized due to their sensors being smaller than full frame, which makes it harder for photographers to get the "look" that's become emblematic of large sensors: shallow depth-of-field, smooth highlight transitions and lots of dynamic range. These characteristics were usually present (with the exception of the last, which… Continue reading Getting the Analogue Film Look from Micro Four Thirds In-Camera
My wife and I recently took a short trip up the Pacific coast, and since my Ricoh GR III was in the shop, I only brought along one camera, the Voigtlander Bessa T, and one lens, the Color Skopar 35mm f2.5. While not the smallest combination, it did fit into a couple of jacket pockets… Continue reading Bessa T, Skopar and Superia Xtra 400 Make a Nice Combination
The Sprocket Docket 