Ricoh GX100 arrival, couple of snap-shots..

The Ricoh GX100 arrived yesterday after some struggle with the spanish customs, but it´s finally here. Haven´t had much time to play with it, but after only 24 hours toghether I allready have strong feelings..

 

RicohGX100, f2.5, 1/9, 5,1mm, iso200, B&W JPEG Processed in PS

 The GX100 is a bit bigger than the LX2, and ergonomically it is a charm. It is fairly better to handle and fits (my) hand like a glove. The overall construction and finish of the camera is of very high quality and the control layout is as clever as it could be..Much had I read about this camera, but as good as I knew the controls were, one thing is reading about them and another thing is to actually use tha camera..

 

RicohGX100, f3,6, 1/540, 5,1mm, iso80, B&W JPEG Unprocessed

 The camera has a number of highly customizable buttons and controls that make shooting with it real joy. There is one button in particular, the “function” button, that you can personalize and assign any custom option you want. I inmediately assigned exposure lock to it. The GX100 has a feature that I really like and find really usefull for street shooting in difficult light conditions:spot-metering. Using the spot meter in aperture priority toghether with the exposure lock button makes this camera as easy and fast to use as it could be..This is actually the way I have allways used my DSLR´s..Fun!!

 

RicohGX100, f5.7, 1/1410, 5,1mm, iso80, B&W JPEG Unprocessed

Having 24mm on the wide end is something to wellcome but it will take a bit to get used to the 4:3 aspect ratio, I´m spoiled by 16:9 😉

 

RicohGX100, f4.6, 1/760, 5,1mm, iso80, B&W JPEG Unprocessed

 Just a couple of quick snaps-shots frm the GX100 today, nearly all unprocessed..hope this puts me back in track and I can start being a bit more constant!!

 

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Human versus Natura

Panasonic LX2, f4.5, 1/1300, 6,3mm, iso100, B&W JPEG, Cropped to 1:1 & Processed in PS

“..Humans want peace, brotherhood and welfare, that is not the case with nature; nature wants discord, confrontation and blood…”

  Friedrich Nietzsche

 

Unfortunately it has been impossible to keep up this week..Meetings, running and the unexpected have kept me running like mad all week, while the very little nature that still surround us has been still, silently watching my moves, shaking her laves with incomprehension..

Though I nearly never crop my images, today I felt the urge to do so with this one. It´s the first time ever , if I recall correctly, I have produced a square image, a format that I find difficult and that has remained untameable..

Wish you all good light while I try to climb in a beam of it (to continue rushing..)

Best, Erik.

 

 

 

First Love

Panasonic LX2, f2.8, 1/320, 6,3mm, iso100, B&W JPEG, Processed in PS

Who has never written his or her name besides another in stone or carved a heart in wood in the deep belief that it would be forever…?

 

 

Knocking on heaven´s door..

Panasonic LX2, f2.8, 1/30, 6,3mm, iso800, B&W JPEG Processed in PS

Back to my LX2… Shot handheld in quite low light,(plus I was trying to focus with the lens as close as possible to the fence), so much that I couldn´t get the camera to focus (it´s the first time I encountered this problem), so I manual focused this one. The panny has a nice way of enabling you to manual focus: Toghether with the focus scale (in meters or feet and that is also a very clever DOF indicator), you get an enlargement of the screen for critical focus, but there are two types of MF assist:

 

• The center area of the picture is enlarged, so you can focus considering the overall composition of the picture:

 

Use the joystick up/down positions for focusing, (see DOF indicator in the bar)

• The whole picture is enlarged, so you can fully zoom on just a portion of the image to ensure critical focus.

 

In both cases, the selected focus area can be shifted in any direction so you can choose which point of the overall image you wish to place your focus in:

Use the 4 way controller to move the focus area to any wished point in the image

 

Needless to say that the MF assist can be completely turned off to make composition easier. All in all, a very nice and straightforward way of using manual focus, in my opinion. The DOF bar is really cool, and considering the enormeous depth of field this camera produces, it really speeds things up when shooting in the street. A real joy!!

 

 

Mercy & Let there be light..

MERCY

Panasonic LX2, f7.1, 1/1300, 6,3mm, iso100, B&W JPEG, cropped and processed in PS

 

LET THERE BE LIGHT..

Panasonic LX2, f6.3, 1/500, 10mm, iso100, B&W JPEG Processed in PS

 

 

Jogging in the base..

    Panasonic LX2 & Nikon WC-E68 wideangle converter (0.65x), f6.3, 1/1300, 6,3mm, iso100.            RAW Developed in LightRoom & Processed in PS

I was reqested to visit a ship in the naval base today in order to prepare a virtual tour of it for an upcoming exhibition on naval history in the musuem of science and technology. I arrived early and had a bit of spear time, and guess who was there with me..? Yes, you´re right, the famous Nikon WC-E68 wideangle converter!!

The marines were still jogging around the base so I tried to include them in the composition to try and do a (very) loose enviromental portrait including the huge bronze propeller in the foreground. The equivalent field of view is about 19mm. For those that are interested in knowing about the Nikon converter and particularly about it´s pairing with the LX2, I need a bit more time to get used to it. Wide angle photography is not free of it´s complexities. I find it challenging to  compose images with wild perspectives. Everything seems sooo far away if you are not carefull..But as a preview I can definetely say that vignetting is simply inexistent. Nada, nothing, zip, rien, niente..Fantastic!! And the other great concern I had, considering the impressive chunk of glass this is was flare. At first sight it seems very resistant (though as you can see in today´s image it´s not absent, but hey, this is an ultrawide!!). It´s still to soon to draw conclusions but I am quite happy with the first samples. Regarding image quality I still can´t comment. More in the upcoming review..

Now as another novelty, you might have noticed I shot this image in RAW. I am forcing myself to do so and comparing the results with the JPEG´s of the camera. Considerations:

• The first result of RAW shooting is that this image nearly ended up being a colour one…   🙂 
• I still end up in Photoshop doing plenty of the usual stuff..
• As usual I ended up with a very satisfaying image from the JPEG file , but the amount of highlight data in the RAW file allows for further recovery. Really a visible advantage for RAW.
• First real drawback to RAW shooting: the amount of post-processing time invested for the final image increases by about 70-80%…This may be due to my lack of experience with LightRoom, which is by the way a lovely (and complex) editing tool.
• Second drawback to RAW shooting: The LX2 RAW file is an impressive 20Mb!!! roughly ten times bigger than the JPEG. Definetely not something that encourages RAW shooting..

Today´s image is probably not the best candidate for RAW shooting, as it´s definetely not about tonality or textures and has a very high contrast. I have a feeling that RAW will be advantegous in certain circumstances but I don´t think I will end up being a RAW only kind of guy.Time will tell..

          Have a nice day!!

 

 

The chemical illusion.

Panasonic LX2, f7.1, 1/1300, 6,3mm, iso100, B&W JPEG Processed in PS

They say there is a scientific explanation for every phenomena in life. Fraternal love has a biological origin. Nothing more than a natural conditioning factor to ensure the perpetuation of the species. Now go and tell a father that his unconditional love is nothing but a part of the perfect plan of life, and that he is just an obedient pawn on the great chessboard of mother nature..

But if that is so, then love, together with hatred, compassion and all the other human passions, are nothing but  chemical illusions, only good for the pens of the poets. There is evil and good in every being. And if that is so, then crime, genocide and abuse can also be explained under the optic of the biological conditioning for the survival of the stronger individuals. I believe that in the steep ascent of the human species, we have achieved great goals, conquered a higher level of conscience and soul that should allow us to admit that some things simply escape our understanding.

Now try to express it with a mathematical formula, or explain it by watching the esence of life through a microscope, but the truth is that a little girl will allways find a warm place in the loving arms of her daddy..

 

 

Stranger

Panasonic LX2, f8, 1/400, 25.2mm, iso100, Colour JPEG Processed in PS

 

 

Step into the light

Panasonic LX2, f3.6, 1/20, 6,3mm, iso800, B&W JPEG Processed in PS

 

 

Playing with the light..

For those of you who dared calling my “photographic crap” weird things such as “inspirational”….Here I come!!

PanasonicLX2, f4.9, 1/20, 25,2mm, iso400, B&W JPEG, Processed in PS

PanasonicLX2, f4.5, 1/25, 11,6mm, iso400, B&W JPEG, Processed in PS

PanasonicLX2, f4.5, 1/6, 18mm, iso200, Colour JPEG, Processed in PS

I had a vertical day..