A RICOH GR1 has survived a three month trek to the South Pole despite being left unprotected in a sledge and facing wind-chill temperatures of minus 50ºC. Mike Thornewell has been a climber for 20 years and chose the Ricoh GR1 because of its size, exposure compensation, and lens quality.
Earlier this year Mike and Fiona Thornewell became the first married couple to reach the South Pole. The GR1 exposed 20 films on the couple's 68-day trip, and Mike Thornewell described its overall performance as "...awesome. The GR1 is a superb camera. The original battery lasted the full three month trip without being replaced." This is an extraordinary achievement considering the extremely low temperatures plus the fact that the couple didn't switch off the flash to conserve battery power - they used fill-in flash for about one in four of their images.
"The camera never came indoors except to change the film and it always took a picture. At night it was left in a sledge, unprotected in temperatures that ranged from -20 to -33ºC."
A Nottinghamshire police officer, Mike had been using the GR1 since last October, and was so impressed with its performance he wrote to the manufacturer to tell them when he returned to the UK. "It was dragged for 730 miles, crashing over a rough surface for 61 of them. Not once was any problem detected with any of its functions," he reported.
The wind-chill factor was at times down to minus 50ºC. Mike said the camera was "easy to handle with gloves on." When conditions became too severe, the couple set the camera to Program Mode.
"In terms of picture quality the results speak for themselves," Mike continued. He particularly liked the GR1's exposure compensation feature for shots where there was a lot of glare.
Commenting on the compact's f/2.8 optic, Mike claimed: "The 28mm lens is the most useful size anyone could have fitted to a single lens design."The couple, part of a nine-person team, have little previous experience of polar exploration and are raising money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. They aim to raise £100,000 by the end of the year.
Coincidentally, on the outward journey, they met a French polar traveller who always used a GR1.
URL: http://www.gr1.artsociety.net/