Ricoh GRDIV
I’ve fielded a lot of questions lately about Ricoh’s latest camera, the GRDIV. Honestly, it was getting a little tedious hearing about it haha. Although I suppose I understand considering there’s hardly anything written about it anywhere. I’ve been having a bit of a love affair with Ricoh’s film cameras the last little while so I hadn’t thought much about the GRDIV. After having a chance to get one though, I decided it a good idea to give it a go.
Ricoh GRDIV
I received the GRDIV last night and my first impressions were a little mixed. I really liked the GRDIII and the IV is built on the same chassis. That being said, I’d been shooting with the GR21 a lot lately. The GR21 with it’s built in optical viewfinder is a joy to use. It was a little hard to look at the GRDIV with the GV2 viewfinder attached. I never much minded before I’d shot with the film Ricohs. It was kinda bothering me though. I wouldn’t shoot without the viewfinder, though. Since I usually shoot with rangefinders, I don’t much like LCDs and mostly turn them off (I won’t say much about the GRDIV LCD because I didn’t look at it much).
Ricoh GRDIV
That being said, the GV2 is big and bright. It’s brighter than the built in viewfinder on the GR21. I did miss the shooting information inside the in-built one.
Not ideally, we had decided to go to a festival in our hometown last night. Compact cameras and no light, lol. I kept the GRDIV set to one of the “MY” settings like I had normally done with the GRDIII. I shot in auto ISO and let the camera stretch to 1600 if necessary. The above was at 500. There was some sort of concert going on with guys dressed like the homeless.
Ricoh GRDIV, iso 1600
This one was at 1600. I thought the camera is about a stop better than the GRDIII in this regard. The grain is a little more film like, although I found it to be a little coarser. It doesn’t have the same look or feel as it’s film brothers. If I hadn’t used the GR21, I would’ve been quite happy with this.
Ricoh GRDIV
I didn’t shoot much the night before at the festival so I decided to take the GRDIV to Jeonju the next day. Ryan (pictured) aka @Rysofunny on twitter had hand delivered the GRDIV from Seoul and had decided to stay for some shooting so we went together.
Ricoh GRDIV
It was really hard to do this, lol. We went to eat first and I took both with me for the walk to the restaurant. I quickly realized I wouldn’t take any pictures at all with the GRD if I had the 21 along as well so I left it in the car. A sad moment, haha.
Ricoh GRDIV
One thing the GRDIV does share with it’s film brethren is a great lens. The GRDIV looks as though it has the same lens as it’s predecessor. Not a bad thing, as the GRDIII lens was solid. Both very sharp even at f1.9. Because of the small sensor size, it’s a completely different look to the film Ricohs. Even the ultra wide GRD21 yields flexibility in terms of dynamic range and depth of field.
Ricoh GRDIV
This is not necessarily a bad thing. Depth of field is not important to most of the GRD’s applications. In most situations the deep depth of field is ideal for street photography.
Ricoh GRDIV
One of the best features of the GR series for street photography is their ability to snap focus. The GRDIV can snap focus to a lot of different distances. Snap focus just means it will focus to a predetermined distance on a full press of the shutter and fire without much shutter lag. This is great in most situations. Missed here though.
Ricoh GRDIV
Ricoh GRDIV
The autofocus in general is definitely improved over the GRDIII. The GRDIV seems to grab much faster. I stopped using the snap focus after I found the spot autofocus to be fast enough not to miss much.
Ricoh GRDIV
After exploring Jeonju’s downtown for a bit we decided to head to it’s traditional Hanok Village. It was starting to get dark, so I thought it an opportunity to have another go at the GRDIV at night.
Ricoh GRDIV
Anyone who lives in Korea would be good off to try shooting a little in Hanok Village. It sounds touristy, but it really isn’t. It’s mostly locals who live in old Korean styles houses. Very cool. I found the GRDIV to underexpose naturally a little (not entirely different to the GRDIII).
Ricoh GRDIV
After setting the exposure compensation to +.07 the whites became a little stronger. I always set the GRDs to shoot in black and white so I can judge the whites vs the greys. This is not as important in the daytime, but at night I find it necessary with the GRDIV (and III). I’d much rather a noisy image with good whites than a clean image with washed out greys. Of course, this is all a little different if you don’t shoot in black and white.
Ricoh GRDIV
Ricoh GRDIV
On the subject of exposure compensation; another thing I would love to see on the GRD series is an exposure compensation dial. The top panel of the GR21 (and the other film GRs) has an exposure compensation dial. Seems to me something that something similar could easily be implemented on the digital GRs. If you’ve seen or held a film GR you’ll know that it doesn’t take much away from the sleekness or simplicity of the body.
Ricoh GRDIV, ISO 1600
Ricoh GRDIV, ISO 800
There were little to no street lights here, so the ambient light was pretty non-existent. A little off topic, but when you’re this kind of a situation with a camera not perfectly suited you don’t necessarily need to stop shooting. Try and find the light. Wait for your subjects to find it. In any event, the little Ricoh did surprisingly well at fairly high ISOs. Albeit, I found the GRDIII to be quite good as well.
Ricoh GRDIV
Something I should’ve mentioned before is that Ricohs usually pick strange ISO numbers like 1532 (the one I said was 1600 above). I’m not sure the reason for this, but whenever I mentioned an ISO number here I rounded up, lol.
Ricoh GRDIV
Anyway, that’s about it for the first weekend with the GRDIV. Much like it’s predecessor, it’s a solid street photographer’s camera. It’s a solid camera in general. If you’re in the market for something like this you probably won’t be disappointed. If you own the GRDIII, I’m not 100% sold on the need to upgrade. It’s better, certainly. I’m just not sure it’s better enough to justify the price.
That being said, there are a lot of good reasons to buy the GRDIV. The Ricoh menus are definitely some of the most user friendly that I’ve come across for street photography. The camera itself is stealth, unassuming, and completely silent. It’s image quality is definitely top notch for a compact, but you’re also paying for it.
So whether or not to buy the GRDIV sort of depends on you. You should probably think about what’s important to you before considering this type of camera. If you’re looking for depth of field and mostly shoot at night perhaps your money would be better spent on something with a bit bigger sensor. If you can get over the idea of waiting for film or if you process it yourself the film series Ricohs coupled with good film will definitely give a little more in terms of image quality without sacrificing much portability (if any).
So, after a couple of days of shooting these are my thoughts on the GRDIV. I’m a fan of Ricoh and have long been. I’ve you’ve never heard of Ricoh cameras, I suggest checking them out. The GR21 is among my favourite cameras, right up with my Leica M9P.
The GRIV isn’t too far behind.
Great set and review of the Ricoh, Josh.
I’m getting to sound like a broken record, but your work is consistently on the mark regardless of the camera.
Doing well…thanks for the note last day. Hope you are too.
Joe
Thanks Joe, and glad you enjoyed.
Excellent review Josh. Makes one wonder if too upgrade or just keep the GRD III, looking forward to your other views on this great digicam
Thanks Jorge, I appreciate it. More to come later. I often post images from it on Tumblr.
Good to know Josh!
And thanks for the very insightful review.
It seems the white version (that i had preordered) will not reach North America before january.
I switched to the black version yesterday. Will receive it this thursday.
Great! I can’t wait to see what you think of it! I think you’ll be happy when you see the black as well
Appreciated your review – practical and thorough. I am considering this camera and your information and photos have been very helpful. Thanks again!
Jeff
Thanks Jeff! It’s a great camera.
Your review was by far the most helpful review of the Ricoh GRD IV that I’ve read. I’m considering in purchasing the IV and was curious to know if you noticed any pros and/or cons of using the GV-2 viewfinder.
Hmm. Well personally I never (or at least rarely) shoot from the hip so I generally compose in the viewfinder. I will say, the GV-2 isn’t completely “accurate.” Email me if you need more help on the GRDIV. jtwhite58@yahoo.com
Was very generous of you to post this photo essay, your thoughts and observations are expressions of living through the lens. The technical information on the GRD4 is insightful and quality of photo’s posted is excellent.