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The Ricoh GR-IV has finally arrived in my hot sweaty hands!

It’s actually extremely small – my ‘bear’ hands envelope it, and it’s almost pocketable – I’ve added a ‘Squarehood’ lens hood (and filter) which protects the lens but makes it much deeper (so you’ll need huge pockets!)

In terms of controls and functions, there’s everything I need (and more) – quite franly I doubt I’ll ever make a B&W movie, but it IS possible with this beasty. Aside from that, there’s auto ISO, recording in both RAW (DNG) and .jpg, anti vibration, etc.etc.

The files are stored on a microSD card which is fine in terms of capacity, but a fiddle to remove from the camera – it’s under the same cover as the battery – best to remove that first otherwise it’s a bit of a pain.

The lens ‘pops out’ when the camera is turned on, and the experts (GR-IV, and GR-III uses) suggest using a Swedish made ‘Squarehood‘ which has a built in glass filter – this prevents dust getting into the mechanism (and obviously acts as a lens hood too) so I ‘invested’ in one – photos soon. The only downside to this is the fact that it makes the camera a little more bulky as it sticks out quite a bit. Small price to pay for the protection, in my view.

The controls and functions are pretty much what we find on all modern digital cameras – condensed into a microscopic body! RAW data is output as DNG files, which most post processing software handles perfectly easily.

The ‘monochrom’ aspect of this camera creates an interesting problem in terms of exposure latitude – there isn’t very much at all. The ‘smoothing’ effect of multiple pixels being summed together simply doesn’t exist, and as such, getting a ‘correct’ exposure is vital as there is less chance of correcting it in post.

I’ll add to this article as I get used to using the camera.

Here are a few of my first images – pretty much ‘out-of-camera’ (not much post-processing)

And for our sixteenth edition…on Saturday the 30th May

For Saturday we’ve been warned that there will be temperatures in the 30’s…(That’s CENTIGRADE !) I’ve warned people to bring water bottles and caps/hats – walking around our town in search of that crucial image is going to be warm work…

For info, the image chosen for this poster was taken for the 5th theme last year (as we had the Tour de France coming through Auch, we thought it pertinent! ) and didn’t actually win a prize – but it still made it to be published as a poster and handouts for the event. Well done to Ghyslain Bet. Sadly he hasn’t signed up for this years event…but 51 other people have – this is going to be fun

(My colleague Nathalie had fun making these today for pour participants !!)

Coming soon – to 6 locations here in Auch

This festival is to high light the work of photographers, amateur and professional, who live in the Gers.

The Photographic Centre in Lectoure does a reasonable job inviting photographers and artists from outside the department, but I felt it was time that we showcased ‘home grown’ work.

The Festival lasts a month – 28 days, 7 days a week (although some of the locations aren’t open on Sundays) and there are over 160 images presented. Visitors can vote for their favorite images and there will be a prize for the photographer who gets the most votes.

It has taken it’s time, but finally NUMERIPHOT have been on the phone to confirm the arrival of this…

Yes – the famous Ricoh GR-IV Monochrome has arrived! Slated to be available in Europe in February, it’s taken this long to get stocks sufficient to supply the huge demand – and I can understand why, when you read the specs.

I’m adding a ‘Squarehood’ lens hood/protective glass as these pop-out lens cameras have one major drawback – they let dust in through the joint between the lens and the body. It obviously makes the camera slightly ‘thicker’ but for ease of use / protection, I feel it’s worth it.

More details when I get to use it !

And the year starts with a whole load of new toys – here’s a little about three of them…

First up the Ricoh GR lV Monchrome

This is essentially a Ricoh GRlV which came out at the end of 2025 but with a crucial difference, no Bayer filter – instead of recomposing 4 adjacent pixels into a single coloured one, this uses all the pixels INDIVIDUALLY – to give a black and white image. This gives a much sharper, more contrasty image – with the downside that there is very little latitude regarding exposures – better get it right in the camera as adjustments in post processing will not be like treating a coloured image.

Leica have done this many times, offering a colour and a B&W version of many of their camera bodies, even the Q2 and Q3 full frame compacts.

The Ricoh is slightly different in that it uses a 25MP APS-C sensor.

We’ve been waiting a few months since this beasty was announced, and it should hit the shelves before the end of this month (February 2026) – needless to say, mine is on pre-order in Toulouse.

Over to NIKON who have just announced two new lenses for the ‘Z’ series cameras. In fact neither of these two are ‘new’ – NIKON have made new versions of existing lenses – benefiting from new optical configurations, lighter glass etc.

NIKON 24-70 f/2.8 S Mk ll

This is both slightly smaller and lighter than the original S model, more more importantly, has internal focusing. This is particularly important for people using gimbals as any change of physical length throws out the balance of the gimbal. The price is slightly higher too – but as it’s only just been introduced, this will no doubt come down as time goes by.

NIKON 70-200 f/2.8 S Mk ll

This too is both slightly smaller and lighter than the original S model (365g), and also has internal focusing. This said, I still think the most amazing thing is that NIKON have FINALLY listed to it’s buyers, and produced an ARCA compatible tripod foot ! Jeez guys, we’ve waited so long for this!

Both lenses have forgone the (frankly useless) screens ontop – to be replaced by another function button – on the 70-200 they have introcued the possibility to turn on or off the ‘click’ of the rear function ring – I guess if you use this for apertures selection, this could be an advantage, but as I rarely use the function buttons or rear collar, I can’t get too excited about this.

I’m not really in the market for either of these – oh sure, they’re faster, lighter etc. etc. but the two I already own do a terrific job, so I don’t see myself replacing mine yet.

I think it’s very good that manufacturers don’t rest on their laurels and R&D does continue to upgrade existing lenses. Some people seem to think these recent anouncements indicate a revised Z9 ll is in the wings – it’s always poissible of course, but it could also be just a good way of showing that development hasn’t stopped. Wait and see…

Summer is over, autumn has begun, the circus festival has come and gone and the clocks have changed – what else is there?

Firstly the festival was a blast – some very good spectacles this year (this helps erase the memories of people wearing nappies on their heads etc. from last year) and I’m happy with the results.

We’ve had a particularly mild Autumn so far – doesn’t really seem that Christmas is around the corner with temperatures in the low 20’s. After our last foray into Scotland, and looking at the quality of the images I was able to produce with the Z6ll, I decided to do something I’ve never done before – buy a ‘grey’ import camera.

Grey imports are items generally purchased in the Far East or at least countries that have little or no purchase tax, which are then sold in Europe at massive discounts. The items are fully functioning models, not copies or with different specifications – they just have to ‘official’ right to an after sales service (repairs under guarantee etc.) so you have to be careful choosing.

Financially the difference was pretty impressive – this camera body normally sells for 2799€ in France but NIKON have a reduction at the moment and it retails at 2299€. I paid 1500€ and as far as I can see, this is a fully functioning camera body with no defects – the seller (based in France) simply orders from vendors in China who buy locally – very often there are items missing – battery chargeurs, no French/European charging cable etc. but this wasn’t the case here. Interestingly, for customs, the camera was listed as an « image recorder » with a respectively low value…

My choice was a brand new Z7ll

No different externally from the Z6ll – but the sensor is twice the pixel density – 45Mp instead of 24Mp. As an example, the following image was created from a 48Mp RAW file on the Z7ll – on the Z6ll the file would have been roughly 29Mp

Just for fun, I checked the shutter count with this first image…(This is the sequential file number recorded into the EXIF information of each image file, which cannot be modified, so effectively shows the actual shutter count of the camera)

Reassuring ! At least I know the camera is brand new. To test this new beauty, I’m going to use the 14-24 f/2.8 wide-angle zoom – this lens is a particularly good choice as it has an extremely high definition and will show up any defects. (Another good one is the 24-70 f/4 – a very good quality lens for an f/4, and much more compact)

More when I’ve made some images…

Just arrived home after a week exploring Paris. Took an APS-C camera (small and discrete, and just a couple of lenses – one being a 6,5mm fish-eye (Click on the images to enlarge)

AstrHori 6,5mm f/2.0 Fish-Eye

I also had a ‘standard’ 12-28 (18-35 equivalent) NIKON zoom – that worked well too

NIKKOR 12-28 f/3,5 – 5,6 zoom

This said, I had the iPhone in my pocket all the time, and frankly the 13mm wide-angle works really very well – quite impressed.

iPhone 14 Pro – wide-angle (13mm)

The great thing about the telephone is that it just slips in ones pocket – and the resulting images are really very good (for travel/web images)

We visited everything we’d planed for, and a few other sights – and walked on average 15 km per day !

Here are a few more shots from the trip:-

Had a great time – time went by incredibly fast though – we’ll have to go again…

Strange situation regarding firmware updates at NIKON.

The new 3.0 Update for the Z8 has just been announced, with a few new features, and corrections etc. What’s interesting is that none of what has been announced is (yet) availlable on the flagship Z9 model?

NIKON Z8

It’s almost as if the Z9 is being ‘held back’ (possibly due to a future Z9ll announcement) in favour of the Z8.

NIKON Z9

I freely admit that I’m much more likely to chose to take a Z8 with me in preference to the Z9, not because of the firmware updates, more due to the sheer weight of the Z9! It’s a truly versatile camera, and certainly perfectly adapted to my style of shooting, but then so is the Z8 and when it comes down to convenience, the difference in weight is what will make me chose one over the other.

This weekend I’ll be covering a music festival and there’s no way I’ll be lugging the Z9 around all night! It’s true that the huge battery is an advantage on the Z9 as it can last me all night – but a couple of smaller EN-EL15’s for the Z8 in my pocket can do this too

The sensors are identical, and all the options I use on one can be found on the other – it does make me wonder why I keep both. Frankly a single Z8 would be perfectly adequate…

Back to my original question – are you listening NIKON? There are a whole load of professional Z9 users out there who have invested time and money in a system that is supposed to evolve to include updates and modernisation…these people don’t expect to have to buy another camera body every 3 years just to keep up with the changes…

My niece is 17 years old, which, here in France means that this year she passes the ‘bac’ or baccalaureate (the equivalent to the UK’s A levels).

She’s certainly not a stupid girl, and works hard (as can be seen by her continuous assessment scores throughout the year.) Tuesday was the day for her English oral exam – and at 10am we got the news…

Her English tutor had advised them on their choice of discours etc. and the class had made their arguments etc. etc. She, and some others, had chosen to discuss global warming. The point of the exercise is to see how the students develop, and present, their arguments in a foreign language (in this case, English).

The clock was started and she started her presentation – only to be stopped halfway through (with the examiner pausing the clock) to be criticized for her choice of subject, and the fact that she had criticized Donald Trump. It turns out that the (anonymous) examiner was a young American woman, supporter of the Trump and also a fervent critic of global warming.

The clock was restarted and my niece finished her discours. She related this to her mother who then passed it on to the family – we were astonished – this simply will not do – the examiner is there to judge the students capacities, not opinions.

Sadly, despite a brief search, I can’t (yet) find out who this person is – I would dearly like to ‘discuss’ things with her.

We will learn her marks on the 5th of July – fortunately these will be aggregated with her continuous assessment scores, so with a bit of luck she won’t suffer too much. It’s sad, because she doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment, but it goes to show that Trump gets everywhere – and manages to screw more up than we could ever have imagined….

Not a lot going on at the present time – aside from « The Trump » causing havoc worldwide – hopefully that will all calm down once someone louder than him convinces the few people who seem to protect him that he’s a dangerous child…

Leica news. I’ve never been a fan, principally due to the extortionate prices, but the quality cannot be denied. Despite my criticism, the people in Wetzlar have just released the Leica M-11 P Safari and it’s got me drooling…

« If I said you had a lovely body would you hold it against me? »

I simply can’t get used to the rangefinder focusing, and for what I do, this would be a deal breaker. Sad but true (well, ok, I don’t have the cash either) 9250€ without a lens…(It’s worth mentioning that the lens shown here actually costs 3850€ itself…which makes the whole package worth roughly 13,000€)

Ona much more realistic level – certainly price wise, AstrHori are busy packing up my latest lens purchase which will soon be on it’s way to me for the modique sum of 120€

This is the 6,5mm f/2 Fisheye 192 degree field of view, as can be imagined by on of their publicity shots

This is going to be fun! This is designed for APS-C cameras so will go very nicely with the Z30 – can’t wait.

This weekend is Déclic – 15th edition – more on all of this later…