The Perils Super 8 Music Vdeo 2020 Rescan
09/08/2020
The original Ricoh Digital Camera, GRD1.
An 8MP Black and White Beast?
After getting a bit trigger happy on Ebay I purchased the Ricoh GRD1 with the 21mm Adaptor. Admittedly I was on the look out the the 16MP Ricoh GR's wide angle lens and thought I was getting an absolute bargain with another GR included.
When the package arrived I realised I had purchased the older 8mp camera from 2005 that I did not actually know existed. To rub salt into the wounds the 21mm lens would not fit on my newer GR.
The GR1 got relegated to the ever growing "probably should sell pile" of cameras.
Having been sitting around for a while I thought I would have a play with the GRD.
With a quick play in the menu I turned on the RAW function and went to shoot. I was met with an 8 to 10 second image buffer. In the instantaneous modern world this 10 second wait is pretty annoying. So much so that I have shot jpeg's 99% of the time since.
As with my GR, I was drawn to the monochrome setting.
The images on the screen looked absolutely horrid.
It wasn't until I uploaded the files onto the computer my thoughts changed.
50mm Adaptor
Film Like Quality?
The early Ricoh GR series are often praised for their film like quality due to the lack of noise filters.
There are whispers on photography forums comparing the GRDs to Kodak Tri-x and ilford 35mm film. I'm not so sure myself but this little 8MP definitely can produce an interesting image.
Ive been shooting at ISO 1600 most of the time, which really does help to push a pleasing digital noise into the image. Although, no doubt, not to everyone's taste.
I'm running a few more exposure and post production tests but I will most likely settle for as much grain as I can get.
21mm Adaptor
Ricoh GRD1 Projects
I like to shoot with different cameras and lenses, often switching systems, it's part of the fun.
Currently the GRD is relegated down the pile and does not receive much action outside the garden, dog walks or trips to the shop. The camera certainly produces a unique image that deserves more attention.
I have a few GRD1 specific projects in the pipe line so will see how the progress.
