Just got back from a four week trip to China, along the Silk Road. GR-D did well in some punishing conditions. It's hot, dry and dusty on the edge of the Taklamakan desert. Sunny days with strong light and dark shadows really pushed the range of the sensor. The lens is difficult to clean; there's nowhere for the dust and grime to go but back into the lens assembly. Using the adapter and a filter to protect the lens is an option but that would mean a bigger case or carry/hold it all day and juggle your cameras - I chose to carry my 35mm film camera and keep the GR ready on the hip. On day 3 in Shanghai the adjust button became unstable and then after about 2 weeks it failed completely - when the wheel was pressed GR would slow down and lock-up until turned off and restarted. This wiped out quick adjustments to WB/image set/iso - not such a big problem shooting B/W outside in sunny weather, but a bit of a hassle after the sun goes down and in the city. Missed a few moments but managed limp home. Also found some dead pixels and three noticeable spots/smudges on the sensor. Only used the 21mm adapter a few times, again, because it makes GR too big for the case on your belt and it's a bit of a pain putting on and taking off while you're walking around. If you use the GR as your main camera then the adapter might be an option but since I was shooting film as well I had to keep things pretty tight. Same goes for the viewfinder, which wasn't used at all! Still feels a bit weird framing with the monitor but it's so quick and it opens up so many possibilities/angles that just wouldn't happen with a film camera. The grid display is also very useful in certain situations, 'Snap' focus is excellent.
Found that GR will overexpose most 'point and shoot' street shots no matter what metering is used. -1/3 to -1 exp was almost always dialed in...seems that with digital it's a choice between blown highlights or no detail in the shadows. By the end of the trip, because of the harsh lighting, I'd set the metering to 'multiple' adjusting exposure with the zoom button; it gave the best 'average' metering. Being able to quickly shift between colour and B/W is also a great feature. Ended up taking a lot of B/W - don't have to worry about WB + overexposed highlights don't look so bad and the heavy grain at iso400 also doesn't look too bad in B/W. 28mm+no mirror+tiny shutter and solid in-the-hand feel means that iso64 is possible down to about 1/10 of a second. Using RAW on the street isn't for me so I only used jpeg files. I've read quite a bit about 'sharpening' (but still don't really get it) so I shot in 'normal' image-setting thinking that I'd work on them later. The files look okay as they are - no sharpening was applied to these images so they might look a bit soft/natural. I used photoshop to adjust exposure on a few images; these have 'level' or 'exp' in the file name. I tended to underexpose in-camera. On the whole I'm pretty happy with the results though I haven't made any prints yet. Despite a few problems, this is a wonderful digital camera to have.
Here's the China album: http://horic.zenfolio.com/ (free trial account)
Images in this gallery have been resized to 7 inches on the long side @ 100dpi.
the Uyghur people have a rich culture and are the majority 'minority' people in Xinjiang. They are beautiful people with very special sense of humor. Yak-met
Horic
Found that GR will overexpose most 'point and shoot' street shots no matter what metering is used. -1/3 to -1 exp was almost always dialed in...seems that with digital it's a choice between blown highlights or no detail in the shadows. By the end of the trip, because of the harsh lighting, I'd set the metering to 'multiple' adjusting exposure with the zoom button; it gave the best 'average' metering. Being able to quickly shift between colour and B/W is also a great feature. Ended up taking a lot of B/W - don't have to worry about WB + overexposed highlights don't look so bad and the heavy grain at iso400 also doesn't look too bad in B/W. 28mm+no mirror+tiny shutter and solid in-the-hand feel means that iso64 is possible down to about 1/10 of a second. Using RAW on the street isn't for me so I only used jpeg files. I've read quite a bit about 'sharpening' (but still don't really get it) so I shot in 'normal' image-setting thinking that I'd work on them later. The files look okay as they are - no sharpening was applied to these images so they might look a bit soft/natural. I used photoshop to adjust exposure on a few images; these have 'level' or 'exp' in the file name. I tended to underexpose in-camera. On the whole I'm pretty happy with the results though I haven't made any prints yet. Despite a few problems, this is a wonderful digital camera to have.
Here's the China album: http://horic.zenfolio.com/ (free trial account)
Images in this gallery have been resized to 7 inches on the long side @ 100dpi.
the Uyghur people have a rich culture and are the majority 'minority' people in Xinjiang. They are beautiful people with very special sense of humor. Yak-met
Horic
?) This had nothing to do with my choice. Zen just seems to have a nicer viewer interface. Also, I'd rather be zen than smug