DougVaughn wrote:
I just took a look at my B&H order, and it now says "Expected delivery February 18th." I suspect that's delivery to their warehouse rather than my door, but not sure which. Either way, it looks like a few of us may have them by the end of the week.
I ended up cancelling my pre-order with B&H and ordering direct from Ricoh on the 11th. It shipped on the 12th and is on its way to me, should be here in a couple days. Normally I'm not in that big of a hurry and would have stuck with B&H, but I leave this week on a trip where I know I'm going to be doing lots of photography and wanted to make sure the GR mono arrived in time.
FrozenInTime wrote:
I both exited and terrified over the possibility of a 40mm GR IVx monochrome being released next; which will undoubtably carry a further price premium :-(
I did just buy from stock the basic 28mm color GR IV for casual grab shots, but for the more serious B&W photography the preference would be closer to 50mm.
I too would largely prefer the IVx, but with my main camera these days being the Q3 43 I'm actually looking forward to having a fixed lens camera in a different focal length to experiment with. I figure if it just doesn't feel right in the end, easy enough to sell the IV Mono and get the IVx Mono should they ever release one. Looking back I think the x variants usually came out a couple years after the 28mm no?
Tarekith wrote:
I ended up cancelling my pre-order with B&H and ordering direct from Ricoh on the 11th. It shipped on the 12th and is on its way to me, should be here in a couple days. Normally I'm not in that big of a hurry and would have stuck with B&H, but I leave this week on a trip where I know I'm going to be doing lots of photography and wanted to make sure the GR mono arrived in time.
I considered that path, but I save about $200 sales tax using B&H's card, so I'll wait. If I had a big trip coming up, I would have done the same thing you did.
The Ricoh GR Monochrome arrived Thursday evening, and I took it out for a few test shots yesterday. Overall, I feel pretty good about it. These are edits from raw, but I used what I learned to make a few tweaks to the jpg settings and think I will get what I want from those as well.
RICOH GR IV Monochrome18mmf/4.01/125s320 ISO-0.3 EV
RICOH GR IV Monochrome18mmf/5.61/800s320 ISO-0.3 EV
RICOH GR IV Monochrome18mmf/2.81/2500s160 ISO0.0 EV
RICOH GR IV Monochrome18mmf/5.61/400s320 ISO-0.3 EV
RICOH GR IV Monochrome18mmf/5.61/160s320 ISO+0.7 EV
Testing through a store window in macro mode
RICOH GR IV Monochrome18mmf/5.61/125s160 ISO-0.3 EV
Mine arrived the day after I left on my trip due to bad weather in the PNW, so I only got to play with it today for a little bit. Overall I'm really happy with it (it's my first time using a GR camera), especially the image quality. It feels a lot better in hand than I was expecting too, not as cheap feeling as some people make the GR series out to be (IMVHO). Handling will take some getting used to, it's just a really small camera and easy to accidentally change your ISO or enable the red filter by mistake I've learned I was worried too that even though it's small in size it would be heavy enough to be noticeable in my jacket, but that's not the case at all happily.
So far the only disappointments are minor, mainly that there's no way to make it show up as a mass storage device when connecting via USB-C to my iPhone or iPad Pro. Which means using the rather slow GR World app to offload photos if I don't want to carry an SD Card USB adaptor with me (I don't). Also, the display doesn't work as a live exposure preview, which is taking some getting used to compared to my A7CR and Q3 43.
No photos I want to share yet, but soon hopefully!
Tarekith wrote:
..the display doesn't work as a live exposure preview, which is taking some getting used to compared to my A7CR and Q3..
Strange Didnt face such issues.
When the exposure is increased (or decreased) using the exposure compensation +/- buttons in P/Av/Tv modes, the LCD screen's live view brightens (or darkens) accordingly.
Likewise when in M mode and reducing (or increasing) shutter speed, the screen darkens (or brightens) accordingly.
mojoh wrote:
Strange Didnt face such issues.
When the exposure is increased (or decreased) using the exposure compensation +/- buttons in P/Av/Tv modes, the LCD screen's live view brightens (or darkens) accordingly.
Likewise when in M mode and reducing (or increasing) shutter speed, the screen darkens (or brightens) accordingly.
It works to a point, but it's also possible to have an image you can see fine on the LCD that is almost pure black in the jpg file too. Particularly if you're using Auto ISO and exceed the upper ISO limit you set.
juanj wrote:
Doug,
Did you use the red filter in any of those shots?
The one with the old truck used the red filter. It's subtle but definitely makes a difference. I need to try it on people to see how much it brightens skin.
I did an identical shot of the truck with and without the red filter, but those comparisons are on my other computer. I will post something tomorrow showing the difference.
juanj wrote:
Doug,
Did you use the red filter in any of those shots?
Juan, I'm a little late getting back to this question, but here are some comparisons. All are using the same effective exposure from shot to shot, with the only change being the addition of the filter. All are jpgs from camera resized for the web. I've found the jpgs to be very good, although I can get a little more of what I envisioned from the raw files.
Doug
RICOH GR IV Monochrome18mmf/4.01/2000s320 ISO+0.3 EV
RICOH GR IV Monochrome18mmf/4.01/400s320 ISO+0.3 EV
RICOH GR IV MonochromeGR IV LENS 18.3mm F2.8 lens18mmf/5.61/3200s320 ISO-0.3 EV
RICOH GR IV MonochromeGR IV LENS 18.3mm F2.8 lens18mmf/5.61/250s160 ISO-0.3 EV
RICOH GR IV MonochromeGR IV LENS 18.3mm F2.8 lens18mmf/5.61/1250s320 ISO-0.7 EV
RICOH GR IV MonochromeGR IV LENS 18.3mm F2.8 lens18mmf/5.61/200s320 ISO-0.7 EV
Here's a shot from yesterday using the red filter and edited from the raw file. The red filter isn't strong, but it definitely makes a difference in landscape shots.
I've been shooting with auto ISO in AV mode, although I chose snap focus on the mode dial for this one. I've noticed the camera wants to default to 320 ISO 90% of the time rather than using 160 ISO. Also, when using the snap focus mode, it wants to go to f/2.8, even though there is plenty of light to use f/4 or f/5.6, which I'd prefer for landscapes. That said, the lens was pretty sharp at f/2.8.
RICOH GR IV MonochromeGR IV LENS 18.3mm F2.8 lens18mmf/2.81/1000s320 ISO-0.3 EV
I like your landscapes and I can certainly see the difference the filter makes in the sky and general punch up in contrast. Not dramatic but it makes a difference. Thanks for posting.
I've been using the red filter a lot the last couple days and it's definitely a nice but subtle effect. The kind of thing I can still use just to cut some light in place of a standard ND without worrying it'll alter the image drastically. I'm finding it a lot more useful than I thought I would.
I love the colors that come out of the regular GRIV and the black and white does just fine. At that price I'll skip the monochrome and keep converting to black and white instead, or shooting b/w jpegs in camera
I was worried too that even though it's small in size it would be heavy enough to be noticeable in my jacket, but that's not the case at all happily.
Didnt face such issues.
