`The best camera is the one you you have with you`. I think Ghandi said that. It`s not true, of course - the best camera is the Pentax MX and unlike Ghandi I`ll fight anyone who says different.
What is true - and what the author of that aphorism meant - is that the best camera in the world is of no use whatever if you leave it at home. Like many photo obsessives, I carry a camera with me at almost all times, even if it`s just the 12MP camera on my phone. The cameras I tend to reach for when I leave the house now are a far cry from the gear I used to shoot with professionally. Gone are the days of carrying two Nikon D3S bodies and a brace of F2.8 zooms on my back, and my back is happier for it.
I`m much more likely to throw a Fujifilm X100F or Leica M10 into my bag these days, despite the inconvenience of fixed lenses. More recently I`ve been enjoying the versatility of the Nikon Z7 with its 24-70mm F4 kit zoom. But none of the cameras I just mentioned are really, truly, pocketable. That`s where the Ricoh GR series comes in.
This is a composite image created from several Raw files from the GR II. I`ll often shoot sequences like this on hikes, to simulate the effect of a much wider field of view. I downsized this shot for upload - the original is enormous.Incidentally, this is the fire lookout hut where Gary Snyder wrote one of his most famous (and one of my favorite) poems. `Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout`.Ricoh GR II - stitched image from multiple frames.
I owned a Ricoh GR II for quite a while, and I loved it. The breast pocket of my favorite jacket still has a GR II-shaped shape crease in it, which I suspect is permanent at this point. While 28mm isn`t my first choice of focal length, it`s great for casual shots of friends, street scenes and general outdoor photography. The GR-series have always been fantastic cameras for hiking and cycling with thanks to their solid build quality and small size, and 28mm is perfec ...
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