Ricoh Surprise! Ricoh GRIIIx (Showcase)

I chose a Fuji XF10 over a GR mainly for price and dust reasons, and I prefer Fuji's jpegs over Ricoh's (I don't care for B&W). But yes, it fits in my pants pockets easily, also not a clown pant wearer here. The camera's thinner than my wallet so if I put my wallet and phone in one pocket (that does get crowded but I don't pull out either all the time), it leaves my other pocket free for the camera and this works brilliantly, makes a massive difference over my X100 in practice, much more than I anticipated. It is now the always with me camera that the X100 never quite could be. Must be the same for the GRs. And yes, having a tack sharp lens at 24mp with modern aps-c noise levels is pretty awesome.

If this GRIIIx (or a 40mm eq Fuji competitor) had been available and affordable six months ago I would've gotten that over a 28mm eq , but as I already have the XF10 now and I've become more interested in focal lengths of 50mm eq and beyond, 40mm eq just isn't enough of a differentiation from 28mm for me to justify.

I'd love to have just two small fixed focal length cameras, but they'd have to be far enough apart; basically with the longer lens being about double to shorter's focal length, or more.
 
bartjeej said:
I chose a Fuji XF10 over a GR mainly for price and dust reasons, and I prefer Fuji's jpegs over Ricoh's (I don't care for B&W). But yes, it fits in my pants pockets easily, also not a clown pant wearer here. The camera's thinner than my wallet so if I put my wallet and phone in one pocket (that does get crowded but I don't pull out either all the time), it leaves my other pocket free for the camera and this works brilliantly, makes a massive difference over my X100 in practice, much more than I anticipated. It is now the always with me camera that the X100 never quite could be. Must be the same for the GRs. And yes, having a tack sharp lens at 24mp with modern aps-c noise levels is pretty awesome.

If this GRIIIx (or a 40mm eq Fuji competitor) had been available and affordable six months ago I would've gotten that over a 28mm eq , but as I already have the XF10 now and I've become more interested in focal lengths of 50mm eq and beyond, 40mm eq just isn't enough of a differentiation from 28mm for me to justify.

I'd love to have just two small fixed focal length cameras, but they'd have to be far enough apart; basically with the longer lens being about double to shorter's focal length, or more.
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If I could have two fixed lens cameras, one with a reasonably fast 16mm lens (at least f/2 or f/2.8?), and one with a fast 50mm lens (f/1.4), I'd probably dump my Leicas.

The camera accessories market would probably tank if someone would just design clown pants with big pockets that can hold our cameras (of all sizes) comfortably. Who needs a camera strap when you have nice clown pants.
 
TraamisVOS said:
28mm is such a stark difference from 40mm, I would've thought.
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Yes, but not quite enough. 40mm on its own merit is supremely versatile, and for a single do everything focal length rivals its close cousin 35 for maximum versatility, but for a two lens solution I'd want the longer lens to offer a bit more isolation, with 50mm eq being my personal minimum.

And a second reason: at 24mp, I feel no shame in applying a 1.5x crop if the scene calls for it. That takes me from 28mm eq to 42mm eq while still leaving me with 10mp, which is my personal lower limit for large prints. Cropping down to 56mm eq (2x crop) leaves me with 6mp, enough for a moderate print and web sharing, but I wouldn't wanna crop down more. Hence a second prime /fixed lens compact would start making sense to me around 50mm eq.

If the wider of the two were significantly wider than 28mm eq, say 21mm or 18mm eq, that'd make a 40mm eq second lens / camera much more sensible.
 
Just a word about the GR and dust, which seems to be an issue to some. I have never had a problem, but then for years the first thing I have done when I buy one is fit an acmaxx "front filter". These are self adhesive and provide excellent protection with zero image compromise. They also protect the front elements, even from being driven over - see above. I also fit a rear screen protector.

On the GRIII I use the GR lens cap as shown and in dusty or crowded environments, the GH-3 to improve my grip and protect the protruding lens.

I'll doubtless take the same precautions with the GRIIIx. I'll use a different wrist strap and a coloured ring to differentiate them.
IMG_20200822_124808_021.jpg
IMG_20200814_153432_747.jpg
 
agentlossing said:
From the Euro price I'm guessing it'll be $1K here in the US, a $100 premium over the GRIII. Still, I might preorder (only other time I've done so was for the GRIII) to get it in my hands as quickly as possible and make a decision. I'll have to sell something if I get it.
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On my Pollyanna days I could believe that it’s paying for the R&D on the new lens. This isn’t one of those days. They are extracting the early adopters fee from these who have long been saying they want a fixed lens compact with a normal lens.
 
drd1135 said:
On my Pollyanna days I could believe that it’s paying for the R&D on the new lens. This isn’t one of those days. They are extracting the early adopters fee from these who have long been saying they want a fixed lens compact with a normal lens.
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Hmm, I'd agree with you if the GRIII had dropped in price, but it remains fairly consistent at $900. I'm not sure whether to consider the GRIIIx price to reflect Ricoh's intention for it to remain a secondary, more specialized camera (they've gone with 28mm for so long that I believe they still consider it their "core" focal length), or the fact that the lens has more elements and is therefore probably more expensive to produce. I don't think it's necessarily gouging their main customer base, it probably reflects a strategy of lower production than the base model. Of course, it's possible that demand will exceed their expectations... I've sure seen a lot more than the usual number of opinions that are along the lines of "shut up and take my money" with this announcement.
 
agentlossing said:
Hmm, I'd agree with you if the GRIII had dropped in price, but it remains fairly consistent at $900. I'm not sure whether to consider the GRIIIx price to reflect Ricoh's intention for it to remain a secondary, more specialized camera (they've gone with 28mm for so long that I believe they still consider it their "core" focal length), or the fact that the lens has more elements and is therefore probably more expensive to produce. I don't think it's necessarily gouging their main customer base, it probably reflects a strategy of lower production than the base model. Of course, it's possible that demand will exceed their expectations... I've sure seen a lot more than the usual number of opinions that are along the lines of "shut up and take my money" with this announcement.
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It will be interesting to se if it eventually is priced the same as the 28 version.
 

Ricoh announces the Ricoh GR IIIx - Ricoh

Ricoh announces RICOH GR IIIx, high-end, compact digital camera Newest addition to popular GR Series features newly developed lens for high-quality street photography at a standard viewing angle PARSIPPANY, NJ, September 9, 2021 － Ricoh Imaging Americas Corporation today announced the RICOH GR IIIx, a high-end digital compact camera that features a newly […]
us.ricoh-imaging.com us.ricoh-imaging.com

Finally a US Ricoh mention. It sounds like perorder might not be pushed in the US but it'll just become available sometime early October.
 
agentlossing said:

Ricoh announces the Ricoh GR IIIx - Ricoh

Ricoh announces RICOH GR IIIx, high-end, compact digital camera Newest addition to popular GR Series features newly developed lens for high-quality street photography at a standard viewing angle PARSIPPANY, NJ, September 9, 2021 － Ricoh Imaging Americas Corporation today announced the RICOH GR IIIx, a high-end digital compact camera that features a newly […]
us.ricoh-imaging.com us.ricoh-imaging.com

Finally a US Ricoh mention. It sounds like perorder might not be pushed in the US but it'll just become available sometime early October.
Click to expand...
As opposed to letting everyone preorder and then announcing a shortage.
 

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