Wan Chai is my second choice for street photography mainly because of the distance from my home. It’s a huge district with more locals and not a whole lot of tourists around. There are street stalls, fresh markets, tram rail and of course nonetheless the interesting old faces.
All the attention goes to him.
Street Cheese Battle outside of a restaurant
Candy tasting in the hood.
The Real Estate man.
There’s still more to explore in the district. I hope I visit there again during a day.
Some described the Ricoh GRD as a photographic sketchbook. I don’t disagree. It’s a camera that has all the controls that a pro would use, just the sensor and quality can’t compare to the DSLR. But how bad can a GRD IV be? I’ve always asked.
Right. A compact point & shoot can never match up with the mirrorless and DSLR in terms of control and quality. I won’t say further as there’re tons of reviews, impressions, field test reports out there, you could read it all you want. I’m not here to persuade anyone to go out and get a compact camera. I’m only showcasing what accessories Ricoh are offering for their GRD series.
Ricoh has been very smart when it comes to releasing accessories. The wide angle conversion to change from 28mm to 21mm requires 2 components that we need to buy , GH-2 adapter & GW-2 wide angle conversion lens. They both bear a heavy price tag even though a price reduction can be done if you find the right shop. The conversion can actually make your camera very useable in real life practices. I’m saying if you go travel and don’t want to carry heavy equipments. This is the best possible setup you could shoot ultra wide angle photos with.
The wide angle lens adds about 150g to the camera. Making it front heavy (i’m getting used to it though. Not really affecting during my actual shoot. Only awkward when holding at rest). The rubber lens hood is really made out of rubber. It’s elastic rubber!! Some people complain about it. I understood the reason behind why they make it as such. The adapter is doing a great job attaching the GW-2 lens to the camera body. It’s just that the adapter mount is external, meaning in short, it can’t take a huge hit like all the outer interchangeable lens mount. The rubber petal hood was designed when it’s taking a hit, the rubber can both protect the lens’ front glass and take out some of the impact to the GH-2 external adapter mount. That’s my own observation. 🙂
To complete the 21mm conversion, I paid for a Voigtlander 21/25mm OVF..why the Voigtlander? it’s cheaper than the Ricoh GV-1. I love their logo anyway
The OVF is accurate. Absolutely a must-have for landscape photography which I still do from time to time.
Tonight I brought this setup with me and tested it out at night. It’s a harsh test for a compact camera to shoot at night by any means. I attempted to push the camera to the limit to see what this thing can do with my limited skill and experience. I’ve seen great photography being done by many folks on Flickr with the GRD IV. I’m a believer. It’s the skill that makes a photographer good, not entirely the gear.
ISO 250, f8, 3.0s
ISO 125, f6.3, 3.0s
Seriously, I think they’re great although I don’t know how i’m doing. They’re perfectly fine if you don’t try to zoom in too much. SOOC colors were slightly washed out from the original standard image setting. Only minor contracts, white/black points and midtones had been adjusted.
I’m convinced that my GRD IV can do great photography to the extend which I thought it’s not possible until I spent time with it (other than my routine candid shooting).
Plus, it gets me excited to customize the GRD. It’s A TOY to me. So damn fun.
P.S. It’s an extremely windy day. Almost thought the typhoon was striking HK…those were hard earned photos.
Update:
Continue to Push to The Limit with Ricoh GRD IV + GW-2: Episode II – Tamar CGC
The Japanese camera maker Fujifilm has released a black version of Finepix X100. It’s drooling just to see the front body. The silver metal matte shine has become the black chrome. The expensive price tag HKD $14,XXX is probably going to scare people away. While the original metal color one costs around HKD $9,XXX, an extra HKD $5,000 for the black chrome body and the leather case, black hood and etc..
I’m not regret about my X100. I like mine better than the black version not because of the price. The silver metal looks so retro.
å p i n h ø n g k ø n g 