Ricoh GR III Owners Thread

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Mark
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I searched in here for a thread and wasn't surprised to find nobody really cares about the GR III :p so I thought I'd start a GR III thread!!! Obviously, this is so I can talk to myself and the tumbleweed in here because I can see this thread dropping like a ton of bricks, but, we'll give it a go. However, if anyone else has bought one/pre-ordered one, please feel free to jump onboard.

Well, long story short, I've bought one blind. I went to the Photography show stupidly thinking Pentax would be there. Obviously, they weren't but, I've ordered it and I'll be straight up from the start, I'm not 100% about it either!!!

I'll say now that I'll add photos taken by the GR III in here so you don't need to read the twaddle I've written below as to my reasoning for buying something I'm not sure about.

Just a very brief bit about my reasoning. I have two Sony a9's which I love. Previously Nikon for 18ish years. The stuff I shoot for myself is street, models and just trying landscape. If I could only pick one genre, it'd be street though. I'm not keen on walking about Leicester with an a9. Not because I particularly think it'd get taken off me, more so for the risk of it being damaged.

I've toyed with so, so many options when looking for a street camera for many months now...I've practically tortured myself. I've never shot Fuji but there's been a massive pull for me for Fuji for years now. The X-T1 is being given away free in the classifieds these days, as is the X-Pro 1. Either of these with the 18mm ƒ/2 would suit me well I reckon, all for under £500. The X100 was very tempting too. The thought of having a second system killed off any chance of Fuji for me though.

My ex-wife has the Nikon Df. The only option I'd consider for street from Nikon. However, the used market remains ridiculously high.

I looked at Panasonic (very tempting), Leica, Sony point and shoots amongst other brands. I looked at the GRii...bonkers prices for heavily used cameras and full of dust too. I then thought about the Sony a6xxx series. again, mad prices used. All the while I had the Ricoh monster gnawing away at me. So last night I bought one.

Things I'm not sold on:
  1. Fixed lens
  2. Dust. Yes, I know it does the sensor shake thing, I don't believe that's guaranteed to remove it though
  3. Crappy battery. I've ordered a spare, but even so. 200ish shots is crappy
  4. The biggie for the me...no viewfinder. Yes, I can buy one for £150 but I don't want to. I'll struggle with this at first, I'm sure. For £850 though, I hope I get over it. My ex had the Nikon J1 and I was forever bringing it up to eye level only to be surprised every time there wasn't a viewfinder!
  5. Lack of moisture resistance.

Things I don't give a toss about on the GR III:
  1. Video. I don't care for video. If I want video, I'll use an a9 or buy a Gopro of some description. I've never, ever used video except for trying 30 seconds on my D5 once.
  2. 24mp. I don't need 24mp for street and I'd have been happy at 16mp. The Sony a7s was on my list at 12mp and that was a genuine contender. However, the Gr is 24mp so I'll take it
  3. The missing flash. I've never used flash for street so makes no odds to me. I have mirrorless for that.

Things I'm looking forward to:
  1. Genuinely compact camera
  2. Something I can chuck in my work bag
  3. Something that will fit in my Billingham and leave room for other bits if I'm in a different city
  4. Snap focus
  5. Rediscovering the fun side of photography again
I'll update this thread for myself when it arrives!
 
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I've had some form of GR with me since 2011 (firstly a GRD III, currently an APS-C GR), and I've never had a problem with dust. I do keep it in a case most of the time though. Lack of viewfinder isn't much of an issue, the 28mm FoV is so ingrained with me that I don't bother looking at the screen, although I do have the viewfinder for it (came with the GRD III). The lens+sensor combo on the GR/GRII is fantastic as well, as are black and white conversions from the DNG files. 16MP is perfect for a camera like this, but 24MP makes the 35/50mm crop mode a little more usable.

I'm looking to get the new GRIII soon as well, one thing I like is that it's a little smaller now so that the old leather cases I have will button up again. Make sure you spend a few minutes setting up the custom controls to how you like, they're very intuitive cameras to use. I will miss the flash but I often just use a small pocket external and a wireless trigger for flash work.

Here are a few shots from my GR:

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L0020172.jpg
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16MP is perfect for a camera like this, but 24MP makes the 35/50mm crop mode a little more usable.

An excellent point I totally missed Lloyd, thank you.

Thanks for the reply. I believe mine may be coming this Friday...we'll see. I am genuinely excited despite my reservations. However, after 18 years of Nikon and selling £25k of Nikon gear for £14k and blindly moving to Sony, I don't fear it that much for £850!!!

Great photos too, particularly like No.2
 
An excellent point I totally missed Lloyd, thank you.

Thanks for the reply. I believe mine may be coming this Friday...we'll see. I am genuinely excited despite my reservations. However, after 18 years of Nikon and selling £25k of Nikon gear for £14k and blindly moving to Sony, I don't fear it that much for £850!!!

Great photos too, particularly like No.2

Thanks Mark. I think the only thing that would truly bother me is the battery life, but having such good image quality in something the size of most phones is well worth it. Its an essential part of my everyday carry kit, I bring it with me even when I have a larger camera that I'll mainly shoot with for the day.
 
Thanks Mark. I think the only thing that would truly bother me is the battery life, but having such good image quality in something the size of most phones is well worth it. Its an essential part of my everyday carry kit, I bring it with me even when I have a larger camera that I'll mainly shoot with for the day.

The battery life did sort of bother me. Not hugely, admittedly.
I went from a Nikon D5 which I could get well over 4000 shots on one charge to a Sony with just a few hundred!! I’ve managed to adjust
I have bought a genuine spare battery (£50) alongside the GR and have literally just bought a new powerbank. I think this will suffice until I get a couple more batteries in the future. It’ll give me an excuse to go for a coffee and cigar halfway through my mornings though!!!

200 is very poor though. Obviously they wanted to keep it compact. I think 350 would have been poor, but a lot easier to swallow.

I’m less nervous now than I was last night when I hit ‘buy’!!

I’m in London next week shooting with Jason Lanier for a few hours. The GR will be going in my bag alongside the a9 this time. I’m already planning my GR route for London!!! However, it’ll be my sole camera when I’m strictly shooting street!
 
Cheers Mike.
It actually was £799 from Clifton
Cameras but I bought a spare battery for £50 :oops: :$:oops: :$ I’ll be getting the blue ring with mine but I watched a video and I’m not sure if I like it yet. I do think it’ll be different in real life.

I’m actually surprised there’s 2 visitors here so I’ll be expecting a thread a la your Pentax Thread!
 
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I tend to think the dust problems are overblown. I’ve had the Ricoh GRD Digital (sometimes called the GRD1) from a year or so so after it was introduced in 2005 and a GR for a couple of years. Lots of people have reported using various GRDs in dusty etc conditions with no dust problems. I suspect they are no more likely to have dust than any other fixed lens camera (particularly with extending lens). Years ago I did searches on “dust problems” and far and away the most were reports were about Nikons. I hypothesise that the Ricohs are more likely to be used by people who also have DSLRs and so used to spotting (haha!) dust and also being able to clean their sensors and so are frustrated when they find it and cannot clean it off.
Anyway, anecdotally, I’ve never had a problem often keeping the GRD in a (relatively clean) pocket and also have used it in fairly wet and windy conditions in the Dales.
Hope you have no problems.
 
That's actually really good to hear Richard. That fills me with a lot more confidence. This thread is turning into a happy place!!
 
The GR landed 20 minutes ago.

Mine obviously wasn’t a pre-order as I didn’t get the blue ring! Oh well. I probably wouldn’t have used it anyway.

I’m going to make a coffee, set it up now, recharge it and go out.

I’ll update this with real photos taken by it, not of it.

First impression.....very happy. It’s microscopic. I’ve put it next to one of my a9’s for comparison. A bit unfair having the 16-35GM on the a9, but, if I wanted to shoot at 28mm, that’s what set up I’d have to use.

Anyway, less waffle, more shooting.

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Really cool looking little camera and one that I'd absolutely consider if I didn't have the X100F already. Interested to hear your thoughts on it and see your results from it :)
 
I went out last night to try my new GR III. Also had a couple of hours this morning. I’ll post some photos once I’ve done a few jobs around my flat.

I will state now, I haven’t set it up to how I’d like it yet. Still finding my way around the menus, but admittedly, it is fairly intuitive. I just haven’t got the ISO to stop going into stratospheric numbers yet despite me thinking I capped it at 6400.

One thing I wished I posted yesterday but never did say anything about is about the ring on the front.

I’ve already lost mine :coat:

The “thread” is pathetic. It’s probably about an 8th of a turn, if that. It clicks on without any conviction at all. I was tempted to remove it last night but never did. I won’t be buying one for £30 because I can guarantee I’ll lose it next week.

I reckon a good solid 7/10 users will lose theirs. The other three people will see their ring drop off but manage to recover it. I’m not joking. There will be a load of missing Ricoh rings having a beer somewhere with a load of missing Nikon eye pieces!!
Seriously, If people are using a pocket, all of you will find the ring is missing. My camera was going between a messenger bag and pocket on my jeans. I'm sure pulling out the camera from my jeans pocket loosened the ring.

Am I the first to lose mine? I doubt it. First in Leicester, quite possibly!! :cool::withstupid:

Photos to follow.
 
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Sorry to hear that! Maybe your ring fitting was faulty? It’s a bayonet fitting and seems quite secure on my GR (not I or iii) and GRD. I have the wide accessory lens for the GRD so I’ve taken the ring off regularly. I do think it’s a loss waiting to happen but it has to be removable to protect the contacts for the lens :( . Can you pursue why you didn’t get the blue ring? It was shown as added when I checked the price though I didn’t complete the sale.
 
Definitely not a faulty ring I’m afraid. If you get your hands on a 3, give the ring a twist. It doesn’t fill you with confidence. That’s my biggest complaint so far.

Battery is around 200 shots.

That aside, I absolutely LOVE the camera. It’s a keeper for me.

My biggest fear was no viewfinder. I’m adjusting a lot better than I thought. I have raised it to my eye a few times to shoot and also to try and view the image through the viewfinder, a la Sony!! But it’s going much better than expected. No viewfinder was a huge deal for me. The pocketabilty of it is amazing.

Still need to set it up properly. One thing I’m certain I can’t change is the direction of the dials for aperture/SS. It’s like a standard Nikon where you go left to increase SS, left to stop down the aperture. I’m weird. I like to go left to slow down shutter and open the aperture.
 
Well, I've had a little shooting time with the GR. A few shots as promised. Clearly, these are not to everyone's taste which is ok.

I'm still having problems adjusting my settings on the fly and getting to learn the controls so excuse some of the crazy stuff like 1/6th ss or 1000th at midnight!!!

I've never really used Aperture Priority before either so I have some learning to do with regards to metering in Av etc.

These are a mixture of SOOC and PP. I've written if it's SOOC.



1) Leicester on a Friday Night (23:16). Just a normal night in cold March!

1/6th (Don't ask!!!)
ƒ/6.3
2500 ISO
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2) SOOC. Leicester on a Friday night at 22:34

1/1000 (Don't ask!!!!!!)
ƒ/5
2500 ISO
R0000099-2.jpg
 
These "don't ask" comments don't involve alcohol induced setting do they?

I've taken shots in the past and been surprised to get any pictures at all due to being completely drunk at the time.
 
These "don't ask" comments don't involve alcohol induced setting do they?

I've taken shots in the past and been surprised to get any pictures at all due to being completely drunk at the time.
:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

No, all operator error. Can't blame the tool (just the tool using it!) No alcohol or drugs involved :whistle:

The shutter and aperture wheels are backwards to me. As in, they scroll the wrong way!

I've done something to my settings (!!!) where I press the ISO button and it flicks between auto and manual...but doesn't do what I ask it to. Thinking about it, It is doing what I'm asking, I'm asking the wrong questions! Actually, I've done a lot of wrong things to my settings.

Bit of a steep learning curve for me on this camera.

I only put it to my eye twice today. Progression there at least if not with the controls!

I'm going to look at a factory reset and start again.
 
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6) SOOC DMU Leicester. Wrong distance set on snap focus !!!! Set at 2m!! I was a foot away from her!!!!
1/500
ƒ/2.8 (!!!??!!?)
ISO 2500...

You might have got the settings wrong but I think the picture still works. I'm not into street photography at all but I can see the appeal sometimes and I do like these. Well done :D
 

Good Article. Thanks for that read. On a side note, I (probably wrongly) recall seeing a clip/documentary about William Klein and that first image. I think the boy posed for the shot/was asked to do that. I can’t fully remember.


Sort of back on topic, to me, sharpness isn’t everything in that style of street photography. The only thing that stopped me buying an old,£40 5mp camera for street was slow AF.

It doesn’t tell you in the manual how to do a factory reset. I downloaded the GR II instructions and there’s a bit of a funky button sequence. I would try that but step one involves turning the dial to movie mode! The 3 has a button for that now and have removed it from the dial.

I’m emailing them today about it and also the missing ring (blue one and list black one! ).
 
Good Article. Thanks for that read. On a side note, I (probably wrongly) recall seeing a clip/documentary about William Klein and that first image. I think the boy posed for the shot/was asked to do that. I can’t fully remember.


Sort of back on topic, to me, sharpness isn’t everything in that style of street photography. The only thing that stopped me buying an old,£40 5mp camera for street was slow AF.

It doesn’t tell you in the manual how to do a factory reset. I downloaded the GR II instructions and there’s a bit of a funky button sequence. I would try that but step one involves turning the dial to movie mode! The 3 has a button for that now and have removed it from the dial.

I’m emailing them today about it and also the missing ring (blue one and list black one! ).
Many of Klein’s are posed-ish. The boy with the gun he asked to look tough and then in the next shot on the contact sheet you can see he’s smiling. I guess there are several/many kinds of street photography but you could say that there are three: where the photographer engages with the subject, where he doesn’t and some where a model is used. I thought that recent Don McCullin documentary was very illustrative of the engaging kind.

Reset: on the GR1 there is a restore defaults option in the menu.
 
Thanks for that Sphexx. I remember now you’ve told me!!

There is a reset in the 3 which I’ve tried. It doesn’t reset everything though even with all the boxes ticked. It still remembers my name, U1,U2 etc
It’s no biggie. I’m learning about the menus and controls though.
 
Had a couple of opportunities last week to shoot in Birmingham and London. I didn't have as long as I would have liked in either city, but it was better than nothing. Here's three from London. Nothing groundbreaking. I feel once I have these work shackles off me, I'll have a good run at using the camera.


1)
R0000562rawTalkphotog.jpg

2)R0000311rawTalkphotog.jpg

3)R0000362rawTalkphotog.jpg



On a side note, I joined the Ricoh GR III FB page. It appears someone else has lost their lens ring too on the first day. I should rephrase my original statement where I said the thread is rubbish for the ring/W.A lens adapter. It's actually a bayonet fitting very similar to a lens hood fitting.
 
I bought a GRiii recently; it was a no brainer for me, and I planned on getting one as soon as it was announced. I loved the original GR, and it paid for all my other camera equipment. I did get dust in the GR eventually, shortly before it packed up for good at a shutter count of 160 000 or so.

I used one of the lens rings to modify my GH-3 hood adapter so I could use my existing hood and wide angle lens from my GR. It works very well.
The biggest upgrade for me is the SR, though I wasn't expecting to be so impressed with it. I was very surprised to find I can shoot handheld from the aircraft at 1/5 second and get sharp images. High ISO performance seems to be about a stop better too. 24mp is a good upgrade imo as well.
Apart from that, it has the features I loved from the original GR, especially Snap Focus: I use it a lot, especially for aerial photography where I can just set it at infinity and shoot wide open The camera is small, light, unobtrusive and easy to set up exactly how you want it. I tend to shoot at 28mm a lot with my A7s and A7RII, so the fixed lens isn't an issue for me at all.

My only gripe so far is that the camera seems to have a problem with long exposures; sometimes it freezes up. Going on holiday in a few days, if it's still doing it I might get it replaced.

Quick edit: if anyone is looking for cheaper batteries, Li90B/92B for Olympus cameras are exactly the same size and spec. I bought a Hahnel HL-90B/92B from Amazon for £18. It's only 1200Mah as opposed to 1350, but not noticed and difference in battery life between that and the original.
 
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Dpreview “Ricoh says it will repair GR III cameras affected by a wobbly control dial, scroll wheel” https://www.dpreview.com/news/24953...ffected-by-a-wobbly-control-dial-scroll-wheel
I think this fault does not affect UK Ricohs.

I discovered mine does have a wobbly wheel. I didn’t know until I looked for it!!
My serial No. starts 0019xxx

I got my GRII delivered this morning, do you mind if I put images in as and when I take them ?
This thread is for EVERYONE.
I’m not precious and in fact, welcome any GR shots. ;-)
 
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I discovered mine does have a wobbly wheel. I didn’t know until I looked for it!!
My serial No. starts 0019xxx
No idea if yours is bad but according to what I read (probably dpreview Ricoh forum) there is supposed to be some slight wobble normally and it’s a question of degree. Personally, I hate those wheels, wobbly or not :mad:
 
Have Ricoh done anything about the dust ingress issues that caused problems with the earlier models?
 
Have Ricoh done anything about the dust ingress issues that caused problems with the earlier models?
Did you read the other posts in this thread;)?
 
Well, having read the posts, I am none the wiser really - what I wanted to know is have Ricoh fitted and seals to the extending lens and made it weatherproof/dustproof. I am aware that with past models there was an issue with dust ingress (as with other extending lens cameras)
 
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