The next Ricoh GR

[Tom Caldwell]

If Ricoh brought out a GR with a 40mm equiv. lens and with no change in camera size but with a built-in OVF it would appeal both to new customers as a unique - and ideal - compact as well as to existing ones wanting a second body.

40mm - the ideal focal length!

Well you have 35mm and 47mm crop mode built in. You can add a 21mm accessory lens with perfect optics.

The GR already covers a range of wide focal lengths with only a few compromises and it is obviously worthwhile to make. I would have to agree that maybe a swatch of GR cameras each with an optimised lens of different focal length might be an ideal, but more an unfulfilled dream as such a swatch of cameras could not be made with any commercial sense.

Note that a 40mm might be an ideal focal length for some but others might lay claim to other focal lengths - and on and on the dream would spin out with every dreamer wanting to buy a single copy of their favourite focal length GR. Myself I quite like a 90mm f1.2 portrait lens as my ideal but I doubt if my preference will be rewarded any time soon. Of course such a camera of my dreams would be a sizeable lump compared to the present GR. But single one off bespoke cameras at $20,000 a pop surely must be a market as yet untapped.

Also by the time you build in an ovf you have a body the size of the GXR in any case. Ricoh might as well make the GXRII with a built in evf of vey high quality and release a 40mm module for it. Add a mount module with a FF sensor but otherwise similarly specified and the Ricoh world would go mad with anticipatory excitement.

 

[riccadonna]

As new GR owner I can say that sensor size to camera size ratio is just about perfect. Just look at Fuji 100x with 35 lens. not exactly pocket cam and this without ridiculous 28mm converter. I would second quester in his quest for GR WR preferably with 21mm eq. lens and articulate LCD or in order to keep dowm complexity and size, a second tiltable display on top of camera ( 30x20mm would be enough for rough framing or settings checking). Meanwhile I would love a supercompact U/W housing with externally attachable semifish-eye and wide converters. To all other Ricoh FFramers I recommend analog GR 21 and 28. Can`t get smaller.

Does this mean we can expect a GXR A12 28/GR comparison?

Richard

You bet, Richard I`ll take the risk. Imagine discovering that I somehow prefer A 12 28s grain and tonality
Well, I`m faking. . GR due to its size and AF speed does have an edge over its bigger brother. Stanislaw

 

[thereluctantgardener]

Of course different folk have different preferences for different focal lengths. Some even prefer 28mm apparently (!). But given the existence of a 28mm - weird, I know - a 40mm would be a next logical step.

I don't expect an OVF anytime soon, if ever, but with the march of miniaturisation it would be my first next preference after the focal length. And the original poster was asking for personal preferences. My only other wish would be that the worthwhileness of the 35mm and 47mm crop modes would be obvious to me, because it certainly isn't as they stand.

Let's hear it then for 40mm - the ideal focal length!

 

[MikePenn]

Really with the 40mm crap again ? Get over it and buy a different camera.

 

[Chrisnmn]

A lot of people bashed me once for saying to put a "full frame sensor on an OMD body" then Sony did it. And a lot of people when I was researching on getting a GRD was saying that a bigger sensor was "impossible" on that tiny body, then Ricoh put an APSC sensor in it and we all love it. So knowing that "pushing boundaries" is real these days in the photo world, I would love to see a

GR II (like the OP said)
Same size sensor, any extra pixel would be great but not really needed
Monochrome version would be a dream, even though I feel that the current sensor on the GR render some incredible BW images
f1.9 or f2 lens would be amazing.
Better AF in low light, as the current one, is almost a not working one bad.

All of this, in the exact same size package as the current GR.

 

[robin3mj]

Full frame with 28/35/47mm crop would be OK if the size increased a bit.
GR IV as the pocket camera.

 

[Tom Caldwell]

I don't really have much trouble with whatever size sensor camera that Ricoh might make - when they make it.

I also don't have any trouble with whatever focal length they decide to make a camera in - when they make it.

We can wish and dream but I don't think anyone is listening.

We are not even guaranteed that there will be another GR and certainly the current model has a way to run yet, I would imagine, before a replacement is considered. At least someone seems to be maintaining the firmware that is about all we can be sure about (for the moment).

Tom

 

[thelps]

We are not even guaranteed that there will be another GR and certainly the current model has a way to run yet, I would imagine, before a replacement is considered. At least someone seems to be maintaining the firmware that is about all we can be sure about (for the moment).

Tom

I do very much agree Tom, who knows for sure (only Ricoh) however I feel the GR has been a sales success with all those newbies who post about it.
The GR seems to be talked about more than say the GRDs before it.
I'd be perfectly happy just to at least see an update of the GR still in 28mm. At least it will be available for some time longer - my GR get more use than anything else for me.

The model I'd most like to see is a pure native APS-C B/W version in 28mm IF there was an large IQ improvement over the "Bayer convert" version.