Ah mail day. Weary eyed, I methodically sort through a non-existent pile with little expectation of anything out of the ordinary: Spam, Spam, bill, Spam eggs and Spam and what's this...a box. GR it says. Is it growling at me? Should I be concerned that there is a wild, possibly rabid animal trapped in this tiny opposing black box? No, upon further evaluation, it's a camera with a note attached: Review this.
...Alas, here I am, reviewing a "new" compact from Ricoh.
SPECIFICATION
Ricoh GR Digital IV Camera
Fixed 28mm f/1.9 lens
10MP CCD 1/1.7" Sensor
3" 2.28k dot LCD
Hybrid AF
What is it? It's a neat and clean point and shoot. Who would want this? Enthusiasts, manic or not, possibly in mid life crisis; desperately clutching onto the last semblance of something nostalgic in a refusal to come up for air.
The original GR film cameras have gained sort of a cult status. They've become something of a iconic relic, cherished by the a small niche of street photographers who prey on unsuspecting pedestrians thanks to its snappy performance. It's definitely a throwback camera based on its looks, but besides that, what makes it so distinguished aside from "retro" styling. It has a fixed focal length and it's really light weight and...that's all I can really think of. The camera is an attempt at replicating the simplicity of compact film point and shoots...but is it possible that they're channeling the clumsy days of digital photography instead?
DESIGN
It's not the most compact cameras in terms of width, but sacrificing the camera's polite size would be going against the grain of its intent. Still, it's very pocket-friendly and light which is important. If it was a clunker it would defeat the purpose of calling it compact.
The grip is hand-friendly, comfortable for any size I'd say. From what I saw on the product page, you can opt for a fancy wood grain or snakeskin hand grip should you have the extra dosh lying around. Everything in excess I suppose.
General lightness is due to what it's made of: Magnesium Alloy. Alloy is French for sort-of-metal. This material allows the body to be strong like bull, yet light like delicate butterfly. Its texture kind of reminds me of the G15's except with a little less friction. Take it or leave it, the body doesn't feel plasticy which I commend.
FUNCTION
The button layout is fairly typical on the back. You have your directional arrows that serve as your navigational spirit guide through the menus and two rocking style buttons that would typically assume a zooming function, but wait a tick: It's a prime lens... Unless you assign the rocker to do so it wont give you that sweet, sweet digital zoom.
The "ADJ" slider (I'm assuming this means the adjective button) adjusts shutter speed and the front dial, which is tucked safely away from your fingers natural reach, controls aperture. The tiny Mode dial sits tight in its little designated nook and locks to prevent your fat fingers from switching away from auto mode.
Its shutter resembles that of an oblong Mike and Ike and feels a bit mushy. Fortunately it doesn't suffer from lack of response, nor is it an actual mushy Mike and Ike.
The LCD is pretty nice, it sits flush with the cameras body where a viewfinder might pretend to exist. If you were interested in making it a pseudo-rangefinder you could buy an optional optical VF that attaches to the hot shoe. I don't know what it is, but multiple times I fell victim to misfiring neurons, placing the LCD up to my eye in a grand display of stupidity.
The Menu System: Yes it's confusing at first, but I don't think there's ever been a time where I picked up a camera and immediately said "Wow this menu deserves a Nobel Prize for it's groundbreaking design and outward humility!" Hit the center OKAY! button and you're presented with a neat menu set up, no complaints here except that scrolling through size two font makes my eyes sad.
I have to say, there's a lot of customization to be had here, one wouldn't expect this level of organization in a small compact like this. Unfortunately certain options don't work with every mode, the camera just doesn't feel compelled to tell you all the time. Learning the hard way it is.
There's also a customizable quick menu that's accessed by pressing down the adjust button. This grants you quick access to options such as white balance, ISO, image quality, metering, focus priority, etc. I found this to be pretty helpful, and it saved my eyes from rotting out from looking at a command prompt-like menu.
IMAGE QUALITY ETC.
The lens is definitely fast, swiftness its shining attribute. Sharpness...not so much when it's wide open. The lens is arguably softer than quilted toilet paper at f/1.9. At the sweet spot it performs well, but the small sensor doesn't do much for getting creative with depth of field. 28mm is a pretty versatile focal length for most applications. It's wide enough without causing severe distortion and will most likely appease the inner Winogrand in you.
Autofocus was fast and responsive. Indoors it had a few woopsies, but the snap focus seemed to be the best bet for tricky situations in low light. Tracking focus does a pretty good job at locking on and puts crosshairs on your target like you playing an old school 80's video game. Something kind of amazing was the macro. It says it can focus at 1cm, but I pretty much smashed the lens against my keyboard and it got some sort of an image. Impressive.
Noise was kind of like the elephant in the room at ISO 800. Even at 400 it's there taunting you in the shadows. A smaller sensor would merit more noticeable noise, but yikes. JPEG compression does its best to get rid of this, but the images become waxy, dull and not all that flattering with weird color shifts. Shooting RAW is the way to go anyway. In terms of image quality, once processed to your liking they look pretty decent. Saying it produces images that are similar to high end smartphones isn't such a bad thing, but still it's no Blackberry, amiright Matt?
The camera is a breeze outside with ample light. This is its element - A compact camera well suited for the street. It's not a very good contender in the low light department however. Luckily you have that extra stop to help you out in those situations. Soft focus vs. Aggressive Noise...choose your fate.
Other notes: It has flash, I'd stay away. Video was choppy at 15fps but at 30 it was your normal fare...its max resolution isn't anything to wag a tail at. Battery life seemed fine, but there was a weird overheating near my thumb...is this normal, and if so should I be concerned?
Click here for a few more sample images.
A WRAP
What is the GR Digital IV: It's a solid point and shoot, wrapped in a semi-formal shell that's been incubating for too long. Five years ago it might still feel dated and the price they're asking is a turn-off. For that kind of coin you're not getting anywhere near MFT or DSLR quality images. There's debate about megapixel cramming, but I'm sure the Ricoh crowd can even admit that this camera could use a larger sensor plain and simple. Are you going to be blown away by anything groundbreaking here? My sources say no. In an already convoluted market, creating a product that makes you say "meh" isn't going to win over a bunch of photographers who are already happy with what they have. It was created to be exclusive, but now it seems like they're just alienating themselves from the market altogether.
I'm not sure the enthusiasts that the GRDIV is geared towards would get much mileage from this camera. I just find it interesting because I see people sticking up for it like you were picking on a tarnished childhood hero, somewhat forgotten from the public eye. A washed up Johnny Football who hustles kids for cigarettes outside of bars he's been kicked out of, but is still tolerated by the townfolk because of their old reputation. Am I missing something or am I just not able to fully grasp all this hype? Do I lack the capacity and sophistication to accept that I'm holding some sort of unbeknownst diamond in the rough? Who knows... maybe it's just me, but if I wanted a classic inspired camera I'd most likely turn elsewhere. Anyway, it goes without saying this camera is as no-frills as you get. If you want a simple point and shoot that's easily pocketable and suffices as a street photography machine, perhaps this is for you.
Admittedly I'm kind of late in the game at getting a chance to test out this camera. At the time of writing this, it's more than a year old and was just discontinued. The GR V has been in the works for some time and a recent promotional video shows that it plans to address most of the problems that I've seen in the IV: mainly a larger APS-C sized sensor and new image processor. Will it live up to expectations? I can only hope so...there seems to be a lot on the line, and maybe a little bit of kissing up to those who felt the IV fell a little short.