Matthew Brunelle's Blog
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Ricoh GRIII in Japan

Ricoh GRIII in Japan
Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto. I managed to frame a shot without the unruly crowd.

In March/April I traveled to Japan. My friends had been planning the trip since the end of 2019, but you know... things happened the next year. Then life events happened, and we kept pushing the date back, but this year we finally made it!

Before the trip, I had lucked into a gift certificate for a RISD adult continuing education class, and they were offering remote options. Since I knew I was going to Japan, I took the 1647 - Photography: Introduction course. This was my first time doing a remote class, and I was unsure how that would go, but it ended up being a really nice experience. They covered all the fundamentals about manual mode camera operation, the theory behind it, and above all the tempo of regular course work meant I actually get hands on practice!

For the course, I was fortunate to borrow my father's old Canon camera. Having multiple lenses, batteries, straps, memory cards, etc. was a boon during the course, but I didn't want to lug all of that around on my trip to Japan. I ruminated on what new camera to get for way too long, but I eventually settled on the Ricoh GRIII. My thoughts were:

  • I wanted something truly pocketable.
  • I wanted something I could use to quickly grab shots as we went so I could stay present. I'm traveling in a beautiful country and don't want the photography to take me out of the moment.
  • Most pocketable point and shoot cameras are beaten nowadays by cellphone cameras. Especially now that cell phones are packing multiple lenses and can take long shots. However, I wanted to stay off my phone as much as possible on the trip.

The Ricoh GRIII makes a lot of trade-offs to be so small:

  • Prime lens - the lens cannot zoom, there is only one focal length you can shoot at
  • Fixed lens - the lens is built into the camera, you cannot swap it for other lenses. This also has implications for cleaning if dust gets inside, and it's prone to that.
  • Video quality is so poor you shouldn't use the device for video
  • Battery is a bit short, but a second battery is cheap, compact, and easy to swap to.

But in return you get:

  • One of the smallest packages for an APS-C sensor.
  • Snap Focus is awesome for taking quick photos on the go. There's a reason street photographers love this camera.
  • Really crisp in camera processing. I shot full quality JPEG + raw, but honestly the raws were only a backup.
  • Prime lenses are really cool for flexing your creativity. As they say, "zoom with your feet".
When shooting a prime lens, you often can’t shoot the subject the way you envision it. So you have to get creative. Limiting yourself to a focal length you're not used to makes you experiment with new ways of composing. ​Primes might not make your photos better, but it will exercise your ability to improvise. - Cody Mitchell

GRIII Recommendations:

There is a Rioch 101 tutorial series on YouTube that is really useful for learning the specific of the device. The guide covers all the buttons, customizing the layout and how the snap focus mode works. I highly recommend giving the series a watch and trying out the recommended customizations.

The official Ricoh Image Sync app has a really low score, but actually worked fairly reliably for me. I really liked that I could have location data on my photos. The main things I had to do with the app to keep it happy were:

  • Remembering to turn the app on before taking photos so that the camera would receive the GPS info. For periods where I was taking lots of photos, I would leave the app on. This would draw extra power though, so a phone battery was a must.
  • The app can connect to the camera over either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Connecting over Wi-Fi was much reliable for me.
  • The Wi-Fi connection required me to turn off my VPN connection to Tailscale.

Similar to Fujifilm cameras, you can apply color recipes. My favorite color recipe is the Reggies Color Negative. Unlike Fujifilm cameras, you can't use an app to swap them out. Here's a guide on how to add recipes to the GRIII.

Upcoming GRIV

Before I bought the GRIII I thought long and hard about waiting on a GRIV announcement. The GRIII had been out for a while, and a refresh was overdue. I knew that if I got the camera for the trip, Ricoh would definitely announce the GRIV for this year.

So anyway, Ricoh announced the GRIV two weeks ago. This sacrifice was made for all of you. I am pretty happy with the GRIII, so I don't think I'll upgrade immediately unless the reviewers come back saying they think the camera is a significant upgrade. My main thoughts based on what has been revealed so far:

  • It looks like the GRIV has the same aperture range of F2.8 to F16 that the GRIII has. A lower end focal length closer to F2 like the Fujifilm x100 line would be appreciated. Though once again the GR line is significantly more compact, so there is less room to work with and trade-offs must be made.

Some positives change I see are:

  • Ricoh is releasing a new "GR WORLD" app. Fingers crossed the app performs better than Image Sync. The announcement also mentions the app will work with the GRIII line, which is appreciated.
  • The GRIII has double max ISO and Ricoh claims to have improved the stabilization. The GRIII can struggle in low light situations, so fingers crossed these changes help!

Anyway without further ado here are some favorite shot I captured on the trip: