Overbooked!...but there'll be another one soon...

Off to Florida for a too long delayed time with our family there. It took a little longer then we'd expected, but it all worked outl, and once we'd arrived the visit was wonderful!

One of the add on benefits that made it nice came from an unlikely source ~ a camera store in California called Popflash. They handle high end equipment and know their stuff, and they've developed a most unusual tryout program with Ricoh. If you'll let them put the value of the equipment on your credit card, they'll send you Ricoh's latest gear to tryout for a week or two. Then, when you return it, they'll refund all your money but a token 10 dollars!

For this trip, they loaned me Ricoh's flagship camera, the small but mighty GXR. This is a unique and innovative camera that enables a variety of interchangeable lens & sensor units to be fitted to a single body, which contains the user interface, controls, battery and SD card. The lenses I used were, in 35mm equivalents, the 24-72 zoom, the 28-300 zoom and the 50 Macro. Each lens is mated to an appropriately sized sensor and, together, they form an enclosed, dust free unit that quickly and easily an be attached to the body.

Each module has its own strong points. The 24-72 is physically the smallest and so is the most pocketable. The 28-300, though only a little larger, has the greater reach. The 50mm Macro, with its APS sized sensor and exceptional optics, produces the most detailed and nuanced images. For my purposes, however, these comparisons were relevant, as I made acceptable to delightful photos with each combination.

Ricoh has always shown itself to be responsive to customer input and their user interface has been honed and refined over years. Itis both comprehensive and amazingly customizable. Having that interface in a single back is also of real value ~ not only to the forgetful, but also to those who simply want the camera to get out of the way so that they can get on with seeing and making their own pictures.

All of my own pictures posted here, from yesterday's "Here Be Dragons" through October 3rd's "Monster Car Wash," were taken with the GXR, with the exception of the "Q- Ship" on the 2nd. Please don't hold that against the camera, though...;~)

In short, I liked the Ricoh GXR very much and am extremely grateful to Popflash for arranging for me to use it.