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Reviews (2)
25 May, 2011
Ricoh GX-200 is not perfect, but maybe the funnest, most versitile camera.
I love this camera. Bought it originally because the Ricoh was one of the cameras recommended for time lapse. In that mode it works great and recently I was teaching my sister how to ride a recumbent bicycle and I set the camera up on my bike to take pictures every 5 seconds. With the camera's inherent wide angle lens and decent 12 mp resolution, I later reviewed about 400 pictures and tossed out all but 6 great photos. Sure, not as good as having a third photographer, but hey, there was just the 2 of us! I could have gotten a photo of her and she a photo of me, fine, but the chance action photos were great and far more fun and meaningful! When you take time lapse, it is always exciting to see what you actually capture. I am rarely disappointed.
On the right side of my belt I wear a Leatherman multi-tool. On the left side of my belt I wear a small padded horizontal zippered camera bag holding the Ricoh GX200. I am not a professional photographer, nor would I even consider myself an amateur photographer, but I reach for that camera many times a day to document my work professionally and take photos of things of interest as travel.
Last October I pushed the extension tube through a hole in the side of a styrafoam ice chest and mounted the Ricoh wide angle lens. Using time lapse and an extended life external battery, I sent that GX-200 to near space (85,000 feet) on a weather balloon! Shockingly beautiful photos, every 5 seconds of the entire flight. I used a 16 Gb SD memory card. (I understand it can take up to 32 GB).
I am an amateur astronomer and have owned several specialized CCD imaging cameras for astrophotography. With long exposures you have to deal with the internal noise of the imaging chip and other aberations. Take a photo for say a minute and then you have to cover the telescope and take another photo of -darkness- for a minute as well. The darkness has a very specific pattern due to variations in pixel sensitivity and parts of the imaging chip that are warmer than other areas. You do a dark subtract to remove these aberations from your original photo. A midrange astro CCD chip is peltier cooled to about 40 degress below ambient temperature and the internal heat noise is reduced so that you can take useful images for up to 20-30 minutes or so. You have to take at least one dark frame for a particular setup at a particular temperature and always subtract this from the astro image. Amazingly, the Ricoh also does this! The chip is not cooled so the noise will saturate the chip more quickly, but for a two minute exposure, the results are truely astounding. The camera automatically will take a two minute exposure and then close the shutter and take a 2 minute dark frame and subtract the two automatically! Dusk or dawn or night photos are fun and amazing.
Two years ago, I went to Yellowstone National Park for a family reunion. Just for fun, I bought a set of 4 Infra-Red lenses on Ebay. Now, virtually all CCD cameras (except astro cameras which require an external filter) have an internal IR blocker, but these are not perfect and some IR will pass. The photos of Yellowstone in near infra-red are astounding!
There are many comparison reviews out there that I looked at when I made this purchase that you should seek out as well, discussing more techical specifics. It rates high, not perfect, but for me, personally, this is the handiest, most versitile, and funnest camera I have ever owned.
10 Nov, 2010
Ricoh GX200 12.1 Megapixel Camera Review
1 of 1 found this helpful I have purchased two Ricoh GX200 cameras from Ebay. The first was brand new about 2 years ago. I purchased it to take on a trip to China with my Dad. About two months ago I launched this camera on an experimental high altitude weather balloon and the balloon got caught in high altitude winds (210 Km/hr!!!) and it got out of the 100 mi range of our telemetry unit and tragically, all was lost. I recently replaced it with a well taken care of used GX200 I purchased on Ebay. The GX200 is a niche camera. On Ebay, new, you can find it in the low $400's. This is pretty high price camera comparing it to the zillions of other models that are on the market, but again this is a niche camera. Ricoh has a big following in Europe and the far East. Many other reviews are out there and they will tell you that often, one of the Ricoh models is the professionals backup camera, due to its performace and capabilities. Since I am not a professional, let me focus on why I like this camera as a hobbiest and photographic enthusiast. I launched this camera on the experimental flight because of its time lapse capability. Lost in the woods of central Missouri is a 16GB SD card holding thousands of 12 megapixel RAW photos from the edge of space (85,000 feet!) taken automatically every 5 seconds. If you are interested in time lapse photography go to youtube and search "milapse". Ricoh is prominently mentioned often as an excellent time lapse instrument! I also am interested in astronomy and have a couple CCD imaging cameras. The GX200 cannot take a photo through a telescope, but it can take outstanding photos of the night sky. A very rare function that is built into this camera is "dark subtract". If you take a 2 minute photograph at night for example, the camera will take a 2 minute exposure, then close the shutter and take another 2 minute exposure, then subtract the dark current (internal noise inherent in all CCD chips) from the original image to give outstanding results. Recently, we went to Yellowstone National Park for a couple of weeks. Always experimenting, I bought a set of Infra-red filters (43mm) (from Ebay!) and due in large part with the incredibly dynamic range of options offered on the camera, the results were breathtaking! Yellowstone in infra-red is amazing! I use this particular camera every day. It is on a pouch on my side on my belt every day. I use it to gather data at worksites and to document my work. The wide field views (24mm equiv) are great most of the time, but ricoh makes both a telephoto(TC-1) and a wide field lens(DW-6). I have no need for the telephoto, but with the wide field lens attached I can stand in a small telephone office and take 4 photos from each corner and document the contents of the entire office without any distortion (Horizonatal lines stay horizontal. Vertical lines stay vertical.) I also purchased an ulta-wide field (180 degrees!!!) that works well for overview photos, but with much distortion. I have a removable viewfinder(VF-1) which I rarely use. In reading other reviews I see that others conplain about difficulties using manual focus. There are other issues expanded on by others far more knowledgable than me, so do your homework. For me, after two years working and tweeking the incredible range of functionality of this camera, I would not take $1000 for this tool, if I could not replace it. After I lost it two months ago, I found myself reaching for my empty belt pouch constantly!