Ricoh GR Digital IV

Throughout the years, Ricoh has always retained the same look and feel of its GR-series cameras--starting from the first iteration, the Ricoh GR1, which was manufactured during the film era.

One distinctive aspect of the GR-series cameras is its wide-angle, fixed-focal length lens coupled with a fast maximum aperture and housed in a robust chassis. Not deviating from this tradition, the GR Digital IV packs a 10-megapixel CCD sensor and sports a 28mm wide-angle fixed lens with a fast F1.9 aperture, along with a 1.2 million-dot LCD display.

What's New

One key improvement made to the GRD IV includes a new hybrid AF system that allows speedier autofocus (50 percent faster than its predecessor) which enables the camera to acquire focus in as fast as 0.2 second. For the first time, Ricoh has incorporated sensor-based image stabilization in the snapper, giving users a three-stop improvement--which means get sharper images in low-light conditions. Compared with the GRD III, the GRD IV is fitted with a new 1.23 million-dot LCD screen that is 1.7 times brighter than its predecessor.

Design And Features

The GRD IV's understated, black appearance coupled with a fine, pebbled-texture finish covering the entire chassis gives the camera a professional feel. There's a texturized rubber padding on both the grip and thumbrest, which makes the camera grippier, offering a more secure hold. We found the camera to be quite compact and could be easily concealed in our pants pocket. Despite being lightweight, its magnesium alloy body lends a sense of robustness to the camera's body and feels strong enough to be able to withstand some bumps along the way.

We liked the shooter's top and rear button placement, which makes it easier for one-handed operation. Users can easily switch between different mode settings via the top mode dial (after pressing on the lock button) or a rear jog dial which allows one to quickly adjust frequently used settings such as white balance, ISO, image quality and metering modes, to name a few. A front dial also allows you to toggle your aperture values and other in-camera options. Two function buttons at the camera's rear and three custom options on the mode dial provide advanced users with ample customizability.

Despite its fine design concept, we wished the snapper had a dedicated video recording button for shooting candid videos. Instead, we had to go through the hassle of switching to the Scene option on the mode dial and selecting the movie mode--which could cause you to miss the moment.


One of the highlights of this new camera has got to be its signature 28mm F1.9 fixed-focal length lens. Its fast F1.9 aperture helps in reducing camera shake, providing sharper images in low-lighting conditions. Also, the wide aperture value does help in isolating subjects while defocusing the background.

Those who are used to zoom lenses may find a fixed lens limiting--which is something you either love or hate. We did find it quite enjoyable as we could put our creativity to the test when working with that limitation. It's wide enough to capture most landscapes or buildings, and its in-camera level, which helps ensure proper horizontal and vertical orientation, is not something we see in most compacts.

Shutterbugs who enjoy street photography would also enjoy using its snap focus mode, which allows you to preset your focus distance at 1m, 1.5m, 2.5m, 5m or infinity. This allows you to shoot discreetly and quickly, without the lens hunting for focus. Its Pre-AF function is also a nice touch, which allows the lens to start focusing before the half-press of the shutter button--which helps the camera acquire focus faster.


Other features that impressed us were its macro mode and customizable creative filters. When macro mode is enabled, this shooter can focus to as near as 1cm, which makes it useful for capturing fine details in closeups.


The GRD IV also comes with creative filters, which can be individually tweaked to suit one's preferences. For example, we could adjust our favorite black and white setting in terms of sharpness and contrast to give us just the right balance, allowing for excellent out-of-camera JPEGs that can be shared without the need for further postprocessing.

Interestingly, the shooter also takes readily available AAA-size batteries aside from the usual lithium ion variety, which makes it handy as a travel compact should you have problems finding a power supply while on holiday. However, we did discover that there was a delay in the camera's startup time when using non-lithium ion batteries.

How It Compares

Key specifications	Ricoh GR Digital IV	Canon PowerShot S100	Fujifilm FinePix X10	Olympus XZ-1	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5	Samsung EX1
Sensor (effective resolution)	10-megapixel CCD	12-megapixel CMOS	12-megapixel EXR CMOS	10-megapixel CCD	10-megapixel CCD	10-megapixel CCD
Lens optics	28mm fixed-focal length, F1.9	24-120mm, F2-5.9, 5x optical zoom	28-112mm, F2-2.8, 4x optical zoom	28-112mm, F1.8-2.5, 4x optical zoom	24-90mm, F2-3.3, 3.8x optical zoom	24-72mm, F1.8-2.4, 3x optical zoom
Sensor size	1/1.7-inch	1/1.7-inch	2/3-inch	1/1.63-inch	1/1.63-inch	1/1.7-inch
Sensitivity range	ISO 80 - ISO 3,200	ISO 80 - 6,400	ISO 100 - ISO 12,800	ISO 100 - ISO 6,400	ISO 80 - ISO 3,200	ISO 80 - ISO 3,200
Shutter	180-1/2000sec	n/a	30 - 1/4,000 sec	60-1/2,000 sec; bulb to 16 min	60-1/4,000 sec	16-1/5,000 sec
LCD	3-inch fixed 1,230,000 dots	3-inch fixed 461,000 dots	2.8-inch fixed 460,000 dots	3-inch fixed OLED 610,000 dots	3-inch fixed 460,000 dots	3-inch articulated AMOLED 920,000 dots
Video (best quality)	VGA 640 x 480, 320 x 240	1080/24p H.264 QuickTime MOV Stereo	1080/30p H.264 QuickTime MOV Stereo	720/30p Motion JPEG AVI Mono	720/30p AVCHD Lite Monaural	30fps VGA H.264 MP4 Monaural
Battery life (CIPA rating)	390 shots	200 shots	300 shots	320 shots	400 shots	350 shots
Dimensions	109 x 60 x 33mm	98.9 x 59.9 x 26.7mm	117.0 x 69.6 x 56.8mm	111 x 65 x 42mm	110 x 65 x 25mm	114 x 65 x 30mm
Weight	190g	198g	348g	263g	260g	371g

Performance

The GRD IV's autofocus performance was average and should be suitable for typical day-to-day shooting. Time-to-first-shot (time taken to capture the first shot upon powering on) was clocked at 3.4 seconds which is a tad slow compared to the PowerShot S100 which clocked 2.1 seconds. Shot-to-shot time (how long it takes to shoot one frame after another) was 2 seconds and it had a shutter lag of 0.85 second--which could make capturing active kids or running pets a hit-or-miss affair.

Image Quality

In the default Standard picture setting, the images produced tended to be less saturated, but still captured colors close to what our eyes saw. Its white balance was quite accurate for most situations, too. Of course, for more vivid color; shutterbugs can tweak the picture settings to their liking.


From our image samples, the GRD IV produced the best quality pictures from ISO 100 to 400, which is typical for compact cameras.


At ISO 800, there's a hint of noise and some edge softening, although much of the image detail retained.. At ISO 1,600, image detail drops with an overall fuzziness--which was the tipping point for us. We wouldn't shoot at ISO 3,200 unless absolutely necessary as the results looked quite smeared.

Video Quality

The GRD IV's video performance is mediocre--with images lacking in sharpness and compression artifacts apparent throughout the overall video. The shooter could only muster a meagre 640 x 480 VGA video clip, which only looks good in a minimized window on our desktop, but not as impressive on a large-screen television. The colors tended to be on the less saturated side as well. Autofocus was swift and kept up with subjects swiftly. When activated, the Pre-AF kicks in while we were trying to frame the shot.



If you forsee yourself shooting lots of videos, you may want to check out competing advanced compacts, such as the Canon PowerShot S100 and Fujifilm FinePix X10, that are capable of shooting higher-quality 1080p full-HD movies.

Image Samples

Conclusion

The GRD IV is a niche product and isn't a camera for everyone--you'll either love it or hate it. While its fixed 28mm F1.9 lens can be seen as a "limitation", the GRD IV will appeal to those who appreciate the challenge of using a fixed-focal length lens so they can concentrate on photo composition.

The GRD IV is currently available in Asia with a retail price of S$899 for the black version, while the white version can be had for S$1,099.