1st Impressions

GX100

I bought a Ricoh GX100 digital camera about two weeks ago.

My main criteria for choosing it were:

1) Compact body and light weight
2) Great wide angle zoom range - 24mm to 72mm
3) Electronic viewfinder which can be detached
4) Raw file support
5) 10MP sensor
6) Manual control option
7) Good battery life

I wanted a camera I could virtually take anywhere without carrying a large DSLR with an array of heavy lenses. I'm a big fan of using wide-angle lenses, so this small camera had just what I was looking for. There are many customizable settings on this camera and manual controls, great when you want to tweak the image here and there. It can also be a simple point and shoot camera if you prefer. The Raw capability is also attractive, and I will use it for my best shots or when the light is tricky to judge. So far the images I have captured with this camera have impressed me and the 10MP sensor seems to perform well. One of my early photographs with this camera is the b/w photograph of St Pauls Cathedral in central London. I used the in camera b/w setting for this shot, it is not converted into b/w in Photoshop. The tones and contrast are rendered very well and I only needed moderate filter adjustments to get it to look the way I preferred.

GX100 - F9 @ 1/125th, 100 iso, Jpeg

Here is a photograph of the impressive bronze sculptured mural in Covent Garden, London. I thought this would be a good test for the cameras metering, to see if the predominantly dark bronze would over-expose. To my surprise the 1st exposure was well within limits and I decided to use a minor amount of adjustment in my second exposure, using -0.3 EV compensation. In photoshop, I found that the slightly over-exposed shot was easily adjusted to get a good final result. The GX100 lens is very sharp, corner to corner and colour is accurate.

GX100 - F5.1 @ 1/500th, 100 iso, Jpeg

This little girl was photographed in relatively low light, I pushed the ISO to 200. I noticed a higher degree of pixel noise on screen but it is well under control and does not show up in print form up to A4. The colours are natural and I only needed a moderate tweak in Photoshop using levels and contrast and a minor amount of unsharp masking. The anti-camera shake mode was switched-on for this shot and I think it has probably helped me.

GX100 - F5.1 @ 1/50th, 200 iso, Jpeg

Outdoors and using my favoured 24mm lens angle, I took this shot of the Gherkin Building and other surrounding offices. I am very happy with the quality of this lens, at 24mm there is little distortion and edge sharpness is very good, I see lots of detail in the corners and this gives me much confidence, especially for such a small camera. I have used many other small digital cameras and the lenses have always let me down in this department. I was amazed when I printed this image up to A3 using my Epson 1800. The colour and detail are still there and closely matched some of my prints using a Nikon D200 DSLR!

DX100 - F8 @ 1/500th, 100 iso, Jpeg, 24mm lens

This little baby photo shows me how well the skin tones are captured, perhaps a little low in hue or contrast but the light was soft and in the shade. I didn't use any white balance correction in-camera because I was shooting quickly but I think it may have helped to warm up the image. In Photoshop I managed to correct a slight bluish tint and boost saturation. I am happy to use straight camera Jpeg files at this moment in time. A few early trials with Raw files did show some improved sharpness and detail but when compared with Jpegs, it was not noticeable at A4 size, side by side. So unless I am printing up to A3 or I find the lighting is very tricky, I will continue to use Jpeg for the majority of my work.

GX100 - F5 @ 1/60th, 200 iso, Jpeg

I really like using the VF-1 LCD Viewfinder, it is not the sharpest or brightest viewfinder but highly usable in my opinion. As a spectacle wearer, I have little problem trying to compose with this finder and I welcome the built-in diopter control which works well. I can clearly see all display information, perhaps I have to adjust my eye position for the far edge information but it's just a matter of getting used to it. The main benefit is for when you are shooting in very bright light and the main camera body LCD becomes very difficult to view. This viewfinder then allows you to continue shooting and another plus is that you can bring the camera up to eye level which feels more natural and comfortable.

VF-1 Viewfinder

One of the great strengths of Ricoh cameras is their high quality macro focusing. This little toy piggy's nose was only a centimeter away from the camera lens. The camera has an adjustable focus point when using macro, this can be very useful for off-center objects. This was shot hand-held at 1/6th sec! Great credit to the anti-camera shake performance lens, it is very effective.

GX100 - F3.5 @ 1/6th, 100 iso, Jpeg

I thought I should try one of the quirky camera settings that can be found on this camera. This one is called Multi-shot or S-Cont. This is similar to a motor-drive sequence but the files are then combined into just one image. One press of the shutter button will take 16 consecutive images in about 2 secs. This is an interesting feature and one which I have seen on Sony cameras.

GX100 - F5.1 @ 1/60th, 100 iso, Jpeg



GX100 Short Cut!

Here is a nice little short-cut which I have found and is easily overlooked. If you want to review your images without using the power-on button (Which means you will first have to remove the lens cap and then wait for the lens to pop out) You can press and hold the green review button for about 2 secs. The green indicator lamp will blink twice and in another second the LCD screen will show your last image. I think this is a nice idea and convenient.

Favorite Image Setting's?

I've had number of queries regarding what image setting's people should try or use. This is really a matter of personal taste and depends a lot on the output conditions, such as computer software, PC or laptop monitors, printers, ink and paper types. My personal tests have led me to make some minor in-camera adjustments. I use Jpeg files mostly, and like to print my images up to A3. Here below are my two favorite settings and general workflow plans:

JPEG Camera Settings: -1 contrast, sharpness 0, colour mode +1
Aperture priority starting at F8
Exposure compensation set to - 0.3 (helps just a little to avoid highlight clipping)
ISO 100
Picture quality set at Fine(10MP)
Focus - Spot AF
Metering - Multi
Camera anti-shake - On

The above settings seem to provide me with excellent files straight from the camera with only a moderate amount of adjustments needed later in Photoshop CS2(for my personal taste)

Raw capture(10MP) For very best shots and under tricky light conditions
Image settings - All set to zero
Pretty much the same as above but EV set to 0
All adjustments will be made in Photoshop to correct exposure, colour, sharpness and contrast.
The latest Adobe Raw plug-in I have is version 3.7, it seems to work fine with GX100 DNG files, they just open straight into Photoshop

Post processing: Files are downloaded to Apple iPhoto for storage, initial viewing, and indexing.
Selected files are then moved to Photoshop CS2 for "minor" adjustments, noise ninja filter, levels, shadow/highlight, colour balance, saturation, contrast and finally unsharp filter. For prints I normally use quite a strong setting but with my GX100 files, they seem to pop into focus with only a minor adjustment.

GX100 - My Jpeg Image Settings

I decided to buy the lens hood and adaptor HA-2 for my GX100. The adaptor is made of light plastic and is about 32mm deep. It has a twist-lock fitting to the main body and feels secure. A dinky rubber flower petal hood is then attached to the front by stretch and squeezing over the front lip. Not so easy to do but when attached, looks secure and tight fitting. I prefer rubber as it acts like a bumper and does not dig-in or jab like a metal one. It makes the camera look a little odd but it makes for easier hand-holding or support. It will take a standard 43mm filter, so you can now protect your lens with a UV or skylight. It's something I will use in bright sunlight and it gives me the option if I decide to buy the wide-angle conversion lens adaptor DW-6. (19mm lens)

Nice fitting camera case!

Here pictured below, is a camera case which fits my GX100 just perfectly in my opinion.
It is a Canon soft case DCC-300 - Usually for Powershot A series compact cameras. It is made of strong waterproof Cordura and a GX100 body will slip inside or out easily.
There is also a front pocket which will fit snugly your EVF viewfinder or SD memory card. For carrying, it has a belt fastening or you can use a neck strap. The overall profile is on the slim side, it does not feel too bulky and the material is soft to the touch with nothing to catch.

High and Low contrast scenes

This photograph of a quaint looking window with flowers, was taken on a very bright sunlit afternoon in London's Knightsbridge. It was a high contrast scene and my first thoughts were, that the camera would seriously under-expose the image. Wrong! The cameras matrix metering has handled this shot very well indeed and I am happy with the strong colours and detail held on the white walls.

(High contrast) GX100 - F9 @ 1/540th, 100 iso, Jpeg


This photograph of the Lloyds Building was taken in the early evening. The light was fading fast and the building was cast in shadow. However, the Jpeg file still contains much detail and in Photoshop, I was able to enhance the contrast and lift the hidden shadow detail. This image would make a nice b/w conversion and I was again impressed by the 24mm lens edge sharpness. Little or no sign of chroma noise.

(Low contrast) GX100 - F8 @ 1/50th, 100 iso, Jpeg, 24mm lens

This shot of a statue of William Shakespeare shows how well this camera captures subtle tones and shades. On closer inspection (see 100% crop) the detail is very impressive and although noise is visible even at 100 iso, it is more film grain like and has a tight structure. I much prefer the way this camera handles noise, retaining detail and sharpness. Panasonic cameras which I have used before are let down badly by the way it's processor smoothes over and creates a watercolour effect. Well done Ricoh!

GX100 - F7 @ 1/150th, 100 iso, Jpeg, 50mm lens

Crop detail - Noise is visible but has a tight and fine grain structure
Reminds me of Fujichrome 100, which is not a bad thing.

Flare under control!

I am really starting to put my GX100 through it's paces, over 550 shots so far!
Although I have purchased the dedicated lens hood, this shot was taken without it. Just goes to show how well this lens is made and seems to cope very well shooting into the light. In a shot like this, I would expect to see some rays and blobs of flare but hardly any can be seen. This was shot at 65mm so perhaps not a true test. I have taken shots into the sun at 24mm but again it handles flare very well indeed. Either I am lucky or this lens is up with the best eg. Carl Zeiss.
One thing I have noticed, photographs taken in shade or cloudy conditions do show a slight blue cast with this lens, nothing to worry about, Photoshop easily corrected. Someone has asked me what Unsharp mask settings I use for print output? As mentioned before, I keep my camera sharpness setting to zero. When transfered to Photoshop they look only very slightly soft but here is my Unsharp filter setting for that pin-sharp look. Unsharp mask: Amount 100-140, Radius 0.8, Threshold 0, if sky is predominant, I use 4.

Little or no flare in this shot
GX100 - F11 @ 1/1740, 100 iso, Jpeg



How to check which Firmware is installed on your camera

First set the Mode Dial to "Movie" mode. Then simply press the Macro button and Playback button at the same time. Hold for about 2 secs and the green auto focus/flash lamp will start to blink. Release buttons and the LCD display will light up and show the firmware details.


Below, my camera shows I have firmware version 1.14 installed




A3 Print quality - I think this camera delivers superb results!

Below is a sample of my A3 size prints, Yes! I have used some Photoshop and a tweak here and there in camera. I've even used some Noise reduction software. However, I can confidently say, even without those changes, the image quality from the GX100 is of a very high standard. I look at my GX100 A3 prints and compare them to my trusty Nikon D200 prints, there is little to choose between them. The GX100 shows very fine grain(noise) at 80-100 ISO speeds. Little or no sign of colour fringing. Colours are reproduced accurately and the detail from the lens is amazing in my opinion. At last, I've found a small and pocketable camera which I can take with me at all times and get DSLR type of results.


Don't get too obesessed viewing your images at high magnification on screen!
You are bound to see more noise, grain and the odd artifact. Get printing, and see your photographs the way they should be seen.



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Hope you enjoy reading this GX100 Blog, you are welcome to leave comments. Updated 18/6/07

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