Operation and Auto Focus
Ricoh GRD3 starts-up time is 2 seconds and off-time is around 3 seconds which are not very fast, but not the slowest. The operation is generally smooth. Regarding Auto focus system. This camera has the usual multi-focus and spot focus (focus on the center). Focusing speed are moderately fast at around half a second. AF noise is very quiet. You can only hear the faint swirling noise clearly when you are very close to the camera in a quiet room.
Ricoh has several rather unique AF features. Here is some unique AF features:
Pre-AF = When this feature is activated, the camera will performs auto focus automatically when you start pointing on a scene. This will make auto focus operation a lot faster.
Snap-AF = This is basically bypassing auto focus. You set the focus distance (GRD3 offers 1m, 2.5m, 5m and infinity). When this setting activated, you just click away without having to wait. Because shutter lag is almost 0 sec. You will able to capture the frame instantaneously.
GRD3 also provides depth of field guideline for each aperture in the LCD screen, so you can make sure that your subject will be in focus. The Snap AF works well in digital compact camera with small sensor because the depth of field are large. So the possibility of getting sharp picture is a lot larger than in digital SLR cameras.
There is also a focus confirmation lamp positioned right to the hot shoe. This is very effective when you use external viewfinder as a compositional tool. The AF lamp will provide focus confirmation. The lamp also serves as camera processing indicator.
Missing from GRD3 auto focus is the ability to move the move the spot focus to other part of the frame. There is manual focus that allow you to enlarge / zoom the center portion of the scene, which is helpful when you deal with macro photography, but it is not adequate for normal range of photography because the magnification is only around 2-3 times. and it is only in center of the screen.
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“Spot focus limited to center of the frame only. It is not moveable like other advanced compacts. ”
Very nice review but I have to point out that you can indeed move the AF point freely and even set the exposure point freely on the acreen using the AE/AF option when pressing the Adj. button it’s the last option.
thanks for visiting and your input Cristian, I need to try it