The GR II has landed

Written By Miguel Vasquez

It’s true. I purchased a Ricoh GR II, even though there is a multitude of sub-models of the three and four out right now. I had the dust issue when I had the GR III, but some WD-40 took care of that. Before you tell me I’m crazy or are leading you to sabotage your camera, the WD-40 was the Contact Cleaner version. What I can say about it for short term use before selling it is that my camera worked as it did when I first bought it. The reason I have mentioned this at all is because this time I have used gaff tape to patch up the mic holes to (hopefully) mitigate the issue.

Anyway, so far I haven’t been very impressed. This is due to the speed of the camera. I’ve recently been in situations where I would have liked quick shots one after the other. In retrospect I did have the camera in Single (S) mode and not Continuous (C) but even then a newer camera would have performed better. Another thing I have not liked is that the LCD draws me to compose from there though I have the external viewfinder. I can fix this by shutting off the LCD or not using it at all, but it’s still annoying. The last nitpick is that the lens’ aperture has not wide enough to handle certain situations. The camera does have alternative means to make up for that (e.g., high ISO); maybe I need to open up that bracket more when it’s on automatic mode.

The cheers:

  • Mobility. A second challenge this month (from TIG’s The Darkroom) is taking your camera with you every day. This little guy has helped for the most part to achieve that thus far

  • Personalization (MY1-MY3). These profiles are fully customizable and are meant to provide you with the output you desire. For fun, here is my “goal” for each of these,

    • MY1 - Aperture priority in color

    • MY2 - Aperture priority in high contrast B&W

    • MY3 - Snap focus mode in color.

  • Stealth. As part of taking this guy with me, I never get questions about what I’m holding (yet). All that I need know is to get the profiles to their perfect settings to nail the picture each time.

Once I get my profiles down and their look, I will share the “recipes”. Compared to the GR III (and likely the GR IV; I’ve never used one) there is much less customization on the profiles but I’ll still share.

-MVP

The Night Watcher

Miguel Vasquez
Next

Reverting