RICOH GR | SHOOTING REPORT 
As I repeat myself, I am poor at 28mm. I should frankly say "I don't like it." :p This is because it reproduces your normal view just as it is. With such an angle of view, it's almost impossible for me to take something impressive. In other words, I can't play cheap tricks. Even if I still try, I feel like the lens is telling me "don't you run away and just shoot straight." Nevertheless, I own all GR cameras since the GR1V. Why? I think I've been attracted by the real value of RICOH GR cameras. Every time the new GR is released, I decide to master 28mm and buy it. This is because it's a camera that makes me get serious about shooting. I buy it and allow no turning back, and dream of becoming the master of 28mm. And, I fail every time... This is definitely not an ideal case, but I hope many of you will agree with me. :)
Anyway, the GR is finally equipped with a large sensor. Although it's a little bigger than former GR Digitals, I feel the size is almost the same as the GR1. If it had an optical viewfinder and a full-frame sensor, this camera would be a GR1 with a digital sensor instead of a film - this thought fills me with deep emotion. It's pocketable and has a first-class lens. People love the GR because of that and one application would be traveling. So this time I brought it to my super long distance trip. Because our impressions were already reported in the first review, this time I focused on what I can do with a larger sensor.
( Photo & Text : K )
One of my personal checkpoints is if a camera captures “stagnation.” Actually, having a crisp and clear air is very rare, and the air always has some haze except extreme weather conditions. So, whether the camera faithfully depicts the haze makes a good benchmark test. In such a condition, unless the tonality is rich, the pictures don’t come out in good shape. It was right after the sunset and the exposure is still a little over. These houses are “funaya” boat houses in Ine, Tango-Peninsula, Kyoto. The sample, which is just like I saw, shows the after-sunset atmosphere and its high contrast.
At a ropeway station in Onomichi, Hiroshima. The exposure is under, but it faithfully reproduces the cloudy sky. Trees are depicted with tonality and they look massive. I gather this massiveness is realized by the sharpness of lowpass-less filter.
This is another difficult condition for digital cameras. Isn't it a scene that you want to shoot with a color negative film? Although the lighting was flat, the shadow is darker and I feel the liveliness. The sea-surface pattern is clearly depicted because of the sharpness. Since the dawn of the digital age, I have been thinking that digital cameras are by nature good at shooting liquid subjects. However, they didn't capture the sea-surface pattern even though human eyes did. If it was because of the narrow latitude, it couldn't be helped, I think. But, if it was an issue of resolution, it shouldn't be overlooked. Therefore, I'm very pleased with this camera's resolving power. This isn't just a sleepy picture, but has a reality. This is the ability of the new GR.
The ship looks like a grain of bean in 28mm. But in the actual size, I can detect the name of the ship.
Besides, the ship looks solid in this small size. Amazing, isn't it?
It's not like "This lens is sharp. Period," but the lines are very thin. Highlight zones have details even if I raised the tone curve, so I can shoot over without worry. Both the bridge girders and the fisherman are depicted with solidity.
Like the former models, it generates a nice raw material for pictures. Because it captures the scene very faithfully and naturally, the haze is captured as haze and the clear air is captured as clear air. I know it doesn't make sense to compare the performance of this larger sensor to the smaller one, but I strongly feel the power of a larger sensor.
I stopped downed a bit. The macro performance is wonderful. This is a ladybug on a white car's fender. There are a variety of "whites" because of lighting, and they are all reproduced nicely.
I feel their elaboration to realize this nice bokeh. The back bokeh is wonderful, too. It depicts the highlight smoothly, so I think this camera is suitable for shooting with higher exposure than this sample shot.
She was drying wakame seaweed, so I asked her permission to take this shot. I hope you can see how delicate the lines are.
A pleasant light in the morning. I framed so that I can get the flares best.
I feel sorry for the company, but the picture like this becomes in better shape with flares.
I feel they managed to reduce the distortion very well. Actually it's minimal, and this asset hasn't changed from the first generation. It reproduced the following elements with a reality: ordinary glass, patterned glass, frosted glass (maybe because of unfinished wiping), and the texture of window frames.
The sky was almost losing light. Shot through the window.
High ISO performance is also improved thanks to the larger sensor. I raised it to 6400. It becomes noisy as expected, but it handles very nicely. So, if you shoot with an appropriate exposure, you still get a certain level of results. I advise you not to post-adjust the image shot at ISO6400. If you expect to adjust the images later, I recommend you to use the ISO up to 1600 and not to raise it higher than that.
This is another ISO6400 shot. Still it’s like the ISO1600 of a film, isn't it? Nice handling of the noise, don't you think?
Everything except the core was updated.
From their image processing philosophy and the outcome, I feel the GR blood is still running in this new model. However, the picture quality is drastically improved because of the larger sensor. You can shoot subjects which was difficult for older versions, yet it isn't surprisingly expensive. So, this camera will be very appealing to potential users. The larger sensor does require more power and accuracy for AF. Honestly, the AF isn't as fast and accurate as the older versions, but it's still satisfactory.
Because of the high picture quality, I want to shoot more. So, it would be nice if it has a detachable EVF. It isn't bad to turn the LCD off and attach an optical viewfinder, but it's hard to ignore the shallower depth of focus. No, maybe that shouldn't matter. It's just that I want to shoot more efficiently, once I see the wonderful results on the LCD.
Choose the GR for your pocket, or your little extra bag space. It handles just like the usual GR.