Small Street shooter- Ricoh GR Digital III, thoughts? experiances?

hey gang, so heres the deal.

im a Los angeles based street photographer, and have been running into an issue lately

my Nikon D7000 with battery grip and 20mm lens is a bit heavy, and a bit too noticeable for the kind of street shooting I love to do

and im a few thousand dollars short of a Leica M9 and a few lenses

SO

having searched the interwebs incessantly for a small, fast, usable solution

I stumbled upon the Ricoh GR digital III

28mm equivelant lens, 1.9 max aperture, additional viewfinder so i dont have to use the screen

sadly though, i have hit a brick wall when it comes to finding a really in depth review, so i was wondering, if yall had any thoughts or alternative suggestions for a pocketable Street photographers solution.

also, for anyone else based in Los Angeles, know of any place i can get my hands on one before I commit to purchasing it?

and just to show what style of street shooting I do, heres a link to my street album on Flickr
Schaefer Street Shooting

Cheers!

Daniel Schaefer

The best camera for your work is the GXR with the 28mm lens. It's discrete, silent and the sensor and lens are matched to each other and superb. I have the GXR with the 50 mm macro and would highly recommend the GXR. I also happen to have the 24-70mm too. The 50 is the one used for everything.

I'm going to get the 28mm lens unit shortly if I can find t without the body.

Asher

@asher

is the Gxr Pocketable? it looks a tad beefy to me, and Ideally, i would like something that could fit discretely in a blazer pocket or jean front pocket with relatively little bulk.

Daniel

The GRD3 is a super street camera. You can set it up to shoot fast and use a 28mm clip on finder to get accurate enough framing. I think you can also get an evf, but I prefer optical finders.

Another alternative wuold be a gx100 or gx200. These have zoom lenses (24 to 72 equivalent) but you can set to step zoom and use custom settings (selectable by a mode wheel with no need for menus) to select your preferred focal length. I has both in sequence and tended to use 35mm with a clip on optical viewfinder.

Both gx and gr series (as well as gxr) share a common control layout that is as good as I've seen in a digicam. They are all small sensor cameras and so will give you a specific look.

Sean Reid has some good writeups of these cameras from a while ago - his is a pay site, but not too expensive - that are very detailed and also cover how he worked with them.

Also, Mitch Alland has written quite a lot a about the GRd series on Rangefinder Forum and The Online Photographer. Well worth looking up.

I miss my gx having left it on a train. My wife's LX5 is good, but not as fluid to me and sometimes I don't want to carry even a rangefinder or I want the small sensor look.

None of this is about image quality as much as quality images

Mike


Some samples

and a few more! in colour

@ mike, great shots! this camera just keeps seeming better and better!

one question though, does it have that tedious shutter delay like most point and shoots?

Daniel Schaefer said:

@ mike, great shots! this camera just keeps seeming better and better!

one question though, does it have that tedious shutter delay like most point and shoots?

Click to expand...

If you set it up right the shutter delay is better than most other P&S cameras I've used. Either manual focus (or hyperfocal snap setting) is quickest. Of course, manual exposure speeds it a little further. The other thing the Ricoh's do convincingly is let you shoot quickly with a 'guestimate' focus rather than do a full af operation every time. Again, Sean reid has some good consolidated info o this. None of this to say it's as quick as a high end dslr, but it works fine in real life use.

Glad you like the pics. As you can see, some were grabbed and needed a quick shutter response.

Mike

Seems like A fantastic camera!

I'd still like to get my hands on it pre purchase, sadly I can't seem to find one in the Los Angeles area

Anyone know a camera shop In the LA area that has one?

I struck out at Samys Hollywood and Calumet