Ricoh GR: Final Word

Concept: 4 out of 5
Execution: 5 out of 5
Yeah, but: The GR abides.

The Long Version: It’s been over a year since I reviewed any aspect of the Ricoh GR, so it seems like a good time to do a long-term report. But not much has changed from my experience in the first few months: it’s still my favourite camera, and now it's my hardest-used and most-travelled camera, too.

The grip has smoothed down a bit, and if I only press on the right side of the shutter button occasionally it sticks in the half-down position. This happens more often when I’m just playing with the camera rather than when I’m actually taking photos, so it isn’t really much of an issue, and may be a result of the times I photographed Los Angeles’ “sunken city” with its abundance of incredibly fine silt-like dust. That’s probably also how I gained two little specks on the sensor that are only visible when I shoot at the smallest of apertures.

Thousands of photos and thousands of miles have revealed no problematic idiosyncrasies, hidden flaws, or secret weaknesses. Ricoh may update the GR, but like the GRDIV it will remain a classic and endure far beyond what’s reasonable for a compact digital camera these days.

last updated 30 dec 2014

Ricoh GR: Image Quality

Concept: 4 out of 5
Execution: 4 out of 5
Yeah, but: Four months and no complaints.

The Long Version: Re-reading my favourite book I came across the expression "counting grains of sand". It's a metaphor for tediously wasting time on meaningless minutia; clearly the concept of "pixel peeping" predates digital photography. That's certainly something for me to remember going forward.

This has been a surprisingly difficult review to write. The Ricoh GR is an exciting camera, finally putting a sensor that's worthy of the GR Digital camera body behind an exceptional lens. But for this review I'm just trying to look at image quality; removing size, price, and design from consideration makes the GR a bit more ordinary for a 1.5X sensor. But then again, maybe if I didn't have a Nikon D800 and Sigma 35/1.4A I'd be more appropriately astonished by just how good the GR is.

The GR's previous-generation sensor shows some weakness when compared to kit-lensed SLRs that cost about the same amount, although the detail its fixed lens captures shames the SLRs. Put it up against a fixed-lens camera with the same sized sensor – often the same sensor – and you'll be paying more to carry a larger and/or inferior body.

Everything in photography is a compromise.

After four months with the GR my only image quality stumble comes from its autofocus system. From time to time it will miss the subject and lock on to the background, especially in lower lighting or at closer focusing distances. It's tempting to trust those wide-area AF confirmation boxes, but for critical photos using pinpoint AF is worth the minimal extra effort.

Attentive readers will notice that this isn't actually a problem with the camera. It's purely my own bad handling, sloppy technique, and the excessive vanity of turning off the focus-assist lamp. The GR's incredible resolution, and the narrower focus of its larger sensor, reveals sloppiness that doesn't matter for the small-sensor compacts that the GR resembles. I'd never trust wide-area AF on an SLR to choose correctly or accurately show what it has picked, and the GR demands the same respect.

The Ricoh GR is not a Nikon D800. Pulling up detail in very deep shadows can cause mosquito artifacts around fine details, even at iso100. It's subtle, but it's there. With some high-sensitivity photos I've resorted to monochrome conversions; I won't hesitate to use iso3200 or iso6400 when it lets me make the shot. While this is not unique to the GR, switching to black and white gives more adjustment latitude, and has resulted in some strong photos that I would have otherwise discarded.

Even though it's "only" 16Mpx, the GR's amazingly well-paired sensor and lens has per-pixel detail that rivals or exceeds anything that can be put on an SLR. That becomes very useful when cropping for composition, especially to mimic a 35 or 50mm-equivalent lens. Of course the GR's lens does have mild barrel distortion that's visible when straight lines are important, and there's a bit of vignetting wide open, which is fairly trivial.

My digital camera workflow is to put all of my select images through DxO Optics before doing final adjustments in Lightroom. The GR with v2.0.3 firmware is only compatible with Optics 9.0.1.27 and later, so waiting for the software to catch back up to Ricoh is part of why writing this review took a month longer than I anticipated. The good news is that FW2 and Optics 9 are both worthwhile updates.

That's not to say that the ACR'ed raw files are bad, or even that there's even anything wrong with the SOoC-jpeg images, but rather that this little pocket camera is worth the effort of wringing out the very best per-pixel quality. There are lots of cameras that don't merit that kind of attention, even if it does verge on counting sand.

I recently needed to make a small print, 5x7, of a photo that I took a few months ago. I was working on the details, looking at it at 100%, iso1600, and couldn't figure out why it was so soft with such bad noise. I seriously thought that something had gone tragically wrong to produce such mediocre quality from the GR – but no, it was shot with the Nikon V1 and 18.5mm standard prime. Then it made perfect sense.

The GR is the camera that I carry everywhere and use for as much as possible. It has been to Los Angeles twice, Las Vegas once, and I can guarantee that it will be my only camera for at least one upcoming trip to New York. Now when I'm idly considering adding another camera to my collection it's to be a companion to the GR, and when I'm carrying another camera, film or digital, the GR is always with me.

It doesn't have the best image quality of the cameras that I own, it's not quite the smallest, and it's certainly not the most versatile. But it's a solid little camera that's easy to use, easy to live with, and takes great photos. Everything in photography is a compromise; the GR strikes some excellent ones.

Quick links to the other chapters in the GR saga:

Ricoh GR: Travel

Ricoh GR: Preface

Ricoh GR: Buttons

Ricoh GR: Experience

Ricoh GR: Quality

Ricoh GV1 Viewfinder

Ricoh GR Brief Impressions

Ricoh GRD4 Review

last updated 31 dec 2013

Ricoh GR: Experience

Concept: 4 out of 5
Execution: 5 out of 5
Yeah, but: Two months and no complaints.

The Long Version: Normally if I'm awake before 6am it means that I can go back to sleep for a couple more hours. Standing on the corner of Yonge and Queen, taking pre-dawn long exposures, is not my normal routine. It was all worth it, though: my camera was perched on top of a traffic control box, six feet off the ground, when a cyclist stopped to wait for the light to change. He glanced up: "Is that the new Ricoh GR?"

As awesome as the GR is to hold and use, it doesn't really look like anything special; it's almost aggressively nondescript. For someone to be able to spot it, in the dark, while busy doing and thinking about other things, is amazing. Certainly it speaks to the cyclist's considerable knowledge and eyesight, but it also shows that the latest camera from Ricoh has made enough of an impression to be noticed.

The nice thing about wandering the streets with a camera is that I never really know what I will find, no matter how often I revisit the same terrain. I do live in a vibrant and active neighbourhood, but that experience of continual discovery is mostly because I'm capable of forgetting about little things like Toronto's annual summer-ending weekend-long air show.

The GR's full-press snap focus setting means that the camera will automatically jump to a pre-set distance when the shutter button isn't given time for the half-press AF pause. This ability comes in handy for unexpected contingencies. I easily changed the snap focus distance to Infinity and continued on my rounds, able to use the standard AF mode for my usual subjects. But when the time was right I caught a close solo flyby from a CF-18, which looks vastly less impressive than it actually was because of the 28mmm-e lens.

Ah, well.

There's a certain thrill that I have with the GR that I rarely experience with other cameras: the frisson of thinking "I wish pressing this button would do that particular thing" and then discovering that it does. What makes it even better is when I'm the one who set it up that way, either in a custom mode or with a button assignment, but then forgot about it. I wanted to change to snap/manual focus while I was taking long exposures, and sure enough I had already configured the 'effect' button for just that moment. Brilliant.

In practice I don't find much difference between manual focus and the full-time snap focus mode, in which the distance is selected from steps of 1m, 1.5m, 2, 2.5, 5, and infinity. Full manual focus allows much finer control, all the way down to the 10cm close-focus limit, but takes a bit longer to dial in because of it. Speed or precision – I usually opt for speed, especially when deep-focus long exposures or impromptu compositions makes an exact focus placement unlikely in the first place. In either manual focus mode the CAF/AF-on button still lets the camera do its thing, so there's no bad choice.

Winter is coming, and with it comes jacket weather and the ability to leave the camera bag at home. The GR, with its GV1 viewfinder attached, lives in my right jacket pocket. If I'm also carrying the GRD4, it will be in my left jacket pocket; sometimes when I'm actively taking photos it ends up in a jeans pocket, depending on what was more convenient when I switched between them. Pocket-carry has been liberating; the only downside has been figuring out where to put my keys, since I'd hate to scratch either camera.

I typically revert to the GRDIV when I need a macro shot, am photographing in bad conditions, or want another camera to play with while the GR's tied up doing long exposures. There was even one time when I shot with a Ricoh in each hand; it was surprisingly easy but probably geekier than I needed to be. I wouldn't suggest buying a second camera just for this purpose, but it worked for me.

When I'm walking with the GR I usually hold it at my side, fingers wrapped around the front of the camera from above, so that I can press the shutter button by squeezing the camera up into my hand. Sneaky, perhaps, but it also gives that different 'from the hip' viewpoint that can be effective. I once used that hold with my GRD4 for an impromptu photo-essay on smokers – that social pastime that smells like farts and concludes with littering – that wouldn't have been possible with an SLR. The Ricoh GR is a squirrel-like mammal in this time of SLR dinosaurs.

I've spent seven years in camera clubs: I don't think I know this gentleman, but we probably have friends in common. He has a high-end cropped-sensor camera with a battery grip, an off-brand superzoom lens complete with poorly-coated UV filter, and it's slung on a rambotographer strap. He's wearing a sun hat in the middle of the night and a shirt that's colour-coordinated to his loaded photographer's safari vest. At his side is what looks like a Manfrotto 190XproB tripod, complete with a branded shoulder strap, and one of those joystick heads that so often seduces people into thinking that they're a good idea. Hey, I owned one of those once – these things happen.

There are a lot of people who think this is what photography is, and as long as they're having fun, more power to them. But look at the two guys in the background.

They're dressed for the occasion, which is an overnight arts festival. They're carrying pocketable cameras, and they're both using stronger Joby Gorillapods than their cameras need. To my eye both of them are just as intent on creating 'good' photos as The Serious Amateur, but they're on their way into the action while he's quite literally outside and above it. Both methods can work, and either can fail, but these days I'm much more interested in seeing a failure that was caught in the swirl of action than a safe and detached composition.

There have been times when I've missed having a zoom lens. There was one particular incident involving a pigeon that I would have liked to optically crop into, which is all that changing the focal length does, but instead I did what I could with the 28mm-equivalent that I had. And really, it wasn't much of a loss. What on earth am I actually going to do with a photo of a pigeon?

When I was travelling with both the GR and Nikon V1 the Ricoh took almost all of my personal photos. Disproportionately few Nikon photos even made it to blog-worthy status, and those were all done with its long zoom lens; its reach would be the only reason why I wasn't using the GR in the first place. Only one of those few photos can actually stand on its own, and even then it's not among the best. Being involved, and being interested, is interesting. Abstracts have a place, but I'm learning that those can be done with a wide lens, too.

Do I miss having a zoom lens on the GR? Not really.

If there was one thing I could change with the GR it would be to add robust weather sealing. I want to know that the GR is as tough as it feels: I've stuck my Olympus E-1 under a running shower and into a fountain's spray, and even joined a carload of photographers on an all-Olympus outing to Niagara Falls just because we could stand in the camera-killing spray with impunity. Ten years later my E-1 remains my go-to unstoppable digital camera, and I still bury it in snow banks just for fun.

There's a certain swagger that comes from carrying a really good camera that can handle anything that nature can throw at it, knowing that it can keep shooting long after all the lesser cameras have either been tucked away or killed. That's the kind of weather sealing that I want. The GR has a bit of that attitude, simply by being so good and just the right size, but it could be better.

With the experience gained in building the Penticoh K3 this level of protection shouldn't be asking too much. I'll happily accept a $1k price-point if some of the other K3 advances also make it into the next generation GR. As a side benefit this would also mean that the front lens element would need to stay in place rather than moving within the barrel to focus; I can't argue with the results but it still freaks me out a bit.

I learned early on that one of the keys to taking better photos is to keep the camera in my hand. Being ready seems to invite opportunities to appear out of nowhere; it's even more important that I don't put the camera away just because I think I'm "done" for the day. There can be a great twilight time when I'm tired but still thinking creatively, and can respond to spontaneous opportunities that I might otherwise walk past.

Another thing that I've learned is to loosen up and play; to take photos in conditions and situations even when there's nothing obviously photographic to do. I once had a great time playing on escalators, letting the conveyor movement form the photo, and that off-hand experiment became the foundation for an ongoing body of work. No, 'just playing around' usually doesn't produce anything of lasting artistic significance, but that's okay. It's all part of thinking photographically and being aware of creative potential around us.

It should go without saying that the Ricoh GR fits into these two rules perfectly. Small, pocketable and easy to bring out to play, it's the camera that I'm most likely to still have in my hand as I'm walking away from where I thought the photos were. Who knows what can happen? Maybe my favorite shot of the day will be something that I snapped while going through a turnstile on the subway.

I often joke – but not here – about how some cameras have a "flight simulator mode". These are the electronic levels that give a huge indicator for roll and pitch right in the middle of the LCD, looking like a fighter-pilot's heads-up display. While I do sometimes enjoy swooping around the room with my camera held out in front of me while making airplane noises, it rarely leads to good photos. So I'm pleased that Ricoh has a smaller electronic level display positioned on the bottom of the screen, discreet enough to leave on all the time but prominent enough to be useful.

Working with a wide lens has been my biggest adjustment with the GR, and it's still not something that I'm completely used to. Any 28mm-equivalent lens will show perspective 'distortion' very easily, and I really like having things square and level. I'll frequently manoeuvre the GR into the approximately correct position and then not actually take the photo until the electronic level turns green, and it's indispensable for positioning the camera on my little Joby tripods. Granted, I'm not always compelled to have the camera pointing straight ahead, but there's no excuse for tilt.

But the other thing that I've done is quit being so uptight, creatively speaking. Having the GR (and GRD4 before it) has had a direct effect on how I see and photograph, as any good tool should. I now take photos that I simply would have walked away from before, creating several that I'm pleased with in the process. I've also gotten better with tools that mitigate skewed perspective – old habits and all that.

It seems a little churlish, as I stand here on the brink of winter, to be overpowering daylight. But being able to treat the sun as a secondary light is a useful technique, and it's something that the GR is very good at.

Ambient light and flash are both affected by iso sensitivity, aperture, and optional ND filters, but shutter speed only changes the ambient light, giving creative control over the ambient-flash balance. The GR can shoot at an awesome 1/2500 at f/2.8 and has no limit to its flash sync speed. Add in the two-stop ND filter and it's the same as shooting at f/2.8 and 1/10,000s as far as the ambient light level is concerned, but a speedlight only needs to be able to hit its target at the equivalent of an f/5.6 aperture. That's not a big challenge, especially with an external flash.

The "No Parking" photo above was taken at 1/1000s and f/8 at iso100, under-exposing the mid-day sun by about three stops, with an Olympus FL50 and optical trigger brought out of retirement to provide the main light. While juggling manual settings on both the camera and flash takes a little practice, it isn't difficult.

A much simpler benefit of this unrestricted sync speed is that even a little pop-up flash can provide fill in full daylight. Although this exceptional flash ability isn't specific to the GR – it's shared by any camera with a leaf shutter – it's my answer to all of those reviewers who pigeon-hole the little prince as a "street photography camera".

An assortment of experiences doesn't really lend itself to a conclusion, so the good news is that I'm not done yet. An actual look at the image quality of the GR is still to come, and while there won't be any great insights in it, it will conclude my currently series on the camera. I've also previously written a guide to the buttons and customizability of the camera, as well as a philosophical prologue. What can I say? I like this camera, and have been spending a lot of time with it.

But for those who want to spare themselves more reading – lordy, are you ever in the wrong place – my summary is that this is an exceptional and transformative camera. Most people, even most serious photographers, shouldn't own it. Those not-so-serious photographers, who can work with whatever is in their hand to explore, play, and make art, should give it a look.

Quick links to the other chapters in the GR saga:

Ricoh GR: Travel

Ricoh GR: Preface

Ricoh GR: Buttons

Ricoh GR: Experience

Ricoh GR: Quality

Ricoh GV1 Viewfinder

Ricoh GR Brief Impressions

Ricoh GRD4 Review

last updated 26 oct 2013

Ricoh GR: Buttons

Concept: 4 out of 5
Execution: 4 out of 5
Yeah, but: This is the boring bit.

The Long Version: A friend of mine occasionally talks about an abstract special quality that he calls "thing-ness", and the 2013 Ricoh GR makes an exquisite job out of being a thing. Its design has been refined over generations of cameras, digital and film, so it makes sense that the GR is the only camera I've handled that improves on the feel of the slightly smaller Ricoh GRD4. The new GR is simply a pleasure to hold, and makes me wonder why any company would ever design a flat-fronted camera.

There's an odd paradox that high-end compact cameras often feel better-built than midrange SLRs that cost considerably more, and accordingly the immediate impression of the Ricoh GR is solidity. It has a heft and a presence to it, both in the hand and in action, that marks it as a serious little machine. Yet it's a light camera, weighing about as much as similarly-sized compacts from other makers, and less than the larger and self-consciously photographer-centric designs from Canon and Nikon.

The LCD on the GR is worth a special mention because it's actually usable in daylight. It defaults to a slightly lower brightness than the GRD4, which may contribute to the GR's strong battery life numbers, but I never resort to using the hotshoe-mounted optical finder to make up for any LCD shortcomings. The GR also removes my two complaints about the GRD4's LCD interface: we can now choose how many info screens there are, which streamlines the interface, and it's able to show both the alignment grid and the electronic level at the same time.

The GR charges its battery in the camera, via a short custom USB cable. I like that it can charge via USB, since it means that booster batteries for phones can keep the camera running even without AC power, but Ricoh should have included a stand-alone charger instead of yet another 5V USB block. But now that the decision's been made, someone needs to kit up an extra DB-65 battery and BJ-6 charger for GR owners to buy at a discount.

For what it's worth, the battery is the same as the venerable Panasonic CGA-S005, making clones and compatibles rather easy to find, although I haven't tried this myself. Ricoh's batteries tend to be the cheapest of the name-brand ones that are compatible, and I've never had an off-brand battery that matched a branded one.

When the camera is plugged in to charge the green LED on the LCD bezel lights, and turns off when the battery is done. Unfortunately the camera can't do anything else while charging, so forget about plugging it in while reviewing images or working through its menu. Ricoh doesn't get much wrong, so making two missteps with its power supply is very surprising.

Setting up the GR's customizable settings can be overwhelming, and may take months to dial in properly, but there's so much that it does right straight out of the box. The front control wheel changes the active shooting parameter – Av, Tv, program shift – and the vertical +/- toggle on the back gives direct access to exposure compensation. The horizontal 'Adj' toggle can be set for direct access to the iso level, or choose the "auto-hi" iso mode that lets you specify a minimum shutter speed and sensitivity limit. Unless you're shooting jpegs, there's really not much else to worry about. But of course the GR can do far more than that, even for raw shooters.

The GR has three configurable function buttons, all of which can have different values in any of the GR's three programmable shooting modes, and five easy-access 'quick menu' style items. No, the camera can't be set up for birding, but there's very little about it that can't be dialled in to work exactly the way each individual owner desires.

I use the programmable MY-modes extensively, including one to register my normal shooting parameters, so I always know exactly how the camera will work each time I turn it on. It doesn't matter if I was last using the macro mode, or some wacky exposure combination in manual: I know that the camera will boot up in Av mode at f/2.8, no macro, with auto-high iso allowed to range as high as 3200 to maintain a generous 1/125 shutter speed.

Another MY- position is set for street photography. In this case the camera keeps its LCD off, is set for shutter-priority at 1/500s, wide AF with continuous shooting, and its iso sensitivity is allowed to go as high as 6400. I also have the picture style set to black and white, even though the raw image is always recorded in colour, to let me review the images in monochrome.

The GR has rekindled my love of long exposures. My third programmable mode dial position turns the ND filter on, sets iso to 100, and the shutter speed to eight seconds, the GR's longest. The camera will then choose whichever aperture setting works, and I let it automatically shorten the shutter speed when f/16 is still too bright. Perfect exposures, every time. And because I mostly use it at night, the camera also uses centre-weighted metering, -1EV exposure compensation, and dark-frame subtraction noise reduction is turned on. Naturally, the GR is also told to use the two-second self-timer. The two-second timer rocks.

Many compact cameras try to be clever, but Ricoh makes ones that are genuinely smart. They know that a two-second timer is only used to avoid camera shake, so the AF-assist light doesn't flash during the countdown. With a longer duration, the kind of time that someone will use to include themselves in the frame, the countdown light flashes. Ricoh took the time to actually understand how the cameras they make will be used. The Nikon D800 and Canon 5Dmk3, $3K baby-flagships that they are, light their AF illuminators when the two-second timer is running.

Now, the GR does have its operational quirks and frustrations. There doesn't seem to be any way to magnify the screen for manual focus assistance, and magnifying the active AF point doesn't give any escape to view the entire composition before taking the photo. On the other hand, the Snap and Manual focus modes can bring up a distance scale that displays the depth of field for the current aperture. Excellent for street photography, not so helpful for studio portraiture. Life's a barter.

The GR's magnification in macro mode is rather modest. I've certainly seen worse from large-sensored compacts LINK TO G1X, but it's nowhere near as effective as the GRD4 or other small-sensored compacts. Photography, as always, involves compromises, and this is the one that I'm most likely to run into when I'm using the camera. It could possibly be overcome by adding the GH3 filter adapter and using magnifying diopters, but I'm not sure the shortcoming warrants the severity of that solution. Instead I just carry my GRD4 as well.

It's also worth noting that having the macro mode enabled does slow down the rack-to-infinity focusing speed, so the GR isn't one of those cameras that can always be left with the little flower icon on.

Focusing speed in general is quite good. Not SLR-fast, but fast enough when the light is adequate, and less so when it isn't. Its continuous shooting speed, on the other hand, is ample – raw-only is better than 6fps for a brief burst. Once again the GR turns out to be a disappointment for birders, but it's enough to catch fleeting gestures or expressions.

The v2.03 firmware update has improved the focusing system. Pressing the AFL/AEL button to lock focus now enables Spot mode even when the camera would normally use multi-area AF, which is much faster than changing the AF area mode through a custom button or the ADJ menu. I now have my GR set to "lock focus only" with the AFL/AEL button – and it shows its handy distance-and-dof scale to confirm my target – as half-pressing the shutter button will lock the exposure. Brilliant: exactly how I want the camera to work.

Flipping the switch that surrounds this button enables continuous auto focus, turning it into the sports-shooter's back AF-ON button, while the shutter button retains its wide-area single-AF activation for the times when continuous focus isn't activated. I adore how one button combines with a toggle switch to have two functions that are logically connected but have opposite effects. I know exactly how the camera will work, and can change from one specialized setting to the other, simply by feel and without moving my hold from the shooting position.

The GR doesn't offer any sort of image stabilization, and the combination of its high resolution, light weight, and LCD framing does make it susceptible to camera shake. Don't expect to reliably hand-hold a 1/30 shutter speed. I set mine for 1/125, and have been quite happy with that, although 1/60 would probably be okay.

The trick here is to use the auto-high iso mode, which lets you set a minimum shutter speed and maximum sensitivity, not the "auto" mode that is enabled straight out of the box. This one tripped me up on my first outing with the new camera because of another personality quirk that the GR has.

The GR is honest, even if it's not helpful sometimes. The DNG files only embed a small jpeg image with their raw data, so shooting raw-only means that magnifying the images on the cameras' LCD isn't very satisfying. Checking for sharpness is pretty much hopeless. Jpeg images can be enlarged without any difficulty, including those shot in raw+jpeg; in a pinch a raw image can be converted to a jpeg in-camera, but that's just a little bit clunky.

One other quirk to keep in mind with the physical operation of the GR: it has a fixed 28mm-equivalent prime lens. That might bother some people.

Owning a GR and a GRD4 has changed my standards. I've been using the GR every day for over a month now, taking over 3000 photos in the process, and the camera just keeps getting better. Moments of frustration with its design and operation are almost completely absent, while with other cameras they range between occasional and endemic. There are cameras – popular, mainstream cameras – that I simply would not buy because their usability is so incredibly poor. The GR proves that bad design isn't mandatory.

The GR is the best digital camera that I've ever used – others may take better photos, but none do a better job of being a camera. Its design and operational elegance rivals my ZM Zeiss Icon, a camera that was made to improve on the lessons from a half-century of Leica engineering, and possibly exceeds it. I never thought that a digital camera could accomplish that task.

The fact that the GR's image quality is excellent is a nice bonus, as well. More on that in a bit.

Quick links to the other chapters in the GR saga:

Ricoh GR: Travel

Ricoh GR: Preface

Ricoh GR: Buttons

Ricoh GR: Experience

Ricoh GR: Quality

Ricoh GV1 Viewfinder

Ricoh GR Brief Impressions

Ricoh GRD4 Review

last updated 8 oct 2013

Ricoh GV-1 Viewfinder

Concept: 2 out of 5
Execution: 4 out of 5
Yeah, but: Society for Camera Anachronisms approved.

The Long Version: The Ricoh GV-1 is an add-on optical viewfinder that's marked with 21mm and 28mm framelines, which makes it a decidedly odd accessory in these days of electronic viewfinders and zoom lenses. It conveys no information aside from a rough approximation of framing in exchange for considerably increasing the bulk and cost of the few cameras that can use it. On the other hand, it does come with a nylon carrying case, so there's that.

Ricoh also makes the GV-2, which is a physically smaller optical viewfinder with only 28mm framelines, but it offers less eye relief than the bulky GV1. That rules it out for me – I can see the GV1's 28mm lines with my glasses on, but the 21mm lines are a struggle. Both Ricoh viewfinders have squarish black stippled metal bodies that match the GR-series cameras.

With an eye to the viewfinder the framelines take up almost the entire field without the 'tunnel' effect that SLRs are famous for. The 28mm framelines are visually larger than a midrange DSLR's viewfinder, and to my eye even exceeds the entire viewing window of the Fujifilm X-Pro and X100/s optical viewfinders. It can't match the awesome m-mount Zeiss Ikon for viewfinder size – few can – but it the GV1 is brighter.

The guides on the GV1 are a bit tighter than the actual capture area, especially toward the bottom of the frame. The lines are basically in a 3:2 aspect ratio, despite the viewfinder being made for for the small-sensor GR Digital line, but it makes surprisingly little difference between the two camera types. The viewfinder is also offset to the right to avoid the pop-up flash that's next to the hotshoe on the GRD cameras, but the new GR has a bit more room up top, which will make it more compatible with other 28mm finders.

The view through the GV1 is very good. Clear, bright, and with good optics in its own right, although its slight barel distortion exceeds that from the lenses of the GR/D4. An interesting side effect of looking through a wide-angle accessory finder like the GV1 is that they make vertical perspective visible, which is something that we're normally blind to although it absolutely will show up in the GR's photos.

For critical framing the GV1 is useless, and for normal use it's not really necessary; the LCD screens on the GD and GRD4 are very good even in bright sun. (Although the lower default brightness of the GR makes it slightly weaker than its predecessor in this regard.) It's occasionally useful as a fast framing aid, even with the LCD on, since I find it more intuitive to bring the camera up and quickly boresight my subject rather than look away from my subject and concentrate on the image on the LCD screen, which may not even be in focus yet. I've done this with taxis and with fighter jets, and it works just fine for snapshots, although obviously composition is somewhat extemporaneous.

Where the optical finder really shines is for discreet photography with the LCD turned off. "Street" photography is an obvious example, but there are ample other times when it's nice to be subtle, smooth, and unobtrusive. Here the GR's focus confirmation LED comes in handy, letting the camera and viewfinder work as one unit. I just have to remember that the brim of my hat won't be in the photo even if it impinges into the viewfinder's field of view.

The time when I'm most likely to remove the GV1 is when I'm taking macro photos, since it's very easy for it to cast a shadow on the subject. The good news is that my GV1 usually lives on the bigger-sensored GR, which is fairly bad at macro photography, leaving my closer-focusing GRD4 naked and ready to go. So the viewfinder even gives me a quick way to tell my two Ricoh cameras apart, which probably isn't a problem that many people will have.

Having the viewfinder attached does considerably increase difficulty in finding a camera case that will hold the complete assembly. I usually carry my GR in a neoprene sleeve that was meant for a 5" tablet; it cost $7 at an office supply store, making it the best accessory-per-dollar I've ever spent on anything photographic.

Seeing the camera with the viewfinder attached has different effects depending on the audience. Non-photographers seem more inclined to notice the camera and then dismiss it; instead of being just another compact digital camera it looks more like a film or toy camera. People who know cameras seem to take it a little more seriously, since it says something about the owner's intent, even if it may be a bit of an affectation.

Yes, it is something of an anachronism, but the GR with its matching viewfinder just has a certain integrity that I really enjoy. That might sound trivial or superficial, but i've proven over and over again that I take better photos when I'm using gear that I like. At the very least, I take more photos with gear that I like, and often that's the same thing.

last updated 27 spet 2013

Ricoh GR: Preface

Concept: 5 out of 5
Execution: 4 out of 5
Yeah, but: It's just a camera, not anything important.

The Long Version: The Ricoh GR isn't some flawless machine. It's not the most capable, not the best in low light, not the smallest, not the most rugged, and not the highest resolving; it doesn't have the largest dynamic range, the fastest focusing, the longest battery life, or even the fewest optical flaws. Others will be better than it in any of those things, and a some might surpass the GR in several at once.

Notwithstanding: The Ricoh GR is the best camera that I've ever used.

The biggest thing that I've learned from the Ricoh GR is that specialization is the opposite of compromise. Compromises are inherent in photography; as just two examples, cameras that accept interchangeable lenses and lenses with variable focal lengths all exchange aspects of their design, size, cost, and quality for versatility. Usually that's a pretty good deal, and I celebrate the different sets of compromises made by the six or seven camera systems that I own. But the opposite of that is to accept specialization, compromises in application instead of in design, and the results can be glorious.

Underlying intentions and design assumptions matter. Consider the Nikon Coolpix A, a camera with specifications that are almost identical to the GR, but with the soul of a completely different machine because it was conceived of as a fixed-lens camera with a DSLR heritage. It's a good enough camera, from a company that often sets "good enough" as their design objective, but it lacks the GR's essence.

The Ricoh GR comes from a long line of cameras that are all very much like the GR; the current model with its APS-C sensor is even priced very similarly to its small-sensor predecessors. With this new model Ricoh is simply continuing their years of work to make the best GR cameras possible, and clearly takes tremendous satisfaction in this rather esoteric and under-appreciated goal. All of the other camera-making companies are pursuing a much broader strategy that is being is played out across the entire spectrum of the market. The cameras themselves, especially compact cameras, are secondary to some other unstated objective that Ricoh simply doesn't seem to share.

The GR is typically presented as a camera for street photographers. As a small, pocketable, one-handed, nondescript compact camera that will be dismissed by nearly everyone who sees it – photographers, security guards, the general public – the GR has the same single-minded clarity of purpose as a scalpel. The funny thing is that scalpels actually have a lot of different uses; X-Acto knives can be found in any art or office supply store.

"Street" isn't a genre that I'm particularly interested in, and my attempts to dabble in it haven't been particularly successful. Instead I like abstracted compositions with squared-off geometry, active framing, and flat picture space. That's the natural domain of an SLR with a medium-long lens, and yet somehow the GR still works for me. It may be a specialized camera with its fixed wide-angle lens, but don't confuse that with being restricted.

The Ricoh GR is a camera that's worth spending time with, so my review of it will be ongoing and broken into different chapters. The first isn't exclusively about the GR, but rather about the experience of travelling with it in place of an SLR system. The next will be a rather boring recitation of buttons and functions as I go through some of the options that this little camera offers. Following that will be my more usual experiential review and a closer look at image quality.

It should go without saying that a long-term report also seems inevitable.

Quick links to the other chapters in the GR saga:

Ricoh GR: Travel

Ricoh GR: Preface

Ricoh GR: Buttons

Ricoh GR: Experience

Ricoh GR: Quality

Ricoh GV1 Viewfinder

Ricoh GR Brief Impressions

Ricoh GRD4 Review

last updated 8 oct 2013

Ricoh GR: Travel

Concept: 4 out of 5
Execution: 5 out of 5
Yeah, but: This is only Part One.

The Long Version: There was one time when I missed having my D800 with me. I was in an elevator, three thousand kilometres from my home, on my way to photograph a bunch of friends getting reading for a wedding. I'm not the most outgoing individual, and am not naturally drawn to people photography; the gravitas of a big camera would have been something to take authority from, or hide behind. Instead I was carrying the little Ricoh GR, and for a fleeting minute it felt like one of those dreams where I would be arriving at the party naked.

But if I had my D800 the photos would have been worse. It's too much camera to be sticking in someone's face, and would have shot like a thunderclap in a small hotel room. And I knew that, too, even as I was briefly wanting the God Nikon.

At no other point in my week-long trip to Los Angeles and Las Vegas did I wish I was carrying more weight or a bigger camera.

Visiting family in Los Angeles meant lots of opportunities for casual photography, as well as returning to one of my favourite landscape locations. Moving on to a wedding in Las Vegas would involve street and urban photography in my off-time as well as filling in around the edges of the paid event photographers for the big day. That wedding also meant that I'd need two "good" cameras, as Penny would be photographing the female half of the preparations.

My original plan had been to carry the Nikon D800 with the 60mm Micro and Sigma 35/1.4 along with the Nikon V1 with its 10-30, 30-110, and 18.5mm prime. That would fill my boxy Lowepro Stealth Reporter, leaving my iPad Mini sticking out the back, and barely have room for batteries, let alone the chargers and everything else I'd need. Fortunately, my preorder for the GR, placed with Ricoh in May, came through just three days before I flew out – on the Friday before a long weekend – and changed everything.

The D800 and its two lenses stayed home: five pounds of weight gone, just like that, along with the need for the boxy nylon camera bucket. Now my entire kit fit inside a little 7L MEC Pod sling pack, which made everything else I did over the trip easier and better. Even with all of the ancillary bits and pieces that I wanted with me, my fully loaded carry-on weight was only nine pounds, and my working weight was substantially lighter than that. The GR's higher quality and smaller size also meant that the V1 was demoted from its expected role as my main camera, and while it was irreplaceable for the wedding and associated events, it took less than 20% of my personal photos.

When the quality and portability of the GR is mentioned on photography forums there's always someone who espouses something that they already own: the NEX-whichever and 16-50 power zoom lens, or a Panalympus with Pancakes, or the Fuji ex-film series. None of those are even in the same league as the Ricoh GR. I own three different mirrorless camera systems, and have travelled with each of them. A camera this good and this small hasn't happened before.

First of all, the collapsing Sony 16-50 is the camel scrotum of camera lenses – not in a good way – and all interchangeable lens systems have design and size restrictions that simply don't apply to a fixed-lens camera. The Ricoh GR's dedicated prime lens resolves more detail, and with fewer deficiencies, than much larger and more expensive machines. The GR is unquestionably more specialized than a camera with interchangeable lenses, but it's also far less compromised.

Secondly, the Ricoh GR comes from a long line of advanced small cameras, and its operation has been exquisitely thought out. With the exception of its mechanical flash release, the GR can be configured so that every single shooting function can be used and changed one-handed. That makes for a completely different paradigm than a camera that requires two hands to use properly. Complimenting this is its slim design, which makes it more pocketable than awkwardly-named fixed-lens cameras like the Sony RX100M2 or Coolpix A. The GR is the most transparent digital camera that I've ever worked with, and it just goes away when it's not needed any more.

The catch, of course, is that the GR accomplishes its small size and excellent image quality via an unzooming 28mm-equivalent lens. That's not my favourite single focal length – I prefer 60mm – and wide lenses do tend to be more difficult to use than long ones. Add in the imprecision of holding and framing with an LCD-only camera to the wide-angle ability to exaggerate perspective and hilarity often ensues. It's certainly not for everyone. But my time with both the GR and the small-sensor GRD4 has convinced me that 28mm is an excellent if-there-can-be-only-one focal length. Those who disagree are welcome to treat the GR as a 10Mpx 35mm-equivalent camera if they prefer.

Travelling with the GR made for the best effort:reward ratio of any photographic trip I've ever taken. In Los Angeles I would carry the GR and three-lens V1 system in my shoulder bag, almost always choosing the GR but having the V1 and its long zoom immediately available when I wanted it. That same bag could only have fit the much heavier D800 with one lens; photographic flexibility would have meant carrying a much bigger and even heavier camera bag when I went to the beach, toured a local battleship, or walked around the neighbourhood. The GR/V1 pairing gave me tremendous flexibility, good-to-excellent quality, and a much more pleasant trip overall.

Street photography with the GR in Las Vegas was quite literally a snap. Being able to use the camera with one hand, and set most of its functions with barely a glance, drew minimal attention and let me take many photos that I could never have managed with an SLR. I didn't even bother with a camera bag when I was on the strip at night, since the GR could fit in a pocket even with the little Joby Micro 800 tripod attached. The Ricoh GR immediately rekindled my love of urban long exposures, and reconfiguring it from taking low-iso long exposures to being ready for high-iso street snapshots was as simple as choosing a new custom-programmed position on the mode dial.

Every time I picked up my camera bag, or saw someone walking with a big camera, I was happy that I had left my D800 kit at home. I almost felt badly for the SLR-users lugging their ungainly contrivances of tripods and wide-angle lenses around Las Vegas Boulevard at night. Just one year ago beavering away with a little compact camera would have been a waste of effort, but now the world has changed. The last time I saw an impending shift this large was when I was trying to explain the brand-new Lightroom software to photographers who told me that Adobe Bridge did everything they needed.

I'm not about to put my D800 up for sale, and I know that I'll be taking trips with it in the future. Its image quality and flexibility remain unsurpassed. If weight is not an issue, like when on a supported tour or travelling by car, I'll happily load up a big backpack and head out the door. But I'll still be bringing the GR to tuck in a pocket.

If I'm flying, or taking intercity buses, weight and bulk transform into luxuries and impediments. Pairing the excellent GR with the versatile Nikon V1 worked very well given the requirements of this trip, and I know I'll be using that combination the next time I'm in Coney Island. But I also foresee other trips, possibly including multi-day bus forays, done entirely with my GR and GRD4.

Cheap SD cards remove the need for storage drives, and phones and tablets are making laptop computers redundant. The GR's in-camera charging means that the same USB power block can supply my phone, tablet, and camera; if that fails then the GRD4 can squeak as many photos as you'd get from a short roll of film out of a pair of AAA batteries. It has never been easier to travel long distances lightly and with excellent gear.

With the GR I finally have a camera that's small enough to carry and use anywhere, and good enough that it's worth taking those once-in-a-longtime photos with. Even better, it's a genuinely compact camera that doesn't require workarounds and compromises in its use. It's not perfect, but it's exceptionally well designed and hits the sweet spot for almost everything it does.

Quick links to the other chapters in the GR saga:

Ricoh GR: Travel

Ricoh GR: Preface

Ricoh GR: Buttons

Ricoh GR: Experience

Ricoh GR: Quality

Ricoh GV1 Viewfinder

Ricoh GR Brief Impressions

Ricoh GRD4 Review

last updated 14 sept 2013

Brief Impressions: Ricoh GR

Concept: TBA
Execution: TBA
Yeah, but: More to come when I know anything useful.

Counter Opinion: Today I spent a brief amount of time with the New Ricoh GR, and I'm as determined as ever to buy one. True, my hands-on time was less than twenty minutes, but when I had a chance to try the 'Coolpix A' I set it back down after just a fraction of that, impressed at the concept but uninspired by its execution. Button-and-dial EV comp? No thanks, I prefer to spend my time taking pictures.

The GR that I used, like all of the ones that people have been writing about so far, was a late preproduction unit without final firmware. Unlike some bloggers, I'm not about to attempt a definitive or comparative analysis of image quality and performance, especially as its DNG raw files are still waiting for proper profiles from Adobe. However, as a newly-minited Ricoh GR Digital owner nothing I saw made me unhappy.

The GR is slightly longer than the GR Digital IV, but that's an improvement, not a demerit. There's more finger room around the front grip, and the camera feels better than the Girdiv in my average-sized hands. It remains a small camera, and isn't bigger-enough to make a practical difference for carry; while the camera is also a little thicker than the previous model, it can still be tucked in a back pocket when it's not in use. Finding a good case might be a challenge, but it's one I'm happy to accept.

The lens has only one extending section versus the GRD-IV's two, and seems less point-and-shooty when the camera is powered on. But rather than looking more 'serious', a la Fuji X100, I think the look is more reminiscent of an unthreatening film camera. I could absolutely see bringing the GR as my only digital camera for my annual summer-starting trip to New York City, should I be lucky enough to own one by then.

The biggest operational difference between the GRD-IV and the New GR is the macro mode. While the GR isn't bad – nothing at all like the Canon G1x – because the two cameras look and feel the same I kept trying to get too close for the new kid. As a result I can see an Eye-Fi equipped Girdiv becoming my camera of choice for easy product review photos, such as these ones, while the GR does the real work.

In terms of speed I couldn't feel much difference between the IV and the New GR / GRD-V models, with AF being pretty snappy on both. The GR seems like a bit of an improvement in pretty much all areas, and I have remarkably few complaints about the old one, so that works just fine for me. I'm looking forward to having this camera to call my own.

Quick links to the other chapters in the GR saga:

Ricoh GR: Travel

Ricoh GR: Preface

Ricoh GR: Buttons

Ricoh GR: Experience

Ricoh GR: Quality

Ricoh GV1 Viewfinder

Ricoh GR Brief Impressions

Ricoh GRD4 Review

Counter Opinions are quick "sales counter" product reviews.
As always, viewer discretion is advised.
Last updated 10 may 2013

Ricoh GR Digital IV

Concept: 3 out of 5
Execution: 4 out of 5
Yeah, but: Three cheers for clearance pricing!

The Long Version: No offense, but there's really only so much you can learn from reading about cameras online. Sooner or later the time arrives: back away from the forums, pick up a camera, and GTFO – get the film out, if only metaphorically.

The New Ricoh GR digital – V, but who's counting – is coming. I've read just about everything I can find as I await my preorder, including GRD-era reviews to learn more about the Ricoh GR paradigm. After a dozen days I was completely saturated and there was only one sensible thing to do: I bought a Ricoh GR Digital IV, GRD-IV, pronounced "Girdiv", that was on clearance at the local camera chain.

Well, I suppose "stopping" also would have been a sensible thing to do, but that wouldn't have given me much to write about. So this review is about what I've learned in the time that it's taken me to work the kinks out of the Girdiv's camera strap.

The first thing I've learned is that the reviews that look like fawning adulation aren't as over-the-top as they seem. This is easily the best-designed digital camera that I've used. The GR design language stretches back farther than the Canon G-series, all the way into the film era, where the GR1 was the contemporary of the Nikon F5. Combined with a clear design intention about how the GR would be used, the result is an uncommon clarity of purpose. The GR is a scalpel that makes a Leica look bloated and self-indulgent. I mean, different focal lengths? Who needs that kind of superfluity?

The GR Digital IV, at its core, is a camera with an incredibly well-honed design housing a sensor and processor that were already dated when it was launched in late 2011.

I suspect that the sensor is the same as the one in the Canon S90, which debuted two years before the GRDIV came along; this sensor also appeared in the Canon G11 and Samsung EX1. It's a perfectly respectable choice as long as you don't like high definition video, but it wasn't cutting edge even when the Girdiv first came out. Its contemporaries – the Canon S100 was announced on the same day as the IV, September 15 – offer slightly better DxOMark performance, but more significantly the shot-to-shot time and buffer on the Girdiv has a distinct lag.

For a 'street photography' camera the noticeable delay in shot-to-shot time is either critical or irrelevant. Film cameras from the rangefinder aesthetic school wouldn't be able to take a burst of photos, so the decisive-moment timing purist won't even think about the followup delay. Those of use who are a little more digital in our thinking, especially those used to SLRs, may initially be frustrated by the press-and-pause method.

It's important to point out that the GRD-IV is perfectly snappy taking that first shot. Not only is the AF system fairly quick, sometimes it's not even necessary.

A feature of the GR Digital line – and the film GRs before them – is the ability to take a shot focused at a preset distance by skipping the shutter button's half-press AF-seeking pause. Jab and done. The Girdiv even allows Snap Focus to over-ride the current iso sensitivity and use the cameras' user-set auto-iso range. It's a pretty cool customization ability.

I'm not usually too concerned with the image quality of compact cameras; I choose them for their smaller size so I'm not going to be too picky. But the GRD-IV is a tremendous low-iso small-sensor compact, and holds up reasonably well into the mid-iso range as well. The majority of all of my photography is done within an iso range that can be comfortably handled by film, so I'm not too worried when iso1250 shows some noise. I'm impressed when it doesn't, to be sure, but it's not something that my personal expression depends on.

The 28mm-equivalent prime lens is excellent, both sharper and more flare-resistant than the zoom on the Canon S100. Point light sources within or just outside the frame can cause some unpleasant ghosting, but veiling glare is minimal.

Working with the 28mm-e field of view has taken some adjustment, but that's partly because I haven't used a compact camera since the end of my Five Thousand Photos project six months ago. Half of the 11,000 photos that I took for that series – I'm bad at math – were taken either at the cameras' widest angle or with just a quick tap of the zoom toggle to improve their lens quality. So the GR's prime lens is the natural extension of that priority, and while I occasionally missed the zoom in the first few days, now I don't think about it at all.

Some might call the GRD-IV a niche (rhymes with quiche) camera, but most photos these days are taken with cell phones. Wide and ultra-wide prime lenses dominate social media. While spending actual money on a stand-alone camera that can't take closeup photos during Billy's baseball game might still be a hard sell for most consumers, the entire compact camera market is imploding anyway. Ricoh (et al) don't have much to lose by swinging for the fences.

Physically the GRD-IV is exceptional. The build quality of the camera rivals any other that I've owned, including the Nikon D800, and, dare I say it, the legendary Olympus E-1. It doesn't claim any weather sealing, which is too bad, but it has an excellent control layout and is extremely comfortable to use.

I can quibble with the best of them, but my only little nit with physical design of the Girdiv is the SD card position. Why camera makers put the SD card slot up against the hinges for the battery door is beyond me; this makes it harder to remove than it should be. Using an Eye-Fi card solves that problem, but the extra WiFi power drain means that the battery compartment is going to get a workout regardless.

In an emergency the GRD family can be powered – briefly – by a pair of AAA batteries. This is done with an extra set of contacts and a flap to reduce the size of the battery compartment, which the regular DB-65 just pushes aside, so there's no need for an adapter. For what it's worth the DB-65 looks to be cross-compatible with the Sigma BP-41 and Pentax LI106, but the Ricoh-branded one is consistently the cheapest of the three.

Now, have a look at the next photo, and check out where I've attached the wrist strap: this is so much more comfortable and convenient than the usual method that other makers should be embarrassed. Naturally, mounting the strap on the top right or left is also an option.

The LCD screen is the best one I've ever used, and it really is visible in Toronto's interpretation of direct sunlight. I do sometimes prefer using the GV-1 viewfinder to frame images, and the camera has a handy green AF-confirmation lamp to support it, but it's really just a matter of working style and personal preference rather than overcoming any sort of deficiency.

Th GV-1 includes both 21mm and 28mm frame lines, and there's also a much smaller GV-2 viewfinder that only shows 28mm. But with my glasses I'm only barely comfortable with the 28mm lines on the GV-1, so I'm glad I chose the bulkier one.

Aside from its approximation of framing, there are two advantages to having the shoe-mounted viewfinder, and they're both that they make the Girdiv look even more harmless than the typical point-and-shoot camera that it superficially resembles. The big GV-1 OVF makes the GRD look like a toy camera, perhaps from the 'Lomo' family, and less like a serious black rectangle. Also, the GR Digital cameras can turn off their LCD – a feat the sparkly new Nikon Coolpix A can't accomplish, not that it's a competition – making them look inert and drawing less attention to themselves.

The OVF downsides, of course, are substantial: they're expensive, easily smudged, and good luck finding a case that will fit the complete assembly.

When the LCD is off hitting a control button can be set to turn it back on momentarily to review the settings change. Unfortunately this involves a bit of a breakdown in the Girdiv's control logic, as the first button press only activates the screen instead of changing the settings. Making adjustments without looking at the camera means remembering if the LCD is on or off. But naturally it's not even that straightforward, as exposure compensation always uses the first button press to call up the adjustment scale and a really good histogram display, regardless of whether the screen is on or off.

Overall I consider the EV control quirk a positive, since exposure compensation is one of the two controls I use the most, so it's good to have it behave consistently regardless of the LCD status. It also makes it easy to call up the histogram without actually changing any settings. But the other control that I use a lot is aperture, and that does behave differently when the screen is off. For everything that isn't EV comp I would vastly prefer it if the first button press would change the intended setting as well as call up the control display on the LCD.

This is a small thing, but it does make a difference in practice, even if the subtlety of this UI quirk is so far beyond the level of competence that other makers strive for. Did you know that the $1100 Coolpix A can't even turn off its LCD screen?

Sadly the LCD display is the source of more of my UI quibbles with the Girdiv. It cycles through in five steps: Info - Info with Histogram - Grid Display - Image Only - LCD Off. I'd really like to be able to take some of those out of the rotation. The display with the histogram is somewhat redundant, as using the exposure compensation rocker automatically calls up an even better histogram. I also don't find the information overlay distracting, so I can live without the info-less screen setting. Being able to choose which screen views to include in the rotation, which in my case would be "Info - Grid - Off", would be a big improvement.

The Grid View screen is worth special mention in its own right, and not in a good way. It's the only view mode that doesn't show which AF areas are active, which is unsettling, and doesn't include the excellent dual-axis level indicators from the two Info display screens, which would be really, really useful to have in conjunction with the grid options. Granted, my D800 can't simultaneously display its grid and level in the viewfinder either, and my V1 doesn't have a grid screen or a level, but the Ricoh interface really does aim higher than those two.

The mode dial on the Girdiv has a safety interlock so that it can't be changed accidentally; this is a design consideration that's reserved for high-end SLRs from the leading national brands. The GRD can embed copyright information into the EXIF information, disable the power LED, and has an intervalometer. It's a little odd that a camera that lets its owner recalibrate the electronic levels doesn't include pixel mapping, but it does have little rubber feet on the bottom to stop the camera from sliding when it's set down.

I check the manual for the GRD-IV more than any camera that isn't a Nikon SLR. Some of this is simply due to the different way that Ricoh thinks and writes compared to the bigger brands – 'white saturation display' means blinking highlights on the LCD – but it's mostly because there are so many interlocking options. Not all of these are readily apparent or grouped in the menus, but with a bit of perseverance it generally works out in the end.

There's an entire menu section devoted to how the function buttons can be set, paired, and changed. Most menu options are confirmed simply by choosing them from the pop-out options list and then navigating away; there's no need for a separate "OK" button-press before moving on to something else. Touching the shutter button can also be set to confirm changes, making for a quick and responsive camera to navigate. I'll say it again: this is the best-designed digital camera that I've ever used. It somehow manages to simultaneously rival my D800 for customization and my Zeiss Icon for operational elegance, which is an unlikely combination to hit.

The Girdiv is unlike other cameras in how it chooses its own settings, too. I typically use aperture priority and allow its iso to run as high as 640 without supervision, and it really seems to enjoy it. The selection of these values is unusually granular: the EXIF data shows it using iso values such as 168, 176, 183, and 192; I have more photos taken at a shutter speed of 1/130s than at 1/125. If nothing else it makes for an interesting Lightroom catalog.

Buying a camera so that I could learn to use another camera seems a little odd, even to me. But Ricoh uses the same battery in the New GR, and the 2013 camera doesn't include a stand-alone battery charger, so I can almost believe that owning both of them makes sense. And given that I sold my Canon S100 for about what the Girdiv cost, it worked out fairly well for me.

I prefer the small-sensor Ricoh to its Canon counterpart, giving me a camera that I enjoy and use in exchange for one that I had stopped using, so the trade is a win-win. The Ricoh is more satisfying, offers few real limitations in actual practice, and its image quality is better enough that I can use it for prints that the Canon compact couldn't do. Maybe, just maybe, the GRD-IV will continue in active use even when there's a GRD-V in the house. Time will tell.

I've been interested in the GR family since I saw a GR1v years ago, but the cost of the small-sensor digital versions just seemed too far out of line with the rest of the market. Cutting the price in half has fixed that problem for the old model, and I'm very pleased to see the New GR with its 1.5x sensor being priced quite aggressively compared to other high-end compacts. The camera industry could definitely use a little more Ricoh.

updated mere days later: I've been able to take a New Ricoh GR for a spin, and wrote about it.

Updated again, 15 May 2013: My, My, My.

I know it's time to move on, but I've been spending some time with the "MY" modes, and they're worth reopening the review for.

Many decent cameras, such as my now-departed S100, can store a particular settings state in a custom memory mode. For the Canon camera I used this for my long exposure preferences, which were wildly different from my usual values, but having a single user-set mode made made it more of a party trick than something that was useful on a day-to-day basis. That's probably why I didn't rush to set up the "MY" positions on the Girdiv's dial, and that was a mistake.

The GRD4, like the upcoming GR that I'm practicing for, has three "MY" shooting modes, so there's no need to reserve them for exotic contortions. And just about everything can be remembered, such as the LCD display mode and permitted auto-iso range, along with more typical things like exposure mode and settings. Making the camera even better, there's a menu that lets just about every camera setting be edited after the mode position is registered. If you later want a different custom self-timer configuration, noise reduction threshold, or grid display, the process to change the saved settings is just as easy to use as everything else on the camera.

I've set "MY2" to my preferred all-around settings: aperture priority, f/1.9, auto-iso authorized to 640, LCD on, etcetera. This way it doesn't matter if I was last taking macro photos at f/8, or landscapes at iso80, the camera always starts up the same way. I know exactly what the camera will do just by looking at the mode dial it when I turn it on, and predictability is a good thing.

The settings I've saved to "MY1" are identical to "MY2", except the LCD is turned off. A minor difference, perhaps, but this fixes one of my few nagging UI quibbles. No more cycling through the different view modes with the display button, just push-and-turn and done. Similarly, "MY3" holds my 'street' settings. The LCD stays off, the camera moves to shutter priority at 1/500s, and auto-iso can run as high as 1250: perfect for catching grab shots when I'm on the move. Having this programmed into a MY mode makes 'snap focus', a distinctively Ricoh feature, vastly more useful for me.

The GRD4's amount of customization would be pretty impressive even if it stopped right there, but of course it doesn't. I've still only just started to understand the different ways the camera can be configured and changed from moment to moment. And to reward all of this hard work, the Girdiv can even store additional inactive "MY" settings in its memory. These stand ready to be called into service with fewer button-presses than it takes for me to change the iso setting on my Nikon V1.

Not bad for a point-and-shoot.

last updated 15 may 2013