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New Owner and I need some advice on GX100 accessories

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millsart

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I just picked up a GX100, wow what a camera! I've never bought a compact before as they never really worked for me either in form or function (I have two Canon 1 series bodies and a 5D for what its worth) but the GX100 is really brilliant.

The shutter responce is very very quick for a compact, the sheer number of user controls makes is really quick and easy to use as well. Even has a RAW mode, oh and 24mm eqiv on the wide end is very nice. How people can live with a lens starting at 38mm I dont know lol

Anyways, I'm looking to some accessories and options and would like to know what works well and what doesn't.

I've already got the VF-1, cool item, not as useful as I thought but I bought the camera as a kit and for the money I think it will come in handy enough to be worth having.

CA-1 cable release. This has a two touch shutter and a usb cable. Has anyone had any luck taking it apart and replacing the two touch switch with a normal 3 wire 1/8" jack ? I'd love to be able to plug one of my pocket wizard radio triggers into the camera and use this as a remote camera is places where its small size would really help, such as mounted onto vechicals.

WIde angle adapters, Nikon 16mm in particular. I saw someones shots on Pbase comparing the Ricoh 19mm and the Nikon 16mm WA adapter. Both looked pretty nice and of the two, I'd definatly be intrested in the Nikon as 3mm on the wide end makes a huge difference. Any more info or user accounts about this ?

IR filters, from what I hear, this is a very sensative IR camera. I like the very strong Wratten 87c filters, anyone have luck using them and whats your typical exposure time like ?

Water Housing ? I know theres the GX-1D or whatever its called thats a rebadged Ricoh, but last I checked they didnt' sell it seperatly, HOWEVER, I see you can know buy that camera part of it seperate ($800 or something which is a ripoff but still)

Could the housing alone start being sold seperately soon ? Does anyone else make a water housing ?

Thanks for any advice you can share. I just don't want to waste time and money chasing some foolish ideas/options around if people have already tried them and found they don't work
 
millsart said:
WIde angle adapters, Nikon 16mm in particular. I saw someones
shots on Pbase comparing the Ricoh 19mm and the Nikon 16mm WA
adapter. Both looked pretty nice and of the two, I'd definatly be
intrested in the Nikon as 3mm on the wide end makes a huge
difference. Any more info or user accounts about this ?
Click to expand...
You've probably realised you need the Hood/Adapter set to attach the WA lens to the camera, plus a stepping ring to go from its 43 mm filter thread up to that of the lens - if you can find such a thing!

Other than toying with getting something similar to attach a Minolta ACW100 0.75x so as to get 18mm, I'm staying with the camera "as is".

Glad to hear you're enjoying the camera - and be sure to do the firmware updates! I'm not sure if they have to applied successively, or whether the latest (1.18) includes all the elements of all the previous ones?

Peter

--
Peter - on the green island of Ischia
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde
 
The Nikon is a good lens.I use it on my Olympus c5050.Gives me 24mm equivalent
on the Oly.

On the Ricoh Gx100 the vignetting is too much,effectively you crop out the vignetting and have a 19mm wide angle with more distortion.
On the DPI small sensor forum Praktinafan has shown how he gets round this:-
http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=845

I havent done this as I want to keep on using the lens with my Olympus too.

I will,when i screw up the courage to risk 42 euro, modify the adapter tube.I should be able to remove 3mm or 4mm from the length.After this the

tube will be no good for the regular Ricoh adapter.But at least the nikon lens will be untouched.And the vignetting reduced too.

Praktinafan has some good results from his Nikon WCE.What he did works.
Another result here:-
http://www.pbase.com/viztyger/image/81599982
--
paul
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollobarca/
Gx100.oly C5050z Zorki4
Brendan Behan on bisexuality:

'Well if I had to choose between Michelangelo's David and Whistler's Mother, there'd be no f—in' contest.'
 
1-I took my CA-1 apart and soldered on a 3 wire 1/8" female cord end(with about 3" of cable) then you can use any generic switch cable release. I made up a 25' one works great.

2-the nikon adapter works but needs some mods to get rid of vignetting, theres threads on that, I haven't modded mine yet

3-I've used a Hoya R72 filter(the HA adapter is 43mm, so you need a 43-46 stepup ring) theres a bunch on my flickr site(the early ones, I now use a dedicated IR cam)

4-I emailed Sea&Sea last fall and they said that sometime this year they would have the housing available separately, but that may have changed
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bertreimer
 
Thats exactly the type of info I was looking for.

Certainly seems worth the risk to get those 3 extra mmm on the wide end as its a really big difference and doesn't seem all that difficult. I've got a dremel drill that should work just fine for that (keeps fingers crossed)
 
Great news on all fronts! Being able to fit such a lightweight and compact camera with a wide lens and the ability to be trigged remotely is really going to open some new options for vechical mounting.

Main issue of course when using a larger DSLR body is that it weights so much more and in cornering, the g forces really act upon that added mass to the point where you need some serious mounting hardware, which of course car and bike owners frown upon.

What type of exposures were you getting with your R72 ? My old IR camera was a Nikon 950 which was amazingly sesnative and even worked with a wratten 87c filter. Using a canon DSLR though was rather useless as the exposures were 30+ seconds even in good light and the wind just ruined everything.

I was looking into getting a modded IR camera, maybe a canon rebel, but realistically the amount of IR I shoot just doesn't make it worth spending $500 or so.

If the GX100 has decent sensativity to allow some occasional IR shots it will just be a really sweet bonus to an already cool camera.

I'll keep my fingers crossed on the Sea & Sea as well. They first told me it wasn't going to be availible seperate at all, but that was no doubt to help sell more of their package deals.

Theres so much GX100 owners who would probably buy the housing they would be crazy not to offer it at some point.

If they don't Ikelite etc will probably make one as they make most every other compact housing and really cut into Sea & Sea's niche market
bertalan said:
1-I took my CA-1 apart and soldered on a 3 wire 1/8" female cord
end(with about 3" of cable) then you can use any generic switch cable
release. I made up a 25' one works great.
2-the nikon adapter works but needs some mods to get rid of
vignetting, theres threads on that, I haven't modded mine yet
3-I've used a Hoya R72 filter(the HA adapter is 43mm, so you need a
43-46 stepup ring) theres a bunch on my flickr site(the early ones, I
now use a dedicated IR cam)
4-I emailed Sea&Sea last fall and they said that sometime this year
they would have the housing available separately, but that may have
changed
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bertreimer
Click to expand...
 
I have the Nikon and here's an example of the vignetting without the modification (top street photo) http://antara11.blogspot.com/ In some shots, it would be easy to clone out the corners, others not.

Also have the R72. Its not as fast as my c2100 and there's a thread about covering the AF light when focusing. I haven't had any good shots yet, but haven't done the covering for focus either. Will try some later. The 950 and the c2100 can spoil you for IR.
Have considered converting my G7 to IR if I had the money.
--
Antara
http://antara.smugmug.com
 
Antara wrote:
The 950 and the c2100 can spoil you for IR.
Antara said:
Have considered converting my G7 to IR if I had the money.
--
Antara
http://antara.smugmug.com
Click to expand...
Yeah the 950 was pretty darn amazing when it comes to IR sensativey (and cost as I got mine for like $90 or something)

Problem though is that its only a 2 or 3 megapixel camera so when you try to make some big prints from the images, they sure don't hold up well as a 16x20 lol.

Thanks for the images though, the vingetting really isn't all that bad and could be cloned out easily enough. I'll give it a go with the files though and see what I can manage.

I just picked up the Nikon adapter for $28 so even if I mess it up it won't be the end of the world.

Now I just wish theyre was a full frame fisheye adapter. On my Canon 5D with the fisheye I get that cool 180 degree coverage so if I could only match that I could always leave the heavy DSLR gear at home for traveling
 
Fisheye-
look here:
mamatsuba stuck a Lomo fisheye on his GX100
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmprint/2325794905/

This is a google translation of a Japanese page-he has mounted a russina fisheye on his GX100

http://66.102.9.104/translate_c?hl=it&langpair=ja%7Cen&u=http://www.cmehappy.jp/gx100/gx100_sequel.html

b rgds

--
paul
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollobarca/
Gx100.oly C5050z Zorki4
Brendan Behan on bisexuality:

'Well if I had to choose between Michelangelo's David and Whistler's Mother, there'd be no f—in' contest.'
 
Thank you Willi for providing the how to do :-)

there are some spots towards the corners where it looks kind of smeary. Is that the lens ?
I had difficulties cutting the HA-2 adapter even.
Abrading the 2mm from the Nikon Adapter wasn´t as difficult as i thought
here are two with the nikon WC - E68



 
So the camera uses some sort of focus method different than the typical contrast detection of most camera's I'm taking this to mean ? Focus window your talking about would be those two little boxes next to the grip ? (sorry if its obvious, I've just had it a day lol)

Instead of having to tape over those does it work to just set the camera to infinity focus ?

I know that the IR filter shifts the wavelengths and can throw the AF off a bit, but given the small lens, and typically distant subjects, I would think the DOF would still cover everything ?

Assuming you do cover that focus window, can the camera focus correctly with the filter attached ? On DSLR's you've got to adjust the AF system to account for the IR, but at least on my nikon 950, this never seemed to be an issue.

Now if only B&H wasn't closed til next week for a holiday.......
 
That thread is just priceless, thanks so much!

Thats just crazy that the IR wavelength would change the AF so much, but I guess when dealing with such a small optical path it does make sense.

I'll definatly have some extra little squares of gafferst tape with me to cover that AF window for shooting IR it looks like
 
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