Hello. This is KYO.

I will talk about black and white street snap again. But this time, in turn with Minew, on the theme of night shooting (focusing on street snap) and share my settings as an example.

In addition to the conventional operability, the GR III now has the combination of shake reduction and low-light sensitivity. This allows me to step into the area where I used to hesitate.

My night street snap settings:
Let me share with you the settings of the nighttime black-and-white snap that I have assigned to the mode dial U1.

"Image Control"
B&W (Monotone)
Contrast + 1
Contrast (Highlight) -1
Contrast (Shadow) +2
Toning Purple
No Filter Effect
No Shading

Because I mostly shoot in dark environments, the Shadow parameter is set to plus. There is no adjustment in the Shading parameter. No additional shading is applied to the image making also and the natural shading (vignetting) of the GR lens is being used.

"Exposure and AF related"

These are the essential or central parameters of the GR III.

Exposure Mode Av Aperture 2.8
★ ISO AUTO Upper Limit 10000, Minimum Shutter Speed 1/320
Shake Reduction On
★ Auto-area AF
Full Press Snap On, Snap Distance 2m

With these settings, I can concentrate on composing and timing- the GR III will do the rest.

Preference of high-sensitivity image quality differs from user to user, but as far as my field tests with the GR III are concerned, personally I can go with up to ISO10000 including the noise factor.
The shutter speed in my style is set to 1/320 so that shake or blur can be minimum. With the above settings, even at night or at dusk, you can have 1/320 shutter speed at up to ISO10000. In a darker environment, the shutter speed will decrease to maintain the exposure.
You can change the ISO upper limit and the minimum shutter speed according to your own shooting style.
I myself have been able to concentrate on shooting better by examining these two paremeters. Please give it a try.


Now that the above parameters have been set, I can take pictures without looking at the finder- relying on the wider and more accurate auto focus of the GR III.

A row of street stalls at night.
While I was walking, I expected the timing of shutter release several seconds ahead by visualizing the surrounding composition, looking at the people coming from the front, and listning to the sound of a bicycle approaching from the back.

I was able to capture the incoming bicycle even under the dark old arcade.



Other examples using the shake reduction
The above examples were taken with the low-light sensitivity that conventional black and white films did not have. Here are some other examples of street photos taken with the shake reduction, without a tripod.

You can take photos like these.
The Scramble Crossing in Shibuya and the dome of Tokyo Station.

I set the shutter speeds at around 1/2 to 1/3 second.

You can hand hold the camera in situations like these where you normally use a tripod. Be free from tripod and respond to the flow of people and change compositions. I probably need some more experience until I find appropriate blur settings.

I have been enjoying the process of getting used to the GR III by changing the settings in various ways and explore the limitations.

Try taking out your GR III for snap shooting at night.

(KYO)