Thursday, 15 June 2017

Fujifilm GFX50s watch macro trial & A Ricoh GR disaster!

So the sad news first... my ricoh GR died :( 
the lens assembly is stuck in the forward position and when you press the on switch the lens element moves in and out a little, the back screen flickers and then it all shuts down. 
the technician on the line hearing the issue has said that it likely requires a lens assembly change which costs S$400 :-0 as it is likely dust and moisture have gone in. they've seen similar cases before.  
For other gr users out there, a possible way of reducing this is to mount the GH-3 Adapter and put a filter in front of it. GH-3 Adapter & Hood set goes for about US$49.65 on B&H which is not too bad. Not sure if the SG shops stock it as this is a low vol item.  
so instead of fixing the gr at the high price, another option is to buy a new gr II. this might make more sense as other issues might crop up for the old body and the new one will have the usual 1 year warranty. 
the sad thing is i have other compacts that went through more years of abuse and don't have any problems at all (Canon compacts that have lasted twice as many years and are still fully functional, Fujis, Panasonic LX100 (more use and abuse but working fine) to name some. so to me at least, i view the gr as not having good build quality even though it's an excellent compact camera in other regards, which is sad and likely the reason i won't be getting a gr II which is essentially the GR with wi-fi. 

For my own record and for other gr users who need to get their gr fixed, the number to call is 62739622 (the ricoh/pentax servicing hotline). If you want to drop it off for servicing, go to: 
3791 Jalan Bukit Merah, #07-20 E-Centre @ Redhill, Singapore 159471 (Open Monday to Friday 930-530 and closed 1-2pm for lunch) LINK

On to GFX50S thoughts... the AF isn't the best with the 63mm there's a lot of in and out focusing which is pretty noisy. they should have designed the lens with internal focusing. AF tracking is not strong which is kind of to be expected and the evf is not as good as some others i've seen BUT the image quality (with native lenses so far) is still that bit better than any that i've seen. 

some watch macros i tried out with the 120mm f4 lens. it wasn't fun carrying it to take the shots vs my nikon rig so i may not do it too often. will see. file pixel size wise, we are talking: 
  • RAW size is 8256 * 6192
  • cropped jpg number 1 original size is 5025 * 4020 [all of them will be resized by blogspot to whatever is their max size] - basically what this means is you can print this SUPER HUGE if you felt so inclined and get the details in the print 
  • further crop jpg number 2 size is 2084 * 1667
  • further crop jpg number 3 size is 1029 * 1029
A great reference for sensor difference and 35mm equivalent focal lengths for the GFX lenses is here LINK 

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