Testing the Ricoh GR IIIx HDF Camera on a Speed Photo Walk

After an interesting presentation by Antonio Pisani, an Italian street and documentary photographer, we hit the streets to test cameras from Ricoh (digital) and Pentax 17 (film). I didn’t have a lot of time to familiarize myself with all the functions of the camera and I used the recommended settings for the photowalk theme: black & white (ish), architecture & people.

This specific model from Ricoh, the GR IIIx HDF, has an incorporated diffusion filter (hence the HDF in the name) that you can turn on and off. I wanted to test the effect of this filter, specifically on the highlights and light sources, where it creates a pleasing – almost dreamy – glow effect.

Here are some of the photos, with some using the split-tone edit for an accentuated cinematic effect.

Cezar tested the Pentax 17 half-frame film camera. See the results here.

The weather was not so nice, kind of gloomy and overcast, but we made the best of it. The area was near the north railway station, not so inspiring to be completely honest, and the Romana area would have been a better choice.

I was impressed about the stabilized sensor and I kind of liked the HDF. Too bad the battery life is not so great, lasting about 120 frames on a single charge.

Overall it was a nice and fun Saturday. I wish we had more time to take photos and embrace the “take it slow” ideology.