If there’s one camera I’ve been particularly excited about in recent years, it’s the recently announced Ricoh GR IV. After all, I carry the Ricoh GR IIIx (an alternate version of the GR III with a 40mm lens) with me every day, and a successor is long overdue.
I know the strengths and weaknesses of the Ricoh GR series and it is not without reason that I am one of many enthusiastic photographers who know how to look beyond its limitations and know how powerful and discreet it can be in the right hands.
Besides my phone, my GR IIIx has been my favorite tool for documenting life. I became familiar with it and developed a perspective and a shooting style that became instinctive to me.
A step in the right direction
I can only speak for myself, but my list of desired improvements included a tilting screen, built-in flash, better build quality, and smarter autofocus. And I wanted all these improvements in an equally compact and pocket-sized package.
In addition to the slightly better autofocus and the emphasis on light – GR IV adds nothing and is significantly more expensive. So this is definitely an update you should skip, right? Those were actually my initial thoughts, but after a few uses I was also pleasantly surprised by other aspects.
Minor design changes improve the camera’s overall handling: a slimmer body combined with a wider grip makes it easier to use with one hand, in both landscape and portrait formats. On my GR IIIx I added a thumb grip for a secure grip, but here it’s not necessary.
The USB-C port is much easier to open and close (see above), while the one on the GR III cameras is extremely complicated.
A rear rocker switch above where the thumb rests is now a full control dial, greatly increasing its versatility, while the ± switch on the thumb grip, which was on the GR II and enables rewinding, makes adjusting exposure compensation easier (although accidental presses are common). Simply put, each part of the exposure triangle (shutter speed, aperture and ISO) can be directly controlled with assignable controls.
Yes, the even smaller size (body depth) is an improvement in my opinion. We also get a bigger, better battery with a 20% improved CIPA rating and bigger internal storage, from 2GB to 53GB. And there’s an interior update I’m curious about, based on the photos I took.
An amazing and addictive new feature
Again, we have a large APS-C sensor in a very small body, but the sensor has been improved. The resolution has been increased slightly, from 24 MP to 26 MP, which is a lot to talk about, but more importantly, the stabilization is now five-axis instead of three-axis, which means that the effectiveness of the stabilization has been improved.
Simply put, the image stabilization is better. With the 28mm lens, I believe it is possible to take sharp handheld shots with shutter speeds down to one second, and my repeated experiments with long exposure photography have proven this.
I regularly took sharp shots handheld, with a shutter speed of 0.5 seconds, with creative motion blur effects, such as the movement of traffic and people (see above). And since I’ve been in London, one of the busiest cities in the world, I’ve had many opportunities to experiment with this technology.
Looking at my photo gallery, and I have more than 1000, I can tell that I have become a bit addicted to long exposure photography, which is now much more possible with the new sensor, and low light photography.
I’m also clearly into black and white photography and often choose the “Hard Monotone” color profile with its intense infrared aspect. With this in mind, I’m particularly interested in the recently announced GR IV Monochrome, due out next year.
Rioch GR IV – first impressions
I don’t plan to upgrade from my GR IIIx to the GR IV, although it would be nice to have both!
Even after using the GR IV for two weeks, I can already tell that I will have some issues with the build quality, which seems more or less the same as the previous model. Reality shows I’ve had to repair my GR IIIx twice (luckily they were cheap repairs for frozen keys) and I expect the same thing to happen if I use the GR IV for an extended period of time.
You may have a different approach than I do, but this is not a camera I want to wrap in cotton wool. I want to put it in my pocket without a bulky protective case and have it ready to use when I need it. Without a doubt, my biggest wish is still better build quality in a future version. But they are Despite this I was tempted by the GR IV and the upcoming monochrome version is now at the top of my wish list.
Sure, the GR IV doesn’t look like the upgrade I was hoping for, but it’s also a surprising improvement that opens up new creative styles, in an even more compact and easy-to-use package. This is a small step in the right direction rather than a giant leap, but it can be enough.