ingemar_ragnemalm

Maybe beside the point, but Ricoh announced two new models yesterday, the R1 and the RZ1. They replace the RX, have 4 Mp and are even smaller (25 mm!). The R1 is a long-zoom model (4.8x) while RZ1 is flatter and thereby even more pocketable.

 

I suppose the successor to GX will arrive some time during the autumn. I really hope there will be one (or several). The concept is great, but I believe they can improve it a little bit more, with better movie resolution and better image quality.

I am sure that I have seen the TIFF problem mentioned before, somewhere, and that there was a solution, but I can't find it. So don't give up. Maybe some other program can convert the file? I would try GraphicsConverter to begin with. (My G5 came with GC installed, so maybe your Mac did too.)

One second to focus in poor light, is that without the focus-helping flash?

 

It seems we have a few speed issues: Focusing in poor light, charging flash and writing to the SD card. Writing is solved in my book; buy a fast card. If focusing is fast with the focusing-flash, it is fine with me, but is it?

 

How is focusing in very poor light? According to a review of G4wide (a very detailed review, but written in norwegian so most of you can't read it), it is very good at finding focus in poor light, outperforming Canon A80 by several times. In "High sensitivity" mode it can focus in 2 lux, with no AF assist! Canon A80 and Casio QV-R41 need 7 lux in wide, much more in tele. 7 lux is considered very good! So G4wide is a winner there by a wide margin. Is GX, too? (I assume that focusing in that poor light takes time.)

 

Personally, I have more or less decided to buy a GX, as sson as I can find a way to handle order and payment. I need a small and fast camera to complement my big and slow 750. I would appriciate the fast flash charging that my old Kodak DC280 has, though.

Amazing! So a GX with a fast SD might, after all, be the hot pick that it first seemed. I thought it was very honest of Ricoh to admit that the camera was too slow for fast SD's, but being honest about misconceptions is, well...

 

So, avoid "fine", at least in full res, use red-eye flash in low light for better focusing, use fast SD... That should be enough to get started. :-)

Thanks for the updated information! It seems "fine" mode really is best avoided.

 

Concerning fast SD cards, Ricoh support states that they will not help.

 

"Normal" mode is 5 Mpix but more compression, right? What is the delay then? And what happens in 3 Mpix mode?

So... cycle time of 1.3 seconds or 20 seconds? Or in-between? Are those 20 seconds possibly for TIFF files? Or is it a matter of charging the flash (which was suggested on DPReview)? Slow flash charging is quite annoying, but if that is the problem, then it would at least leave the outdoor photography fast.

 

What about startup time to first shot with flash?

 

Maybe one can improve the cycle time by shooting 3 Mpixel images? That is quite enough most of the time, and especially when capturing moments, which is what I'd get a fast camera for. I still consider an RX or G4/G4wide, they have resolution enough, but the GX has a bigger buffer (right?) so it should be faster shot-to-shot.