Ricoh GXR Camera Review
March 10th, 2010Reviewed by David Ball.
Before I begin my review on the Ricoh GXR, I want to mention this review is focused at the consumer and not the rocket scientist. The average consumer does not understand what ‘Chromatic Aberration’ means or many of the other technical words we use in the photography industry, so I am going to keep this review simple so that the every day consumer can make a sensible choice when deciding whether they would like to purchase this camera.
This review and the camera I would suggest will be of more interest to the enthusiast.
If I were the consumer and wanted to purchase this product, one of my first questions would be “how easy is this camera to use and navigate?”…..80% of the people purchasing a new item (whether it be a camera, stereo or a new fridge) won’t bother to read the instructions. So considering this, the first part of the review is going to be based on how the Ricoh GXR feels and how easy it is to navigate.
The first thing that stands out, is that this looks like a compact camera but without the built in lens. I quickly realised that I am not reviewing the run of the mill camera so when purchasing one consider this and don’t expect the lens to be on the camera. This is obviously going to bump the price up a little. It will however give a great deal of flexibility, as you are able to purchase different lens units.
The Image sensor and processor is not built into the camera, but into the lens unit itself. Hence you will be purchasing a camera and a lens unit.
So how easy is the GXR menu to navigate? I would put myself in that 80% class, meaning I don’t read instructions until something doesn’t seem to be working the way I think it should. Then I will start skipping through the manual until I find what I want, then continue happily fumbling with the camera until I need the manual again.
Once the camera is turned on, the main thing that popped out at me is the incredibly clean and bright LCD screen on the back of the camera. It doesn’t actually pop out, but it may as well when you see how clean the image is. Once I headed into the menu options I found a world of fun. The options within the menu screens are very simple to move around, and don’t have bazaar titles that are confusing.
The back of the camera has a few different buttons that are quick options. The ‘direct’ button took me straight into the; ISO, White balance, Focus, Metering, Color management, Image size, Bracketing and Continuous shooting options. It’s just simply using the navigation buttons to select the option you wish to change. This would be the one area that will be used mostly in my opinion, it makes this camera very user friendly when taking photographs in ‘manual mode’. To be honest, I can’t fault Ricoh on how easy it is to make those manual changes.
Image Quality:
The Image quality at low ISO is great and the colour reproduction for such a small camera blew me away when I first saw it on the back of the camera. Obviously how good it appears on your monitor will be determined by how good your monitor is and whether it is calibrated correctly. Assuming you have all your ducks lined up with calibration and a half decent monitor, you will find that once you upload your images, you will be very impressed with the results. The drawbacks though when using the 24-72mm lens unit at much faster speeds of ISO 800 to 3200, is the noise in the images, it is quite high. Once you get up to 3200 ISO you may as well forget it totally, the noise is bad with a loss of colour in the images.
Using the 50mm lens unit is a different story, this is mostly due to the larger image sensor. I didn’t have any issues with the high ISO until 3200, and even then the image is quite good. This is no different to what I would expect from an entry lever DSLR. So the results from these settings are highly impressive.
The file size when using the fine image setting is about 3-4Mb and you still have the option of shooting in RAW.
Focusing:
The 24-72mm is ok when focusing (in terms of speed) and has the option of a pre-focusing option. In the pre-focusing option the lens will focus within a set range although not fully focus, this will decrease the time it takes to actually focus when depressing the shutter release button. The macro on the 24-72mm is ok but not fantastic.
The 50mm focusing is slow and can feel painfully slow when set to macro, but the image sharpness is great.
Some of the extras:
The TC-1 1.88x tele-conversion lens, HA-3 Hood and Adaptor, LC-2 Self Retaining Lens Cap, VF-2 LCD Viewfinder, GF-1 Flash unit can be purchased as extras to complete the kit.
TC-1: It’s a good quality tele-convertor for such a small camera, giving some good sharp images. My biggest issue with this is you need to purchase the Hood and Adaptor to fit the TC-1 to the 24-72mm lens unit.
HA-3: Hood and Adaptor. Great for reducing vigneting and lens flare on the zoom lens, as mention above, the adaptor is required for the tele-convertor.
LC-2: I would recommend this one to help protect the 24-72mm lens. It’s a good add on to the kit. (This item can be seen on the image of the GXR towards the top of this page).
VF-2: I wasn’t too exited about the LCD viewfinder, although it can be very helpful when photographing in sunlight.. I found that the camera LCD screen was perfect for looking at the subjects I was photographing.
GF-1. This is a great flash unit. It has settings in it so that the flash on the camera can be used to fire this as an off camera flash. Simply by reducing the power of the camera flash. and setting the GF-1 to slave. The flash is quite powerful, and gives good results. Remember you are not using an SB-900 Nikon, so don’t expect the earth from this flash unit, for what it is and the money, I actually thought it is good value. Add a good quality diffuser to the flash and you have something that will do justice to your subjects.
New Products:
Ricoh are releasing two new lens units for the GXR.
| 1. | Camera unit RICOH LENS P10 28-300 mm F3.5-5.6 VC* (name tentative) | ||
| • | With an original Ricoh noise reduction function and a back-illuminated CMOS sensor, this camera unit expands the photographer’s range of expression by making it possible to shoot high-quality images in scenes ranging from low light to bright light. | ||
| • | Featuring a high-magnification 10.7x (28-300 mm) optical wide-angle zoom, this unit has 120 frame/second high-speed continuous shooting ability plus a wide range of other functional capabilities such as RAW image recording, image settings adjustable to nine levels, multi-target AF, and much more. | ||
| • | Start of sales planned for the summer of 2010. | ||
| * | The “VC” designation indicates that this unit has the vibration correction function developed independently by Ricoh. | ||
| 2. | Camera unit GR LENS A12 28 mm F2.5 (name tentative) | ||
| • | Featuring a newly developed 28 mm fixed-focal-length GR LENS, this camera unit achieves high resolution and high imaging power. | ||
| • | A 23.6 mm x 15.7 mm (APS-C size) CMOS sensor is used. The combination of this sensor with the GR ENGINE III image processing engine enables the camera unit to shoot high-quality images with smooth tone gradations as well as high definition and low noise. | ||
| • | There is a manual focus ring that can be used for precise focus adjustments. | ||
| • | Start of sales planned for the winter of 2010. | ||
These Specifications are from the Ricoh Website.
http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/press/release/nr_gxr_unit.html
Overall.
My overall thoughts on the system in general are very positive. What we have is a camera that acts like an entry level DSLR but the same size as a compact camera. The image quality is nothing to snare at, anybody that loves strong vibrant colours and good sharp images will love this camera. Ricoh have done a great job with something that is totally innovative and little bit out there. The slow focusing is an issue particularly on the 50mm lens on macro. I love the idea of the image sensor being built into the lens unit as this eliminates the risk of dust on the image sensor.
Would I purchase one? If I was in the market for an entry DSLR, I would seriously consider this as a purchase. It has the advantage of being smaller, lighter and doesn’t require a large camera back for the optional extras that we find with the traditional entry level DSLR
I will rate the Ricoh GXR a score of 7 1/2 out of 10.
So what about the pricing:
Saul at Camera Electronic has come up with some great discounts for anyone looking to purchase this camera. You will need to mention this review to get the special prices though.
The prices below are current at Camera Electronic followed by the specials.
GXR Body: $699.00.
24 – 72mm Zoom Lens $649.00
50mm Prime lens $999.00
VF-2 Viewfinder $299.00
LC-2 Lens Cap $20.00
TC-1 Tele Conv: $299.00
GF-1 Flash Unit $349.00
HA-3 Hood and Adaptor $129.00
Special Price: Remember to mention this review for these specials.
GXR Body: $599.00.
24 – 72mm Zoom Lens $549.00
50mm Prime lens $799.00
VF-2 Viewfinder $240.00
LC-2 Lens Cap $18.00
TC-1 Tele Conv: $220.00
GF-1 Flash Unit $275.00
HA-3 Hood and Adaptor $99.00
Prices are subject to change without notification.
If you are interested in the Ricoh GXR system or any other photography equipment, then be sure to visit Saul, Howard and the team at Camera Electronic. They are a world of knowledge and always happy to talk about Photography and Printing.
Phone them on: 08-9328-4405
Please as always feel free to add any comments or suggestions on this review. We are always open to ideas of things to review, so feel free to ask.
Our next review will be on Nik Software Photographic Tools.
For now. Happy Shooting.
Team Gotcha 
