AbramG wrote:
Anyone know how to get dust off the sensor of the GR? I have no idea how I got a spec right in the middle but it's pretty annoying.
Join the club. Some years ago I took a GR apart, and cleaned the sensor but that did not help. The dust was on the inside of the lens.
Now I have the same thing on my current GR2. If I shoot wide open, it's not so visible as if I shoot slightly stopped down. That tells me that the blob is on the lens.
I could not open the lens mechanism to clean the lens...
Someone mentioned that Ricoh would clean for free, which would make sense. I have no further experience.
Thanks, man. People don't think of a 28mm as being good for portraiture/close-ups, but this lens has some of my favorite bokeh when you get real close. And it's so, so sharp...
FlyPenFly wrote:
Nice, these pictures make me want one for sure especially for my coming trip to Vietnam.
Debating internally if I'm better off rebuying the 18mm F2 for my X-E1 or picking up a GR. I mostly shoot F8-F10 landscapes these days.
The GR is a fine landscaper, but if you are shooting mostly F8-F10 landscapes I assume that you are shooting from tripod with liveview, or handheld with increased ISO. I would not primarily use the GR for that, but indeed a big DSLR.
These two Vietnam (HaLong Bay) landscapes are 2.8 and 4.0 and plenty sharp.
The GR is rather a street camera, where there is little time for contemplative shooting. F2.8 and be there. Compare the GR to a Leica - a Leica would work fine for landscapes, but it's forte is in documentary photography.
Not sure I agree with markhout, tbh. I shoot largely landscapes and portraits with the GR—rarely do street stuff. I'm usually at f/5.6-8 for landscape and f/2.8 for everything else. Sometimes I drop to f/4 for landscape when the light is dimmer.
I am also not sure I would agree with markout. I use the GR for lots of landscape images as you can see by most of my posts here. Its small size makes it great for backpacking and long day hikes. Bring along a small tripod and your all set.
You do have to protect it from dust when hiking. I received quotes from two different repair places of $165 to de-dust my GR. I sure hope the next iteration has some type of weather sealing.
So I thought I'd follow up on my dust issue. I sent the camera in to Precision camera, hoping they could clean the dust off the sensor for ~$65. They told me they needed to replace the entire sensor and lens assembly for $480! That's out of the question, so I had them send it back. I will just deal with it in post.
Needless to say, I'm a bit disappointed. I only have about 2,600 shots on the camera and baby it by always having it in a plastic back when in my pocket. I saw somewhere on the interwebs that you can tell if the dust is on the sensor vs the lens by whether it blurs out at larger apertures. I always thought it would do that even if the dust was on the sensor. On my GR, the dust is sharper and more noticeable at f16 than at f2.8, but it's still there.
I suppose I could try to clean the sensor myself. I really hope they improve the sealing on the Mk III, if there is one.
PS I'd upload a picture, but when I embed a link to flickr, it just shows up as the text with no image. I must be doing something wrong even though I did it as explained in the FAQ.
owyhee wrote:
I am also not sure I would agree with markout. I use the GR for lots of landscape images as you can see by most of my posts here. Its small size makes it great for backpacking and long day hikes. Bring along a small tripod and your all set.
