I’m writing this article after spending around two hours with the new Ricoh GR IV and shooting around Queens with it set to the new Cinema Yellow mode. It’s only come in today after what Ricoh tells me are holdups with shipping. Crazy enough, it’s raining in NYC and we’re probably going to experience a hurricane very soon. Of course, this wouldn’t be such a problem if the camera were made weather-resistant, but the new Ricoh GR IV isn’t weather-resistant. If you’re a Ricoh fan, I’m not sure yet if it’s worth the upgrade — and I’m working on my full review to figure that out. But so far, I’m not sure why someone would buy this camera when the X100V can be had for cheaper and does most of what the GR IV can do and more.
What You Should Know About the Ricoh GR IV
- A new lens: 7 elements in 5 groups with 3 aspherical elements. It’s an 18.3mm f2.8, which is basically a 28mm
- It’s smaller and thinner than the previous design
- 26mp BSI APS-C sensor
- 5 axis 6 stop shake reduction (the product rep shot at 2 seconds handheld) and they dared me to go for even longer
- GR7 engine that promises 1 stop higher ISO performance: very good image quality is what we’ve seen so far
- New JPEG processing: and it’s really good
- Start up is 0.6 seconds: and it really is fast to fast up
- Mode dial now has snap distance priority: That’s a nice touch
- Improved autofocus speed, accuracy and low light, but not as good as snap focus: this so far is indeed the case of what we’ve seen. But I’ve only ever wanted to use this camera for street photography
- Program shift: front dial controls aperture and back dial controls aperture
- 53GB of internal storage
- Micro SD card slot
- New battery that promises 250 shots: I got to around 94 shots and only one bar of the battery meter drained
- Two new image controls: cinema yellow (increases contrast in yellows) cinema green (adds greenish tint)
- New GR World App
- $1499.95
- The new GF-2 flash is not TTL
- There is no weather resistance because of the heat dissipation. Indeed, when I was using this camera, it started to get warmer.
Using the Ricoh GR IV for Street Photography
After cutting open the box from UPS, I booted up the Ricoh GR IV. The company put internal memory into the camera, 53GB to be exact. That, to me, is more than enough. In fact, it’s so much that I don’t even need to use an SD card with it. So I ended up not loading one in. Of course, the camera only takes a Micro SD Card — which is nice to have if you want a backup of your photos and the internal memory dies. Let me be frank here: I’m reviewing this camera, and so it’s going to be sent back and I’m making very responsible decisions with it at a time when NYC is going through odd weather and probably about to get hit with a hurricane. But I recommend that everyone always has a Micro SD card in the camera and backs up their images.
With that said, I really do want to go out into the rain and shoot with this, but it’s not a responsible decision because this camera lacks weather resistance.
When Ricoh told me this in the meeting, I was so befuddled. Why is this thing not weather-resistant in a day and time when the world needs weather resistance? Well, Ricoh told us that heat dissipation would be worse and that consumers wanted the camera to be even smaller. At the time, that was insanely hard for me to believe, as this thing is already very small. And while brands may tell me one thing, it’s my job as a journalist to prove that they’re correct.
Quite literally, I have another article open that I’m working on about whether or not I’m going to buy the GFX 100RF or the Q3 – and what’s brought me to this conclusion is that both have weather resistance.
Today was in the low 70s, and there was a drizzle. The Ricoh GR IV survived the little bit of rain — but it’s a brand new camera. Trust me, I’ve abused cameras in the rain. Even my Leica SL2S has had to be sent back in for repairs and that’s got an IP durability rating. I’m not at all expecting this camera to survive in torrential downpours.
But when using the camera, it indeed got a bit warmer in my hand. I set the camera to snap focus at two meters away, with cinema yellow, and with continuous shooting at ISO 3200 and the lens set to f4.
And so far, I haven’t shot a whole lot that I really like. That’s to say that I haven’t shot anything that I’d actually put in my portfolio. I’m expecting to walk away from this review with a fair amount of nice photos that I love though as I got them with my Leica Q3, Leica Q3 43, Fuji GFX 100RF and even the Ricoh GR III HDF.
The Ricoh GR IV feels good in my hands. It balances this odd place between elegance and roughness so well overall while also being pretty small. A few times when I was walking with this camera, the rain was coming down at a concerning rate. So I slipped the camera into the same pocket I have my wallet in. It looked really bulky, but it worked.
There’s something else to be said by a camera that’s this small: no one is intimidated by it. Walking down an area where ICE tends to want to raid all the time, very few people paid me any mind. Most of the time, I was shooting with the camera from the hip and simply capturing what went by. I’d imagine what the world looked like at 28mm from my hip, then think about the focusing distance, and simply just shot. Being legally blind, this is often how I’ve shot for years and it has usually worked.
This, overall, makes the Ricoh GR IV one of the most inconspicuous cameras that I’ve used this year. And I love that.
Typically, I rather enjoy the positive film look that Ricoh cameras give me. But I decided to try cinema yellow. It really looks a bit like Fujifilm’s Classic Negative — which can be a really good thing if you’re into that film simulation. And indeed, I am — when I’m using Fujifilm lenses. In this case, I think I want to go back to the positive film setting instead. Still, it’s quite nice and I’m bound to find myself using it and the positive film look with the white balance set to automatic warm.
To be more clear on this: I don’t even like Cinema Green, so I’m not going to shoot with it because using a camera is all about doing what brings you joy.
Ricoh told me in our meeting that the autofocus has been improved and that it’s overall much better. This really does seem to be the case so far. But if you’re doing street photography, you’re still better off using the snap focusing mode.
At this moment, I’m still not sure that it’s worth the money. But that opinion could change.
