Hi everyone!
I actually do not own any Ricoh digital camera YET. My interest with Ricoh and other compacts started with my recent visit to Shanghai, China. I have a Nikon D80 DSLR which I bring along with me everytime I leave home. It has worked for me fine although there were times that I hate to bring it out from my Kata Sensitivty V backpack due to its size. In that trip to China, right at the first day, my D80 conked out with an "ERR" error. No amount of tinkering would revive it so I shot with my camera phone-- a BlackBerry 8900 and iPhone 3G which by the way produces impressive images for a camera phone.
Upon my return home, I resolved to buy a super compact and the Lumix LX3 came to mind. I went to a mall looking for one and I stumbled on the Ricoh GX200. I was immediately impressed with the looks, build, size and the few images I took with it. The EVF also looks cool and very retro! I told the sales lady that I'll go to the other shops and look for the LX3 and if I don't find any, I'll buy the GX200.
There were no LX3 available in any of the shops so I thought of really buying the GX200. Before I returned to the shop, I fired up Safari on my iPhone 3G to read a few reviews about the GX200. I have already heard about it in the past but I did not care to read any articles/reviews about it. The reviews I read were enough to convince me to go for the GX200 (it took me about 20 minutes to download and read reviews via my iPhone's 3G connection).
When I returned to the first shop, somebody else have already bought the single and remaining stock of the GX200! None can be found in the other stores and I was informed that it would take a week before new stocks will arrive.
I returned home empty handed and researched about super compacts that can rival my D80 in terms of manual control. I narrowed my choices between the LX3, GX200 and the new Canon S90. I am leaning towards the GX200 and the S90. GX200 for its ergonomics, features and looks (I know it produces noisy images at ISO400 up but I always PP my images). The S90 for the faster lens (f/2.0), the front dial and smaller size. The S90 is a bit more expensive than the GX200 though.
I then found this forum and I would say I'm sold to the GX200. I would probably have one in the next few days and I'm looking forward to you guys helping me get the most out of it! Thanks and sorry for the long post!
I actually do not own any Ricoh digital camera YET. My interest with Ricoh and other compacts started with my recent visit to Shanghai, China. I have a Nikon D80 DSLR which I bring along with me everytime I leave home. It has worked for me fine although there were times that I hate to bring it out from my Kata Sensitivty V backpack due to its size. In that trip to China, right at the first day, my D80 conked out with an "ERR" error. No amount of tinkering would revive it so I shot with my camera phone-- a BlackBerry 8900 and iPhone 3G which by the way produces impressive images for a camera phone.
Upon my return home, I resolved to buy a super compact and the Lumix LX3 came to mind. I went to a mall looking for one and I stumbled on the Ricoh GX200. I was immediately impressed with the looks, build, size and the few images I took with it. The EVF also looks cool and very retro! I told the sales lady that I'll go to the other shops and look for the LX3 and if I don't find any, I'll buy the GX200.
There were no LX3 available in any of the shops so I thought of really buying the GX200. Before I returned to the shop, I fired up Safari on my iPhone 3G to read a few reviews about the GX200. I have already heard about it in the past but I did not care to read any articles/reviews about it. The reviews I read were enough to convince me to go for the GX200 (it took me about 20 minutes to download and read reviews via my iPhone's 3G connection).
When I returned to the first shop, somebody else have already bought the single and remaining stock of the GX200! None can be found in the other stores and I was informed that it would take a week before new stocks will arrive.
I returned home empty handed and researched about super compacts that can rival my D80 in terms of manual control. I narrowed my choices between the LX3, GX200 and the new Canon S90. I am leaning towards the GX200 and the S90. GX200 for its ergonomics, features and looks (I know it produces noisy images at ISO400 up but I always PP my images). The S90 for the faster lens (f/2.0), the front dial and smaller size. The S90 is a bit more expensive than the GX200 though.
I then found this forum and I would say I'm sold to the GX200. I would probably have one in the next few days and I'm looking forward to you guys helping me get the most out of it! Thanks and sorry for the long post!
But there is something special about Ricohs and it's not only hardware related. Ricoh listen its customers and many of the feature wishes are implemented in future products or even via firmware upgrades (GRD). And of course, there is also a great community of photographers who know Ricoh limitations, who know how to overcome them and live with them.