Amateur Photographer Magazine

 Ricoh GXR camera: Interview, pictures and first look (update) - Ricoh GXR camera: Interview and first look

Tuesday 10th November 2009

Damien Demolder

Amateur Photographer Editor Damien Demolder reveals more about the Ricoh GXR camera system in this exclusive first look

See here for AP's earlier Ricoh GXR camera news article.

See here for photos shot using the Ricoh GXR

Life is full of surprises but some are more surprising than others. We had known for some time that Ricoh was planning a new system as we'd been questioning the life out of the engineers at every opportunity. Since accepting that there was not going to be a Ricoh DSLR we could see the frustration, as well as the pent-up potential, as the company's existence switched to the realms of the high-end specialist compact. Ricoh's reputation for high-quality optics was in the balance, not because there were no high-quality optics, but because the brand was seriously in danger of slipping away behind the host of other manufacturers also catering for the demanding photographer. To reassert itself Ricoh needed to do something drastic, and I had expected a system not unlike Micro Four Thirds but using APS-C sensors. In my mind I could clearly see a digital version of the Contax G system, with Ricoh's name on the top-plate.

Ricoh GXR



The GXR system is going to be a fascinating one but it is important I think not to judge it purely on what has been launched today. What we can see is just the beginning and each of the products - the body, the red-ringed GX lens unit and Ricoh unit - should be thought of as the first steps on three separate roads. At first I couldn't rationalise the idea of having both APS-C and compact sensors in my bag, as I know I would always be drawn to the larger of the two and feel I was compromising if I switched to the compact unit. This would then bias the way I choose my focal lengths when out shooting, and could lead me to pick inappropriate optics for the sake of the pixel count.

Dual lens/sensor range



After some questioning though it became clear that there will be two lens ranges that will run in parallel and which may include the same focal lengths/ranges but with a choice of sensors behind them. In effect we'd have an entry range and a more advanced range. I should think too that there will be a range of bodies to match and that they will not all conform to the compact style form factor of this first model. I know I'm not alone in preferring an EVF that's built-in and which frees the hotshoe for flash units. I don't think Ricoh will ignore that for long. We should be careful not to assume that what we see now represents a full picture of what the whole system will look like.

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