Roll 302 — it's been a long time since we last went camping. Time really has moved.
Film: Kodak UltraMax 400
Developed & scanned: DEP Lab 2025/10/22
Camera: Ricoh GR1s 28mm f2.8
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Today I finished reading South Wind, co-authored by Chung Sheng-hsiung and Hsu Chen-tang. A genuinely shocking book.
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The camera for this roll is the Ricoh GR1s 28mm f2.8. For many of the early frames I'd accidentally turned the dial to f2.8 aperture priority, and when I got the scans back I was stunned — the images were incredibly soft. So soft that I wondered whether the camera was broken.
That's when I remembered a friend telling me that the GR1 series won't shoot at f2.8 in Auto mode. I dry-fired the shutter a few times, metering repeatedly, and sure enough — even in extremely dark conditions where the shutter speed would guarantee camera shake, my GR1s still refused to open all the way to f2.8. It always stops down at least a little.
So the GR1 series' famous sharpness is achieved by stopping down the aperture. So that's why.
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#1
Running, as usual. Though calling it running is generous — it's mostly an excuse to get outside and breathe. This frame shows the full extent of the GR1s's softness at f2.8 aperture priority.
f2.8 aperture priority
#2
The Ricoh GR1s's shutter lag is remarkably low — low enough that I can place a passing car precisely in the center of the frame and hit the shutter.
f2.8 aperture priority
#3
This one makes it even more obvious. At f2.8 the image looks genuinely strange. No wonder Ricoh designed Auto mode never to use f2.8.
f2.8 aperture priority
#4
A dry noodle place I eat at often. They've been hiring for ages and never seem to find anyone.
f2.8 aperture priority
#5
I can't play basketball. When I was younger this felt like a real regret — I often couldn't join in when friends were playing. But I do love table tennis and volleyball. On the GR1s at f2.8 aperture priority: the further the focus distance, the worse the results seem to get.
f2.8 aperture priority
#6
I once thought about getting a tattoo to remember my father. But thinking it over, wearing a gold watch that brings him to mind seems like enough.
f2.8 aperture priority
#7
Remember how in Roll 298 I got an extraordinarily sharp self-portrait out of the GR1s? Turns out that was a stopped-down aperture doing the work. This one is a self-portrait at f2.8 aperture priority. That said, the reason the GR1s can afford to stop down is that its aperture shape is beautifully circular. Most compact cameras don't have circular apertures — diamond shapes are common, and once stopped down, the out-of-focus transitions from a diamond aperture look far less smooth. I once loved the Fujifilm Klasse 38mm f2.6 and Klasse S 38mm f2.8, but I later discovered their aperture shapes are strangely polygonal, which hurts their performance in outdoor stopped-down scenarios. Perhaps that's why those two cameras have never quite been accepted as genuine classics — expensive, but not quite worth the price.
f2.8 aperture priority
#8
My desk had a lot of stuff on it back then. There's less now.
f2.8 aperture priority
#9
That morning, my son and I rode our bikes out to buy breakfast.
f2.8 aperture priority
#10
Taiwanese market signage really does love the red-blue-white color combination.
f2.8 aperture priority
#11
Shopping for camping food. Enormous queue.
f2.8 aperture priority
#12
Not buying beer.
f2.8 aperture priority
#13
Arrived at the campsite early. Hunting for insects.
f2.8 aperture priority
#14
These days I feel that if you can't book out a whole section of the campsite, you may as well not go camping at all.
f2.8 aperture priority
#15
The weather was a bit cool, so out came the Uniflame grill, doubling as a fire pit.
f2.8 aperture priority
#16
The GR1s's built-in T shutter is far more useful than I expected. Put it on a tripod and shooting stars at night is no problem at all. I find it genuinely magical that you can capture a night sky on film. This one was shot shortly after sunset, which is why the sky is still quite blue.
T shutter, 30 seconds, f2.8
#17
Our tent (Minimal Works Agora) — apparently quite translucent.
T shutter, 15 seconds, f2.8
#18
Camp long enough and you stop bothering with the tarp entirely. As a beginner I didn't know any better and assumed more gear was always better — bring this, bring that. Now it's all back to basics. Keep it light. The mental bandwidth you save is meaningful too.
f2.8 aperture priority
#19
Glowing coals.
#20
The sky later that night — barely any blue left.
T shutter, 30 seconds, f2.8
#21
Wood split on site. Big pieces, thrown straight on.
#22
The kids' table.
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That's this roll — Ricoh GR1s 28mm f2.8 with Kodak UltraMax 400. Thanks for reading.
