Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2009/09/11/review_camera_ricoh_gr_digital_3_compact_camera/

Ricoh GR Digital III compact camera

For those who take their image seriously

By George Cole

Posted in Personal Tech, 11th September 2009 12:02 GMT

Review Sometimes, less is more. Take Ricoh’s GR Digital III. It’s a compact camera costing more than £500, but if you’re looking for masses of megapixels, countless scene modes, HD movie recording or even an optical zoom, then forget it. This is the digital camera equivalent of the fixed-gear bicycle; a product for enthusiasts who basically want a camera that can deliver excellent results without the frills.

Ricoh GR Digital III

The quality compact: Ricoh's GR Digital III

Clearly, the GR Digital III isn’t aimed at the average consumer expecting all the bells and whistles for a couple of hundred quid. Instead, it’s designed for the DSLR user or advanced enthusiast who feels more at ease carrying a quality compact in his or her pocket than ever sallying forth cameraless. So it is worth investing in a fixed-focal length compact that costs more than some entry-level DSLRs? You might be surprised.

The GR Digital III is a successor to the GR Digital II, launched back in November 2007. Both cameras have many similarities, including a sleek, black metal alloy body with a large rubberized grip. Yet the GR Digital III has a number of enhancements including, a new F1.9, 6.0 mm lens which is equivalent to 28 mm on a 35 mm film camera. The new GR Engine III image processor has improved noise reduction, and the camera features a large 3in LCD screen composed of 920,000 dots.

Beneath the skin you’ll find a pop-up flash, plus a 10Mp 1/1.7in CCD with an ISO range of 64-1600. The GR Digital III shutter speeds span 180-1/2000sec and it shoots in JPEG and RAW (Adobe DNG) formats, although there’s no option for simultaneous capture in both formats.

Movies can be shot in VGA or QVGA format, although we suspect very few GR Digital III owners will make use of the video facility, and it partly explains why Ricoh has not bothered with an HD option. The GR Digital III uses SD/SDHC/MMC cards and also has a useful 88MB of internal memory.

Ricoh GR Digital III

No HD recording on this camera, it's designed for purists

According to CIPA standards the supplied lithium battery will provide enough power for 370 shots. In real-world conditions, it’ll be less than this, but we did manage more than 200 frames and still had plenty of battery power left. A nice touch is that you can also use two AAA alkaline or NiMH batteries if you run out of battery power, although don’t expect to get more than 25 shots or so when using this reserve power source.

The GR Digital III measures 108.6 x 59.8 x 25.5mm and weighs around 210 grams with battery and card. Ricoh provides camera software in the form of Irodio Photo and Video Studio, but it’s only for Windows users.

Ricoh GR Digital III

Uncluttered and easily customisable

The GR Digital III looks and feels classy. It’s got a clean, uncluttered design and some nice touches, like a small lock that stops you accidentally moving the mode dial out of position. In an addition to auto mode, there are Program AE, shutter priority, aperture priority and scene modes.

However, if you’re expecting the GR Digital III to offer food, portrait and other familiar scene modes, think again. There are just four scene modes – Dynamic Range Double Shot, which takes two shots and then combines the two images to improve the tonal range. Skew Correct realigns tapering, low-angle shots to make them appear as if they taken directly in front of the object. Text mode takes black and white photos of text, and we don’t think you need to guess what Movie mode offers.

There’s plenty of scope to configure the camera to meet your own requirements, thanks to a comprehensive menu system that offers shooting, key custom options and set-up menus. There are three My Setting options on the mode dial. Each My Setting position acts a personalised preset, allowing you to specify the shooting mode, aperture, shutter speed, focus mode and several other parameters.

There are also two Function buttons, which can be assigned various settings including ISO, AF/MF modes, White balance, RAW/JPEG and image quality. An Adj lever can be used to quickly alter up to four shooting parameters including, white balance, exposure compensation, continuous shooting, ISO, focus and flash. While the zoom lever can be applied to the 4x digital zoom, the white balance setting or adjusting the exposure compensation – the choice is yours.

Ricoh GR Digital III

Big screen but, like most cameras, the display doesn't perform well in bright sunlight

The GR Digital III is a delight to use. Switch on is fast and the camera is ready to shoot in around one second. The customised settings make it very quick and easy to select the settings you want. For example, we assigned the ISO, white balance, AF mode and continuous shooting modes to the Adj lever. When we pressed the Adj lever, four icons appeared instantly representing these settings.

Sample Shots

Ricoh GR Digital III

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Ricoh GR Digital III

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Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Sample Shots

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Ricoh GR Digital III

Click for a full-resolution crop

Sample Shots

Ricoh GR Digital III

ISO 100: slow shutter, 10secs
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Ricoh GR Digital III

ISO 100: slow shutter, 30secs
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Ricoh GR Digital III

Close up
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Ricoh GR Digital III

Fixed optical: equivalent to 28mm wide angle lens on a 35mm camera
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Ricoh GR Digital III

Digital zoom: 1.2x
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Ricoh GR Digital III

Digital zoom: 2x
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Ricoh GR Digital III

Digital zoom: 3x
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Ricoh GR Digital III

Digital zoom: 4x
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Ricoh GR Digital III

Dynamic range: Normal
This mode takes two shots of the same scene and combines elements to enhance the tonal range

Ricoh GR Digital III

Dynamic range: Strong
As these shots show, this effect is quite subtle

Ricoh GR Digital III

Auto exposure issues
This mode produced the occasional under- or over-exposed shot.

Ricoh GR Digital III

Auto exposure issues
This could be a rogue sample, but potential buyers should check this out.

Ricoh GR Digital III

Flash output settings test
Click for a scaled QuickTime movie clip

The GR Digital III allows output control the power of the built-in flash from full flash to 1/64th power. In this extreme example, we set-up the camera so that it was 0.5 metre away from the bowls of fruit, and then from 1/64th, doubled the flash output level with each successive shot to maximum.

Ricoh GR Digital III

Continuous operates at around 1.5fps at the highest resolution.
Click for a scaled QuickTime movie clip

Ricoh GR Digital III

Multiburst
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Ricoh GR Digital III

Before skew effect processing

Ricoh GR Digital III

After skew effect processing

Sample Shots

Ricoh GR Digital III

ISO 64

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Ricoh GR Digital III

ISO 100

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Ricoh GR Digital III

ISO 200

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Ricoh GR Digital III

ISO 400

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Ricoh GR Digital III

ISO 800

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Ricoh GR Digital III

ISO 1600

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We set the Fn1 button so we could immediately switch between JPEG and RAW formats, and we assigned the flash level adjustment function to the Fn2 button. All settings are saved when the power is switched off. Here is a camera that truly adapts to the user’s requirements rather than users having to adapt to the camera’s foibles.

Ricoh GR Digital III

The optional 21mm lens adapter and matched viewfinder with lens hood obscure flash operation

In manual mode, the Adj lever is used to change the shutter speed, while a small dial mounted at the front – which Ricoh calls the up/down dial – is used for adjusting the aperture, it’s that simple. The LCD screen is large, clear and bright, although like all LCD screens, it’s hard to view in bright sunlight. A shame then, that Ricoh offers an optical viewfinder as an optional extra rather than as standard.

However, one thing we did like was an electronic spirit level display at the bottom of the LCD screen, which tells you whether the GR Digital III is being held straight or not. There are also plenty of focus and metering modes, including Pre-AF, whereby the camera continues to focus even when the shutter is not half- pressed, and Full Press Snap, which lets you pre-set the focus distance – 1m, 2.5m, 5m or infinity.

Whether you prefer to make all the adjustments yourself or are happy to leave the GR Digital III in auto mode, the results will seldom be disappointing. Noise levels were low and hardly noticeable, even at ISO 400. Images were sharp, detailed and clean. Macro shots – which can be taken just 1cm away from the object – were excellent.

The only disappointment was that the auto exposure system was a little erratic at times and shots were occasionally either under- or overexposed. We’re not sure whether it was just a quirk of our review sample, but it’s something to bear in mind if you ever road test this camera.

Ricoh GR Digital III

As well as the 21mm lens kit (right), extension tubes (left) are available for close-up work

The 28mm lens makes the GR Digital III ideal for landscape and street shots. The lack of an optical zoom will put off some users, but it was only occasionally when we wished we had had a zoom facility, such as when taking shots of animals – we didn’t want to get too close and disturb them.

The digital zoom is okay at around x2 magnification, but we’d recommend moving closer to the object if you can. The extra long exposure times means the GR Digital III is superb for night shooting, although bear in mind, that if you use the longest exposure setting (180 seconds), you have to wait an additional three minutes for the data to be written to the card.

Ricoh GR Digital III

A fully customisable quality compact, anyone?

The flash is powerful, with an operational distance of 20cm-3 metres. Ricoh allows you to adjust the flash level in increments ranging from full power to 1/64th and this really makes a difference to the finished result. The Dynamic Range Double Shot mode is both subtle and effective, and does a good job in preserving detail and enhancing tonal range.

Verdict

The Ricoh GR Digital III is a great camera for the person who puts performance and control over fancy features. It offers superb handling, fantastic customisation and really lets your creative juices flow. The one drawback is the price, especially when you consider that the suggested retail price of the GR Digital III is £70 more than for the Canon EOS 1000D DSLR. Then again, you can’t stuff the latter in your pocket. If you want a compact that offers top-notch performance and can find the GR Digital III for a discounted price, then you’ll have bagged yourself a winner. ®