Before you start reading this review, let’s get a few things straight.
If you’re looking for an auto everything camera with a zillion hand-holding scene modes, big pretty icons and more wizards than a cauldron convention, this isn’t the camera for you.
If you’re after a camera with a ginormous zoom able to sweep in and capture the delicate fluttering of a wasp’s wings from 300 yards, move on.
And if you like your cameras to look mean’n’lean with big shiny lenses, all-swivellin’, flip-out LCD screens with hi-tech add-ons like optical image stabilisation and bleeping bells’n’whistles, walk on by.
You want to zoom in to a scene? Well, get walking because there’s no zoom at all, only a fixed wideangle lens.
Need to take a picture in a complex lighting situation? Then come back when you’ve learnt some photography basics because there’s no dial-full of scene modes to fall back on.
Less is more
Unlike any other digital compact we can think of, the Ricoh GR Digital is an 8 megapixel digital camera that seems to be unique in selling itself on having less whiz-bang features than its competitors.
Although this approach may not appeal to the point’n’shoot brigade, for enthusiasts fed up with the endless button pushing and dial spinning that comes with most compact digicams, this camera is a revelation.
Based on the legendary Ricoh GR1 35mm film camera, the GR is a no-holds barred landscape/street photographer’s dream offering a fast 28mm f2.4 lens, beautiful handling and dedicated manual controls giving full control over exposure.
An optional wide angle adapter provides an incredible, super-wide 21mm (film equiv) view – perfect for landscape/architectural photographers – although the removable lens mount ring looks a prime candidate to be promptly lost.
Sadly, there’s no built in optical viewfinder, although the big 2.5″ LCD 210k pixel screen performed well in bright light and can also display a live histogram display.
Pro users (with deep pockets) may be tempted to shell out for the optional Optical Viewfinder – this clips onto the hotshoe socket and offered the brightest view we’ve ever seen on a compact digicam.
Handling
Despite its non-bling, ultra-basic looks (one person mistook the £400 camera for a disposable!) when you pick up the Ricoh you can instantly feel the class – it’s tough, feels great, it’s just the right size in the hands with all the controls exactly where you want them to be.
The camera is one of the smallest digital cameras with ultra-wide angle lens, and fits easily in a pocket, measuring 107 x 25 x 58 mm (WxDxH).
Ricoh’s menu system proved very intuitive, with clearly labelled tabs guiding users through the various options available and the paper manual was one of the better ones we’ve read – and thankfully didn’t come in five hundred obscure languages.
The camera takes a proprietary lithium-ion rechargable battery which gave a reasonable battery life of around 230 shots, while Ricoh usefully include the option to use 2 AAA batteries in an emergency.
Although these are likely to pack in after only 25 shots or so, they could be a life saver when batteries fail unexpectedly.
Exposure and shooting options
Although there is one ‘Auto’ mode, to appreciate this camera you’ve got to switch to the advanced modes: Program Shift, Aperture Priority and Manual (there is a scene mode, but this only has a voice recording option and a setting for capturing text).
In Aperture Priority, turning the dial at the front of the camera directly changes aperture values, with the updated shutter speed appearing in the 2.5″ LCD screen.
In Manual mode, traditional photographers may feel a nostalgic tear welling up in their eyes as they see the welcome reappearance of a time-honoured -2 EV to +2EV needle displaying the exposure status.
In any shooting mode, important values like ISO rating, focus, white balance and exposure compensation could be brought up instantly by clicking on the rear control wheel and then scrolling to the required parameter.
Usefully, these options could be configured to suit the photographer’s preferences or the job in hand.
Shooting
The camera proved fairly nippy to start up and was ready to start snapping in about two seconds.
Despite the power under the hood, the camera was really easy to use and we rarely found ourselves having to consult the manual.
Focusing was very fast with minimal shutter lag, with shot to shot time roaring along with a delay of just over a second between shots when refocused (without flash).
Shooting in continuous mode managed around four, full frame shots in just over a second before the camera had to pause to write to the card.
However, it was a different story when shooting in RAW with the camera locking up for anything up to 15 seconds – a veritable lifetime for a street photographer.
Both flash recharge times and image playback were speedy enough and we were particularly impressed with the macro performance which focused up to an outrageously close 1cm.
ISO settings went from ISO64 up to ISO1600, with shutter speeds adjustable from a long 3 minutes to 1/2000 sec, and the GR Digital also records 320×240 movies with sound at 30fps.
Image quality
We were very impressed with image quality and colour, with the fast, wide 28mm f2.4 lens producing excellent results, with sharp pictures and little in the way of chromatic aberration.
Shooting in RAW and spending a little time in post-processing produced some stunning results, but shooting at low ISO/high quality JPEG should prove fine for most users.
Noise was pretty much under control at the lower ISO ratings although things, not surprisingly, got a little messy at 1600 – but the quality was still good enough to knock out a 6″ x 4″ print or web image.
Conclusion
The Ricoh GR Digital is a truly unique digital camera that stands out from the crowd by concentrating on the basics, offering a speedy performance, full creative control, a good battery life and a fast, crisp wide-angle lens that made it perfect for landscapes and cameos.
We fell in love with the camera’s lo-fi look, with its nondescript appearance barely attracting attention on the street, letting us get on with taking pictures unhindered.
Throughout the test period, the Ricoh constantly reminded us of our old 35mm super compact Olympus XA, a much loved camera which was hugely popular amongst pros and semi-pros. We’ve been looking for something to replace this camera for years. Maybe the Ricoh is it.
Because of its niche appeal, the Ricoh’s a tough camera to unreservedly recommend, but for keen street/landscape photographers looking for a rugged, flexible, high quality camera capable of the very highest results, we’d put the GR Digital right at the very top of the list.
Our verdict
Features: 75%
Ease of Use: 85%
Image Quality: 90%
Overall: 90%
Street price £400 (~$700, ~€585)
Ricoh GR Digital homepage
Ricoh GR Digital: inside story
Specifications
Sensor 1/1.8″ Type CCD, 8.1 million effective pixels
Image sizes 3264 x 2448, 3264 x 2176, 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1280 x 960, 640 x 480
Text: 3264 x 2448, 2048 x 1536
Movie clips 320 x 240, 160 x 120
File formats
Still: JPEG, RAW, TIFF (TEXT ONLY)
Movie: AVI
Sound: WAV
Lens 28 mm (35 mm equiv), F 2.4 – F 11
Digital zoom Up to 4x
Focus Auto focus, Manual focus, Snap, Infinity
AF assist lamp Yes
Focus distance Normal: 30cm to infinity
Macro: 0.02 m to infinity
Metering 256 multi-point, Spot metering, Centre-weighted average
ISO sensitivity ISO 64, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600 (not available in RAW mode)
Exposure compensation +/-2EV, 1/3 EV steps
Exposure bracketing -0.5 EV, 0, +0.5 EV
Shutter speed 180 – 1/2000 sec
Modes Program, Aperture priority, Program shift AE
White balance Auto, Daylight, Overcast, Tungsten Light, Fluorescent light, Manual, Advanced
White bracketing Yes
Self timer 2 or 10 secs
Continuous shooting Yes
Flash Built-in pop-up, Auto, red-eye suppression, force flash, slow synchro, no flash
Range: Approx. 0.2 to 3 m (when ISO Auto is set)
Viewfinder External viewfinder via hotshoe
LCD monitor 2.5″ TFT LCD, 210,000 pixels
Connectivity USB 2.0
Storage SD card/26 MB internal memory
Power 1x rechargeable D-60 battery or 2x AAA batteries
Weight 170 g (6 oz) (no card, batteries or strap), 200 g (7.1 oz) (with batteries and strap)
Dimensions 107 x 25 x 58 mm (4.2 x 1 x 2.3 in)
Big glasses-toting Buggles sang about ‘Video Killing The Radio Star’ back in 1979, but new figures from Ofcom suggest that the while Internet may not exactly be killing TV, it’s certainly giving it a bit of a duffing behind the bike sheds.
Industry pundits are collaring the Internet as the reason for this decline, along with DVDs and gaming.
Consumer broadband continues its exponential growth, exploding from zero to 10 million connections in just over seven years, with some 70,000 new connections being added per week.
You’re thinking of doing your own podcast, I can tell. You were getting all excited about the new generation of digital microphones.
Digital array microphones, however, are as good as the data stream they’re poured into. Imagine my delight to find that the default setting for OneNote audio recording is eight kilobits per second, mono. I found this out AFTER recording an Important Person at a press conference. I have no idea what he said; all I have is a recording of people coughing and creaking their chairs. I’m sure fellow-recorders have found the same.
The English version of Wikipedia has now notched up more than one million articles, according to the Wikimedia Foundation, the fellas who run the free online encyclopedia.
Wikipedia’s reach is truly global, with versions of the encyclopaedia currently available in 125 languages, containing a total of 3.3 million articles.
With the million-article mark passed and the Wikimedia Foundation estimating that new articles are coming in at a rate of 1,700 new articles every day, our back-of-a-beer-mat calculation reckons they’ll be hitting 2 million sometime 2009.
With a multitude of third party manufacturers making a mint from a multiplicity of iPod accessories, Apple has decided to cut itself a slice of the action with their own high-end Apple iPod Hi-Fi speaker system.
With portability in mind, the iPod Hi-Fi features big handles on either side (but no central grip which is a bit odd).
That shiny finish looks a bit scratchable to us too and we can’t imagine many death metal loving teenagers wanting a great big white box in their satanic bedrooms either.
Mind you, Steve Jobs was suitably enthusiastic, declaring it as the, “home stereo reinvented for the iPod age”.
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All versions of the new OS will come with Internet Explorer 7.0, Vista desktop search, parental controls and Windows Defender anti-spyware technology.
The super-slick redesigned Windows Aero GIO promises to provide a ‘transparent glass’ design, with subtle effects such as dynamic reflections and smooth animations, along with Windows Flip and Flip 3D desktop navigation features.
All versions of Windows Vista are scheduled to be broadly available in the second half of 2006, with pricing to be announced.
Due to hit the shelves in March, Samsung Electronics’ new YP-Z5 MP3 player is causing a stir because it was designed by Paul Mercer – the very same programming genius who created the interface for Apple’s runaway success, the iPod.
At $199 (~e167, ~£113) to $249 the pricing is similar Apple’s product, and – crucially – Samsung is promising a seamless connection between player and download service via Microsoft’s PlaysForSure digital music standard.”
In a reflection of the growing convergence between phones and digital cameras, Sony Ericsson have declared their new K800 and K790 phones to be worthy of the Cybershot brand.
To help share your photographic masterpieces, Sony Ericsson have struck a deal with Google to enable easy photo blogging with the search engine’s Blogger service.
Sony Ericsson have also announced two additions to the K series along with a new phone in the Z range.
EntertainmentMusic Player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ support)
In a flurry of press announcements, Sony have announced no less than four shiny new cameras to add to their popular range of digital compact cameras.
Both cameras come with optical zoom lens offering a huge range of 36-432mm (35mm equiv) at F2.8-3.7.
The DSC-H5 camera will be available in May for about $500 (~£287, ~€420) and the DSC-H2 a month earlier for around $400 (~£230, ~€337).
Featuring 8.1 and 7.2 million pixels respectively, the DSC-W100 cameras offer a 3x zoom (38-114mm), eye-level viewfinder and a 2.5-inch screen.
Battery life is an impressive 360 shots on a single full charge, with the W100 coming with 64MB of internal memory and the W70 58MB. Both cameras use Sony’s Memory Stick storage.