Tuesday 18 December 2007

GRD 2 : I can see clearly now


I received the GV2 external viewfinder yesterday in the post. I had expected it to turn up much later due to the shortage of accessories from Ricoh UK, however I got an email confirmation from the online retailer a couple of days ago, and things were looking up. So I was delighted when the postman delivered a small padded envelope to my door. Initial impressions are positive, the construction is metal, and similar to the GRD2 body material. It is small and is very compact, and shows a brightline frame corresponding to 28mm field of view (in 35mm jargon). There are 4 small markings within the 28mm brightline indicating a square 1:1 section to aid composition at that setting.

The great thing about the GV2 (unlike the GV1) is that the pop-up flash is still usable, with the flick of a switch on the left side.


Because of my shortsightedness, I prefer to use the external finder to compose my shots, traditionally, so that my eye does not need to change focus off the main scene to the LCD and back again, causing strain and missed opportunities. In addition, I can turn off the LCD display entirely, thus extending battery life.


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