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News: Official 2.a.m LA Time! Ricoh GR DIGITAL III, evolution of a gem!

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I believe that like the Canon G10, the Ricoh GRI, GRII and GRII series of cameras are professional tools with great potential. So I will be collecting from wherever I can practical details on the new compact camera, emphasizing features of interest to pros. I try to give sources where I can and to format the text in a readable way.

The GRIII is no longer a rumor!

This may compete favorably with the G10 as the camera that must go with you always! Ricoh has a good reputation for fine lenses and hopefully the new f1.9 lens in the GIII lives up to this expectation.

ricoh-grd3.jpg


Photorumors.com Is this essentially the same body but for the new f1.9 lens?

I am too tired to wait till 2 am, the official Ricoh release time for this, so please forgive me jumping the gun!

The ever-evolving Ricoh digital has improved, not in MP count, it still comes in with 10 MP, it however has an improved CCD, a new 28mm f 1.9 lens and a freshly minted image processing engine, "RNGINE III proves to give sharper image with more details even in high ISO as well as keeping amazingly crispy and brilliant result in low ISO range too".

The failure to join a pointless MP race and focus on improving the imaqing experience and customization, bodes well fro this camera and the Ricoh brand.

4 am L.A. time for the Ricoh website will have more info. So after that time go here for the official details.

Congrats! Waiting to get my hands on one! :)

Asher

21 mm conversion lens and external flash too expected. more news later!
 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
New Details from the Amateur Photographer, pending appearance of Ricoh's announcement page on their own website:

RAW Shooting speed: Ricoh says that continuous shooting of five, raw format, frames per second is possible, adding that this 'rivals popular SLRs'. The Raw file write speed is '2.6sec or less', according to Ricoh, faster than the 3.8sec speed on the GR Digital II.

Custom Settings: "The camera also adds a 'vivid' setting and the ability to customise colour parameters. For each colour (orange, green, sky blue, red and magenta), hue and saturation can be set at five levels,' said the firm. This enables you to change to the desired colouration; for example a stronger blue to give a more brilliant sky or flower colour tones with a little less magenta.""The number of My Settings modes has been increased from two to three, and this coupled with the addition of a 'My Settings Box' should enable greater customisation."

New Fast f 1.9 lens, 28mm equivalent: A new floating mechanism in the 28mm lens aims to improve macro image quality (closest focusing is 1cm, says Ricoh).

White Balance:And a new multi-pattern auto white balance system segregates light and dark areas of the image to 'optimise' the white balance setting for each area, instead of using an average setting for the whole image.

Shutter speed priority: has also been added, as has a 3in LCD screen carrying a resolution of 920,000 dots.

Expanded Dynamic Range with two successive shots:New to the GR range is Ricoh's dynamic range double shot function. This enables the user to expand the range to 12EV, to help reduce under or over exposure.

21mm Wide conversion Lens: To coincide with the launch of the GR Digital III (in mid to late August), Ricoh will launch a new '21mm' wide conversion lens, the GW-2, at a price yet to be announced, source.



Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The New Ricoh 28mm (35mm terms) f 1.9 lens!

There's more information on this new bright lens gleaned from Ricoh which will serve us until we get a camera to review! Ricoh has even been prized for the grain characteristics at high ISO for perhaps some emotional connection to black and white film images taken with Kodak TriX, where an artifact is taken as a mark of artistry!

With the stated upper ISO setting of 1600, a new imaging engine and this open lens, we should have put away some or all of that graininess of Ricoh images at ISO 400.

po1_p4.jpg


Ricoh f1.9 lens 8 elements in
6 groups (aspheric lens: 2 elements and 2 surfaces)

So how was this lens able to control the various types of aberrations that increase as the aperture increases? While maintaining a basic configuration optimized for thin storage, frame aberration was reduced by adding two elements in one group to the rear. In addition, three special low-dispersion lenses were used to achieve high resolution and contrast while minimizing color aberration. The use of two high-precision aspherical lenses made distortion almost unnoticeable. In order to create this ultra-high-precision and high-performance lens, highly precise manufacturing processes and an exclusive control system were newly developed. It was dedication and tenacity that gave birth to this jewel of a lens. Source

po1_p5.gif

Freedom from ghosts. Superior backlight performance

Ghosting is one of the causes of image quality deterioration. To eliminate the problem, all of the individual lenses that are part of the GR Lens have been covered with the multi-coating optimum for each. To minimize the small residual reflection striking the CCD, we also ran original simulations repeatedly to determine optimum conditions for lens curvature, etc. As a result, we successfully suppressed ghosting, particularly that caused by off-screen light sources such as the sun. Source

Interesting new Auto WB feature for mixed light! :Multi-pattern auto white balance"
"In scenes mixing multiple light sources—such as sunlight and shadow, ambient light and flash—the optimum white balance of each is determined by segmenting the image. For both subject and background, you get well-balanced coloration closer to what you saw while shooting."
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Skew Correction Technology

Trapezoid images of such items as whiteboards, documents, or schedules shot at an angle with a camera can be automatically corrected so that the images appear as if they were shot from the front. This skew correction technology is highly effective in business environments where it is not possible to shoot whiteboards, overhead projectors, schedules, signboards, etc. from the front.
Principle of Skew Correction

When an object is shot at an angle, and not from the front, as shown in Figure 1 (a), the line AC of a rectangle is longer than the line BD, which is further from the camera, as shown in Figure 1 (b). Therefore, the image of the rectangle is distorted to a trapezoid ABCD. Applying the skew correction technology, the distorted trapezoid image is automatically corrected to the rectangle A'B'C'D', which looks as if it were shot from the front, as shown in Figure 1 (c).

015_1a.gif
015_1b.gif
015_1c.gif


(a) Shot at an angle (b) Distorted imagem (c) Corrected image
Figure 1: Skew image correction​

Application Examples of Skew Correction Technology

The distorted trapezoid image of a rectangle can be recognized automatically and corrected in the camera, so that it appears as if it were shot from the front. Image files saved in the camera can be corrected too. The skew correction technology is highly effective in environments where whiteboards, schedules, large signboards, etc. cannot be shot from the front, making text on them easier to read. This technology is also useful for shooting paintings or landscapes that include large buildings.

Practical Skew Correction Technology

The skew correction technology automatically corrects images without the user having to designate the four corners of the trapezoid. Advanced corner recognition technology is the key. With Ricoh's recognition algorithm, even if some corners do not appear in the image, corner coordinates can be estimated from the straight lines of the trapezoid. Processing time of corner detection and image transformation in a camera is suitable for practical use.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
DPreview has posted the general specs of the camera herehttp://www.dpreview.com/news/0907/09072701ricohgr3.asp?from=rss.

It looks like a nice step forward for this little camera, far more so than for Sigma's DP2.

Personally I've sworn off any more little, fixed-lens cameras for the foreseeable future. I'm clam-happy with the G10, D-Lux3, and the little Sony WC300 and have no desire to even look at a Ricoh camera.

But y'all have fun.
Hi Ken,

Just for landscapes, it's likely better than the G10, especially as it has a sequential DR extension with two sequential shots. The single purpose new Ricoh lens is also likely to perform better. How much better? We'll have to see.

Asher
 
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