new camera Ricoh GX100

[Thomas Götzfried]

there will be a new camera called Ricoh GX100, available in the end of april.
see here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0703/07032801ricohgx100.asp

from the specifications it looks not bad for digescoping.
as the is:

- full manual control
- manual focus
- 3x zoom
- RAW format
- self timer and cable switch
- handling like a DSLR


what do you think about this one ?

regards
Tom

[erniehatt]

The specs look pretty impressive, the zoom range seems a touch low to what we come to expect with 3X. Who knows it could be the answer to all our dreams. Ernie

[iporali]

what do you think about this one ?

Hi Thomas,

Obviously I don't have any first hand experience, but some guestimates can be made from the specs. It has many nice features and it may work, but I am afraid that it is not going to be a dream-come-true for digiscoping.

As Ernie mentioned, its zoom range is quite limited at the upper end. If you use it with typical 20-60x zoom eyepieces set at 20x, you must have the camera zoom at 70mm - leaving no range for camera zoom. With a fixed eyepiece it may be usable at 35-70mm.

The zoom range 24-30 mm is very nice in normal photography, but practically useless in digiscoping, because there are no eyepieces that would cover such a wide-angled field-of-view.

Wide-angled zooms also tend to protrude quite far from the camera body, which may lead to similar vignetting problems that the Canon A6X0s have due to their long tele-end. By far the most useful 3x zoom range is 35-105mm, which protrudes only little - and "symmetrically" at short and long ends. Symmetrical zoom movement is the reason, why the 4x Fuji E900 vignettes less than the 4x Canon A620.

The GX100 lens does not look too bad, but a lot of its digiscoping-worthiness (is that a word?) depends on how far from the body it physically extends at 24mm. I would love to see a camera with such features having a fast but compact 35-105mm zoom lens.

Best regards,

Ilkka