Ricoh GR Digital II Review
Review Date: April 30th 2008
Author: Mark Goldstein
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 10M (3648 x 2736 pixels) Fine JPEG setting,
which gives an average image size of around 3.5Mb.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available
on the Ricoh GR Digital II which you can select
when the camera is in the Program or creative shooting modes. There is no
discernible noise at the slowest settings
of ISO 80 and 100, as you would expect, and ISO 200 also
looks pretty good. There is some quite obvious noise at ISO
400 though, and by ISO 800 it is very obvious, together with high
blurring of
detail.
ISO
1600 is in my opinion virtually unusable, looking good on
the spec sheet, but terrible in reality. Here are some 100%
crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
File Quality
The Ricoh GR Digital II has 2 different JPEG image quality settings available, with
Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100%
crops which show the quality of the various options, with
the file size shown in brackets.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have
been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand
image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the
camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening
setting of Normal. You can change the in-camera sharpening
level to one of the preset levels (Sharp, Normal or Soft)
if you don't like the default look.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Ricoh GR Digital II handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review,
with very small levels of purple fringing
mainly present
around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations,
as shown in the examples below.
Macro
The Ricoh GR Digital II offers a Macro
setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is just
1.5cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle.
The first image shows how close you can get to the subject
(in this case a compact flash card). The second image is
a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Ricoh GR Digital II are Off, Auto, Flash On, Red-eye Flash, and Flash Synchro. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken
at a distance of 1.5m.
And here are some shots of yours truly.
Both the Flash On setting and the Red-Eye
Reduction option caused a tiny amount of red-eye.
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Flash
On (100% Crop) |
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Flash
- Red-Eye Flash (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Ricoh GR Digital II's maximum shutter
speed is 180 seconds, which is excellent news if you're seriously
interested in night photography. The shot below was taken
using a shutter speed of 15 seconds, aperture of f/5
at ISO 80. I've included a 100% Crop of the image to show
what the quality is like.
|
Night
Shot (100% Crop) |
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Overall Image Quality
The Ricoh GR Digital II's image quality
is good. The Ricoh GR Digital II's main drawback
in terms of image quality is noise, with ISO 400 showing
obvious
noise and blurring of detail. The noise gets progressively
worse as you go from ISO 400 to ISO 800 and finally the completely
unusable 1600 setting. The Ricoh GR Digital II handled
chromatic
aberrations very well
indeed
with
limited
purple
fringing
effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 10
megapixel images
were just a little soft straight out of the camera at the
default sharpen setting of Normal. The night photograph
was very good, with the maximum shutter speed of 180 seconds
allowing you to capture as much light as you need for the
majority of after-dark situations. Note that the camera takes
the same amount of time to process the shot as the shutter speed set e.g.
30 seconds processing time for a 30 second exposure, so 60
seconds
in
total. Macro
performance is also a stand-out highlight, allowing you
to focus as close
as
1.5cms away from the subject, although there is lens
distortion and shadowing at such a close distance. The built-in flash worked quite well indoors,
with little red-eye, fairly good range and pleasing overall exposure.
Overall, a good performance that is only let down by the
noise levels at ISO 400 and above.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Ricoh GR Digital II have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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