10.23.06
Ricoh GR-Digital Review
Digital Photography Review
Announced almost a year ago - and rumored for a long time before - the GR Digital was always going to be something of a niche product. Described as a ‘professional grade high resolution compact’ the GR Digital echoes the design and ethos of the popular and very highly regarded GR series of film compacts and is unusual in having a fixed 28mm equivalent F2.4 lens and full photographic control. The 8MP GR-D (as we’ll call it from now on) is also fairly expandable; with an optional optical viewfinder, 21mm equivalent ultra wide converter and dedicated flash available (though by then you’ve spend well over $1000). Originally released only in Europe and Asia, the GR-D has recently made its way to North America, though you’re still unlikely to find it on the shelves of your local camera store. So does the GR-D live up to all the hype or is it just another 8MP compact with pretensions?
The GR digital is one of those cameras you have to use - and use ‘properly’ to really appreciate. It has without a doubt the best control system of any compact digital camera on the market today for those who like to set their own apertures, shutter speeds, ISO, white balance and so on. I am constantly surprised that the designers of so-called ’serious’ compact cameras have, with very few exceptions, not taken the seemingly obvious step of using the dual control dial system that works so well for professional SLRs. Instead most insist that you hold down extra buttons or use menus to change apertures and shutter speeds independently, and few offer ‘live’ metering (forcing you to half-press the shutter every time). The GR digital is the first compact I can remember using that is designed for a photographer, where the manual options don’t seem to be an afterthought thrown in at the last minute to beef up the specification chart. Not only that, the interface and control system is highly customizable, ensuring virtually no redundancy, with every button doing something useful in record mode. If only all cameras aimed at the serious photographer were designed like this.