RICOH GR (18.3mm, f/5, 1/500 sec, ISO4500)
When shooting people the moment matters. One split second later that special expression is gone. Talking pictures of dogs in not different. So to have a fast camera is essential.
There is no time to loose because of poor AF performance. All but the fastest DSLRs fail to capture the special moment because of the lag introduced by the autofocus system.
Today there are two options:
- Shoot with a Canon 1DX or Nikon D4
- turn off AF
The second option is the better idea as it is lot cheaper, the whole setup is much lighter and most important: You do not disturb or scare your subjects. The Ricoh GR does’t have the fastest autofocus on the planet. Especially in poor light, low contrast scenes it can be quite annoying. Even in good light I think the Sony RX100 is a little faster if I remember it right.
Yet it is still one of the fastest cameras thanks to the so called snap focus, which is simply the greatest thing you can think of. Forget about focus peeking and all the things that are only useful if you are shooting landscapes. Snap focus let’s you preset focus by simply guessing the distance. It needs some time to get used to but when you finally did it is hard to get back to autofocus.
The samples also show that the Ricoh GR is not bad at high ISO. First I was a little disappointed with the shot of the Great Dane until I realized that it is an ISO 9.000 shot. ISO 9.000!!! I would not consider to use such an ISO setting but thanks to Auto ISO high the Ricoh decided for me. Now I know that I can use it if it is necessary. I still will always use the lowest ISO possible to get the shot but it’s re-esuring to know what is possible today.
Back to the dogs. There is one thing I do not understand: Dogs seem to enjoy a lot of things in life but sometimes they look so sad.
RICOH GR (18.3mm, f/2.8, 1/320 sec, ISO3200)
RICOH GR (18.3mm, f/2.8, 1/320 sec, ISO4500)
RICOH GR (18.3mm, f/4, 1/320 sec, ISO9000)