Camera Obsolete

The Definitive Ricoh GR / GRII Curated Review

The Ricoh GR (2013) was the first large-sensor (APS-C) GR in a long line of both film and digital GR cameras. The GR lineage is a little bit confusing, but we’ll break it down so you know what to look for. The Ricoh GRII (which this article also covers) is basically just a GR with a couple of features added and can be considered essentially the same camera.

Contents

Why a Ricoh GR?

You might want a Ricoh GR / GRII for a few reasons:

  • It remains a great camera that shoots great photos even 10+ years after its release date.
  • It is a well-designed camera that can be used 100% one handed and the ergonomics remain stellar.
  • It has a built-in flash, which the later GRs (the GRIII and GRIIIx) do not have.
  • It has a rocker button on the back of the body for dialing in exposure compensation. The later GRs make use of the scroll wheel, which is more fiddly and is also used for other things
  • It has the Positive Film preset that everyone seems to love. The later versions of the GR also include Positive Film, but Ricoh changed the look of it and people generally don’t like it as much.

Specifications

Sensor: 16.2 Megapixels APS-C sensor

Shutter: 300s – 1/4000s

Exposure: Fully manual (M), Aperture Priority (Av), Shutter Priority (Tv), Shutter/Aperture Priority (TAv), Program (P), Automatic (A)

Lens: GR Lens 18.3mm f2.8 (28mm full-frame equivalent)

Size: 117 mm × 61 mm × 34.7 mm (4.6 in × 2.4 in × 1.4 in)

Weight: 245g (with battery and SD card)

Color: Black

Lineage: Preceded by Ricoh GR Digital IV, succeeded by Ricoh GRII

Full Specifications:

User manuals:

Lineage

GR Digital – GR Digital II – GR Digital III – GR Digital IV – GR (this one) – GRII (this one) – GRIII – GRIIIx

Variants

This guide covers both the GR and the GRII. The differences between the two cameras are shown below.

  • The GRII has wifi capability, and can be identified by a small “hump” on top of the camera, where the wifi module lives.
  • The GRII is otherwise the same as the GR.

This guide discusses both of these cameras as one, unless there is a specific need to spell out the difference.

Batteries and Charging

Batteries for the GR and GRII are still widely available, as are aftermarket chargers.

Unique Features

Customization

There is a ton of customization built in to these GR cameras that truly mean you can set them up like you want. You can change what buttons do, how they work, how exposure is handled, etc. You can set it so that one button immediately digitally zooms you in to a 35mm equivalent view (one of our favorites), along with countless other things. The user manual is your friend, and you can find them linked above in the Specifications section above.

Snap focus / Full press snap

Snap Focus is a feature in GR cameras that lets you predetermine the distance you want your camera to focus. When you set a distance (like 1 meter), when you press the shutter button instead of autofocusing, the camera will focus to the pre-determined distance (1 meter) and will take the photo. This is MUCH faster than letting the camera autofocus in street or candid situations where you know how far away your subject will be, or you’ve set your aperture small enough that focusing to a pre-determined distance will cover the range you’re trying to cover.

The real magic, however, is the full press snap feature. This feature allows you to use the camera in autofocus mode most of the time, but when you really want the camera to focus at a given distance, it will. Regular autofocus is achieved by using the camera regularly. Pointing the camera at a subject, half-pressing the shutter, and then taking the shot. You can use full press snap by jamming the shutter button all the way down quickly. When you do this, the camera will skip autofocusing and instead focus to the pre-determined distance. This is magic as you can use autofocus most of the time, but when you really need it, use snap focus in an instant. This is how we have our camera set up.

TAv

TAv is a unique feature to Ricoh cameras that allows you to set both the shutter speed and the aperture without being in manual mode.

Positive Film

Positive Film is an “effect” that you can set in the camera, that gives your JPEG photos a specific look. There are many people that LOVE the positive film effect on these cameras, and we have to agree – it gives a very cool, vintage / moody look to the images that looks really nice. Enable it by going to Menu -> Effect -> Select Positive Film. Play around with the other effects in there as well.

To note: this effect will only apply to your JPEG photos. If you shoot in RAW, you won’t see the effect when you look at your images on a computer. If you shoot JPEG or RAW + JPEG, you’ll see the effect in the JPEG images only.

Wifi (GRII only)

The GRII has wifi, which allows you to transfer photos from the camera to your computer or phone.

Recipes / Customization

The GR and GRII have a good amount of customization when it comes to the look of the images. You can set effects (like Positive Film or Black and White), image settings (which allow you to tweak vividness, contrast, sharpness, vignetting) and white balance customization. These can all be combined to create “recipes”, or looks that you can give your images. They’re fun to play around with.

Video Reviews

Snappiness, 2021

Snappiness is always a great reliable source for videos on older cameras. This video goes into taking the GR on a road trip and all that goes along with that.

Text and Image Reviews

These reviews cover both the GR and the GRII. As the cameras are mostly the same, the comments from one camera can be applied to the other, save for the wifi capability of the GRII.

Silaschu, 2020

Silaschu has a great write up on the Ricoh GR from 2020. Great sample images and discussion about the various things that make this camera great.

Ashwin Rao on Steve Huff Photo, 2017

Ashwin Rao has a great article on the GR, with lots of casual black and white and color photographs to show what the camera can do.

It’s Just Light, 2024

Another good review of the GR, along with things the author likes and doesn’t like about the camera, clearly laid out.

Comparisons

Samuel Streetlife, 2020

Samuel is always a great source of information, inspiration, and humor related to Ricoh GR cameras.

Jakob Iglhaut, 2021

Comparison of the Positive Film preset in the GR vs the GRIII, as discussed above. This video has samples, which are helpful to see.

Other Relevant Links

  • Ritchie’s Ricoh Recipes – This is a great site that shows example photos for different profile “recipes” that users have come up with. Basically, you can tweak color and contrast settings in the camera that will then show up in your JPEG files. This site gives you some great recipes to try for certain looks.
  • Flickr Ricoh GR group – not that active anymore, but over 170k photos at the time of writing.
  • #RicohGR hashtag on Instagram – as always with IG hashtags, there’s some garbage in there, but also some great photos. This hashtag will pull up photos from all GR cameras, not just the one discussed in this article.
  • Fred Miranda – Alternative camera sub-forum with some great discussion and photos
  • RangeFinderForum thread – Photo thread for all GR cameras. Worth a look. Includes some of our own GR photos over the years!

Photos

Photos from our own Ricoh GR will be added here soon.

Purchase an Ricoh GR

The best places to purchase an M9 are listed below. By clicking one of these links and making a purchase, you will be supporting Camera Obsolete at no cost to you.

eBay link here

Ricoh GR on KEH

Ricoh GR on MPB