Overview of Questions | Answers

On this page, I collect some questions regarding the Ricoh GXR and its units, except for the M-mount expansion unit, which is covered on an extra page. For the convenience of the readers, some questions may be redundant with items listed on my experience and characteristics pages.

 

Overview of Questions

 

Answers

How many camera units have been issued so far, how many have been announced, will there be third-party units?

The Ricoh GXR was announced and released with two camera units from Ricoh in November 2009:

A12 50 camera unit   S10 camera unit
GR Lens A12 50mm equiv. F2.5 MACRO   Ricoh Lens S10 24-72mm equiv. F2.5-4.4 VC

In March 2010, Ricoh announced two more camera units:

A12 28 camera unit   P10 camera unit
GR Lens A12 28mm equiv. F2.5   Ricoh Lens P10 28-300mm equiv. F3.5-5.6 VC

On May 7, 2010, the availability of the P10 was announced (I received mine in mid-June 2010). The A12-28 was officially announced at Photokina in September 2010 and became (more or less) available in November 2010 (I received mine in mid-November 2010).

For 2011, an M-mount expansion unit and a 24-85 APS-C zoom were - more or less - announced (Ricoh published a module roadmap at Photokina 2010). The M-mount unit was officially announced in August 2011 and released on September 9, 2011 (I received mine in mid-October, but it had to be exchanged for another one). The 24-85mm equiv. APS-C zoom was announced by the end of November, 2011, but actually appeared in a roadmap only. Officially, it was announced at the beginning of February 2012, and I received my sample on March 23, 2012.

M mount expansion unit  
    
A12 M-mount expansion unit   Ricoh Lens APS-C 24-85mm equiv.

At different consumer shows, Ricoh demonstrated also concept prototypes of non-camera GXR units that could be developed for the system. The eight mockups, first shown at the CP+ show in Japan in March 2010, include a GPS unit, a wireless kit for underwater photography, storage, and projector units. The company says it will first focus on producing camera units but wants to demonstrate the potential of the system.

Photo and text from dpreview.com, adapted

Are there different settings for the units and how can these be realized?

The GXR allows to store separate settings for different units. This has to be defined in the Setup menu:

There is no information from Ricoh concerning, which settings are stored for the units. There is also no information concerning the difference between the two settings "Camera Unit" and "Body" in the Setup menu.

For my experiments regarding the settings, see Individual Settings for the Units

What about the 1/1000 sec shutter speed limitation at wide apertures?

In a thread in the Ricoh forum at dpreview.com from January 2010, among others, the shutter speed limitation of 1/1000 sec at f2.5 for the A12-50 module was discussed. This limitation was attributed to the use of a leaf shutter in the A12-50 module. Here is a list of apertures/shutter speeds limits for A12-50 (from Pavel Kudrys):

The A12-28 module seems to have the same limitations. In addition, the S10 module has a similar set of limitations even though it does not use a leaf shutter.

According to barjohn, "the wider the aperture the greater the travel distance each leaf has to make and that is the limiting factor. As you stop down the leaves don't have to travel as far for a given speed to be achieved." This was confirmed by other posters.

benaparis wrote: "Leaf shutter are not designed to have fast speed shutter, if you look at medium format lenses with leaf shutter and lenses for 4x5" and more you will notice that they are not faster... (Some new Phase One leaf shutter lenses allows 1/1600.) It is a choice made by Ricoh, and I agree on that, it as two benefits and a third one:

  1. It is silent... It would have been a huge drawback for me if if the GXR was not as silent as it is...It makes less noise than my Leica MP (which is limited a 1/1000 whatever the aperture chosen but it is not a leaf shutter), that is to say.
  2. It allows you two make very low speed pictures due to lack of vibrations, I can make sharp pictures at 1/5 but easier at 1/15...Of course it depends on each photographer.
  3. You don't have flash synchro limitation, as flash gives an aperture, the speed is used to manage ambient light, it allows you to make creative pictures with flash in daylight... But I must agree that the GXR is not really designed to work with flash."

The only solution to overcome this issue is to use neutral density (ND) filters in bright light. A typical filter may have a reduction factor of 4 (2 f-stops). Pavel Kudrys pointed to a variable ND filter, the Fader ND filter (www.lightcraftworkshop.com/site/page1000.aspx), which allows to change reduction between 2 and 8 f-stops light reduction.

Why do I have to re-enter date and time after removing and reinserting a battery / after switching the camera off and on again?

When you buy a new camera, the first thing you have to do is charge the battery. When you insert it and turn the camera on, you usually have to enter date and time and the user language. You expect that you have to do this just once, and then you are done. However, in some cases, the camera may request you to re-enter these data. Why?

The camera has also an internal battery (or capacitor) that serves for storing data when there is no battery in the camera or when the battery is weak or discharged. For the GXR, the internal battery will help to store these data for about a week. Thus, reason number 1 may be that the battery is exhausted and you left it in the camera in that state for more than a week. Reason number 2 may be that you removed the battery for more than a week.

Another reason may be that the internal battery is not sufficiently charged. It takes about 2 hours to charge the internal battery completely from the battery. Thus, particularly, when you play around with your new camera after you just inserted the newly charged battery, the internal battery may not be able to store the data for a couple of minutes or even for a couple of seconds.

Thus, if you encounter this issue, do the following:

Which camera units do the lens cap LC-2, the adapter HA-3, and the two converters DW-6 and TC-1 fit?

Some people speculated that the converters DW-6 and TC-1 might fit the new P10 module. This is however, not true. Adapter HA-3 and the converters DW-6 (wide angle) and TC-1 (tele) fit only the S10 module. Only the lens cap LC-2 fits both the S10 and the P10.
(As a reference, see the English system diagram - the German system diagram contains errors.)

Please note that some GXR users, including myself, tried to fit the converters to other camera units than the S10 and investigated the results. You can find my findings on the pages:

See also Pavel Kudrys' A12-28 converter experiments: GXR A12-28mm + extension lenses (DW6, GW2, GT1, TC1)

What do I have to care for when I set JPEG>RAW to Fn1 or Fn2?

When you want to assign switching between RAW and JPEG to one of the two function buttons you may find that this will not work (as one poster at dpreview.com recently did).

This function works only, if you set Picture Quality/Size to something other than RAW. The manual (page 136, English manual) states:

On page 137 of the English manual, you will also find a small table that lists, which RAW setting is used for which Picture Quality/ Size setting.

In addition, I checked whether the usually additional JPEG image is taken, when RAW is selected - it is.

How do I check the firmware version?

Make sure that the camera is turned off and attach a camera module to the body. Press both, the Playback button and the "-" button on the direction pad, more than a second. The camera will turn on and show the following display:

This is an early example of the display, see below for a more recent one.

You can identify the firmware version of the body (MAIN) as well as of the attached module (MAIN). Turn the camera off by pressing the Playback button (after a while, the camera goes into Playback mode; here, you can also turn it off by pressing the Playback button).

For the firmware version of another module, exchange the units and repeat the procedure above.

Update: Since firmware version 1.17 (May 2010), the firmware version can also be checked in the Setup menu: Initially, it was the last item in the menu (both, the firmware version of the body and the version of the attached module are displayed), in the meantime it has become the third last.

Note: For instructions on updating the firmware, please refer to the respective document (English manual) on the Ricoh Website.

How do I check the number of shots?

I found this information buried in a thread of the Ricoh forum at dpreview.com (Guy Parsons provided the answer). The procedure is more or less the same as for checking the firmware version.

Make sure that the camera is turned off and attach a camera module to the body. Press both, the Playback button and the "-" button on the direction pad, more than a second. The camera will turn on and show a similar display:

ST displays the number of shots with flash, SH displays the number of shots without flash. ST is the same for all units, whereas the value of SH depends on the module.

Recently, a new item, CV, has been added, but I do not know what it indicates. It is the same for all units.

Where can I find the button for the flash settings?

Recently, a new GXR owner asked in a forum where he can find the flash settings. On other Ricoh cameras these are usually on the direction wheel - but there are no such settings. I could not find them in the beginning and consulted the manual. And then the scales fell from my eyes: The settings are now incorporated in the button that opens the flash (see photos below):

 
GXR back with flash button indicated   Close up of position of flash button

There are three buttons at the top left of the back of the body. The center button "OPEN/Flash symbol" is the one to use!

A first press opens the flash, starting with the second press you can cycle through the flash settings. Or you press the button and turn the front wheel to change the settings (a second press is also needed!).

Note: The other flash settings (flash exposure compensation, manual flash amount) are located in the shooting menu and can be assigned to one of the "adjust" menu positions or one of the Fn keys.

Where can I find firmware updates?

There are two pages on the Ricoh Website regarding firmware updates:

For the respective updates to the manual see the next question.

Where can I find updates to the manual (including changes due to function enhancing firmware updates)?

Updates to the manual can be downloaded from the firmware page on the Ricoh Website: www.ricoh.com/r_dc/download/firmware/gxr

The direct link to the updates of the manual are here: www.ricoh.com/r_dc/download/firmware/docs/gxr_vup_en.pdf

How Can I Get Rid of Silvery/Sparkling Outlines of People or Buildings?

In November 2011, I received the following question:

Wonder if you can help me with a problem that I have got with my GXR LCD screen. The outlines of people or buildings seem to have a sparkling outline and I can not get rid of them at all. Have looked in the manual and I can not find a reference to this problem at all.

This question could not have been asked much earlier because it is related to a function-enhancing firmware update (1.40) that was introduced in August 2011. This update added new features that were introduced with the A12 M-mount module. I do not know how this feature had been enabled on the user's GXR, but obviously he had activated "focus assist" mode 1 (default; there is also a mode 2, which shows a gray image with outlines).

Now to the question of how the user can get rid of the sparkling outlines. There is a new "Focus Assist" setting in the "Shooting" menu where you can set focus assist to "on" or "off". Somehow, the user must have managed to set it "on" - or it was "on" after the recent function enhancing firmware update (I cannot remember…). Thus, you can get rid of the sparkling outlines by setting focus assist to "off".

More information:

How is manual focusing supported on the GXR?

Note: For the M-mount unit, see the M-mount unit FAQ page.

Depending on the needs of the photographer, the GXR offers several methods for focusing manually:

Manual focusing is furthermore supported in several ways:

         

Photos: No magnification (left), "Enlarge Part" (center), and "Enlarge All" (right); in the latter case, a small display indicates where the enlargement is located in the image

         

Photos: No focus assist (left, focus assist mode 1 (center) and mode 2 (right)

For details, see page Manual Focusing.

How can I lock exposure? How can I lock focus? How can I lock both of them?

Lock Focus and Exposure

The simplest method is to lock both, exposure and focus (although the manual speaks of focus only) is as follows: Press the shutter-release button down halfway. Then reframe the picture and press the shutter-release button completely to take the picture.

Lock Exposure

For locking exposure alone, you can use the "AE Lock" (automaticexposure lock) function. You can use it only if you assign it to one of the two function buttons Fn1 or Fn2.

Lock Focus

You can lock focus alone by focusing with autofocus and then switching to manual focus using the "AF/MF" function. Typically, you assign it to one of the function buttons as well. You can also use the "Focus" setting in the "Shooting" menu or the Adjust lever settings (if you assigned focus to one of the the four available positions), but this is more cumbersome.

Afterword

Actually, there is a shortage of function buttons on the GXR body since the recent firmware updates. In my case, the following functions compete for function buttons: (1) AF/MF, (2) AE Lock, (3) Focus assist, (4) Magnification (Enlarge Part or Enlarge All). And there are many more functions to choose from, like JPEG>RAW, for example.

As soon as I switch the camera on, the diaphragm keeps opening and stopping down as I move the camera around - is this normal?

nicolabotta posted the following question in the Ricohforum of dpreview that I think may have puzzled other GXR users as well:

He received a couple of answers and prepared the following summary (slightly modified by me):

I would like to add that you can also prevent this behavior by switching the camera off as soon as it is no longer used - that's what I usually do. But I fear that the on-off switch on my GXR body will be worn out soon...

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24.03.2012