A departure, an arrival

Like many things that leave us, whether or not we allow them to, we occasionally gain something even better in replacement. It’s a steady stream of attrition, I suppose, as we get older.

The Ricoh GR III was purchased in the year of our Devil 2020. This is not me making light of a global pandemic, but a reflection on what for many has been a year in hell.

Priorities

The pandemic snuck up on those of us working in healthcare. Priorities, both professional and personal, changed dramatically overnight. Photography was the last thing on my mind. The fear and anxiety of inherent daily risk at work provided a grim backdrop to the usual routine.

Taking pictures of empty streets and public spaces seemed merely to echo an overwhelming and pervasive sense of loss. Nothing made sense and this made even less sense. So the new GRIII was consigned to its box on the shelf. And the little camera sat for many months in its box.

Lost and found

These last few months have provided a ray of light shining through a chink in an armour of impenetrable dread. There seemed to be hope and a sense of renewal. My thoughts turned to the Ricoh and I unearthed the box… smell of the new camera wafting out upon unboxing.

There you are, I thought, looking at the tiny camera. Sorry, I took so long.

My first frame with it came out badly underexposed.

Wait. Hold on.

I hadn’t customised any of the settings and buttons. The camera was in manual mode with exposure being set way down. I quickly change the settings and save them. I reframe, dial the aperture three stops down and raise my exposure. I click the shutter and the camera chirps. All is quiet and still. I exhale and review my frame. A surge of elation runs through me.

A few weeks later, I meet an old friend. I have work lined up in another state and the occasion is a sort of farewell. We chat for what seems like a moment but actually lasts for a few hours. The pandemic seemed to have laid its mark. Many establishments remain shuttered, businesses closed down. There is an air of despair around us which we soon see in each other too.

Kamera baru…

“So macam mana dengan kamera baru? Nampak kecil tapi pasti hebat!”, he says. (So how’s the new camera? Looks tiny but deadly!)

“Ya”, I reply. Perhaps my voice betrays me.

“Kenapa?” He says (Why?)

A lump rises in my throat. I feel bowed by the memories of the last year. Of buying the GRIII during a time fraught with anxiety and terrifying helplessness and resignation. I tell him that it reminds me of that time.

“I faham. Memang pun dunia dah berubah. Normal yang dulu dah takde.” (Yeah, I understand. There’s no going back to where we once were). His rough-spun sympathy is both reassuring and a reminder that it’s time for both of us to take our leave.

“Hey, Raymond” I call out, “bolek saya ambil gambar kau?. (“Before we go, can I take your portrait?”)

I frame him on the screen, perform a full press snap and the camera chirps. I exhale. I review the image and a familiar frisson of joy runs through me.

part of our conversation is in Bahasa Malaysia. Translations as within brackets.

Friends come in small packages

A few weeks later, the GRIII and I have become inseparable friends. I learn that the tiny Ricoh is capable of a great many things. That it is largely unobtrusive and attracts as much attention as using a handphone to frame a scene. That it has its own form of zone focus, “snap focus” in Ricoh-speak.Heaping more praise on this little marvel might lead the reader to form an assumption that I’m biased. Perhaps it is just love, rekindled.

The in-camera JPEG presets are largely superfluous for me, except for the high-contrast black and white. The camera allows me to save three different customised settings for various settings like metering modes, snap focus distance, JPEG simulations and such. No surprises for guessing my personal preferences are all black and white with different snap-focus settings ranging from 1.5 metres to more than 5 metres.

The in-camera menus aren’t maze-like by any means, and the basic setup is fairly simple. Metering modes range from matrix to spot and even highlight-weighted, which has fast become my favourite.

The fastest aperture of f/2.8 is offset by the presence of IBIS which allows handheld shutter speeds as low as 1/10s.

There are drawbacks, most of which can be worked around. Battery life isn’t great by any stretch of the imagination. A minimum of three batteries is recommended if you’re planning serious usage. The poor battery life is a corollary of the camera’s size and weight. Sure, the battery could be bigger, but I wouldn’t want the extra heft and find it no problem to carry spares.

The battery life, hovering around 200 shots, is no doubt partly due to the LCD screen being continuously on, as compared to an EVF with eye sensors. Switching it off and using a zero-power optical viewfinder is going to give you more mileage.

Any form of weather resistance is absent. A sacrifice, possibly meant to preserve the small form factor. I have to take extra care, living in a part of Malaysia where it rains every day of the year. There is only one slot for an SD card, although there is a useful 2GB built-in memory that can get you out of trouble. But in the event of card failure, there isn’t an option for a backup card to salvage images. It should be said, though, that this is a common problem with almost all tiny cameras; there just isn’t enough space for two slots.

So why among the myriad options available would someone buy the Ricoh GRIII?

Allow me to go on a tangent. Embarking on film photography recently cured me of long-held notions that had taken root with digital photography. As someone new to black and white film, it was and still is a revelation seeing rich blacks and lush whites in images created from film. Kodak TriX 400 and Ilford FP4 Plus have become firm favourites.

The high-contrast JPEG setting in the Ricoh GRIII is possibly the closest digital approximation to this. I am possibly painting myself into a corner by saying that the GRIII produces the best black and white JPEGs of any camera I’ve handled. Perhaps I would revise this statement once I’ve got my hand on a Leica Q2 Monochrom. Well, we all need something to look forward to…



19 COMMENTS

  1. I thoroughly enjoyed your article and particularly loved the image in “friends come in small packages “.
    I personally do not see an issue with a single memory card since doing digital photography from 2008. Has anybody had a problem with this? This is not even remotely on my feature list.

    Thanks, for the pleasure of your images.

    • Thank you Brian. Your comments are greatly appreciated. My opinion, for a professional photographer having to deliver images to the clients at the end of the day, the double memory card is absolutely indispensable. The odd chance of memory card corruption is unacceptable. For those of us who do not sell images,our images are just as dear. Personally speaking I change my memory cards once every 2 years. And all new cards are tested by me before being taken for a trip. I like the concept of film being more reliable than memory cards. This has been floated as an opinion previously in some forums. Where negatives can often be kept for decades if stored properly whereas memory cards have the propensity for degradation and loss of data. Memory card corruption is a known risk. Brand and quality of cards possibly mitigate the risk. What do you think Brian ?

  2. Good to see the night shots with their low light, pushing the GR to the limit.
    The high contrast works well.
    Thanks for showing.

  3. Like Jean the My Gr2, and Grd4, to quote an American actor “Will have to be pried from cold dead hands”, the high contrast black and white produce something special. Love your pics look forward to more, and like you Q2 mono is the Holy Grail to attain.

    • That’s a Charlton Heston quote. I remember it making the news and he not being regretful of his words. It was in reference to NRA policy. Thank you John for your kind comments. The Q2 Monochrom has a few shortcomings. Due to the absence of a colour sensor it doesn’t have continuous AF. Plus it tends to produces images with blown highlights which can’t be recovered in post.

  4. I am not a monochrome photography enthusiasist but I like the images which you attached to your interesting article. Accept my congratulations to good work Gireesh. Why are you not joing our 1x photo platform?

    • All in good time. I’m happy to be in the company of Mike Evans , JP and David B among others. Macfilos is something special.

      • Oh Gireesh, too much honour. But welcome in this great community of contributors. This was an excellent start, and I may say that I really like your style of writing. It is unconventional and a cool mixture of purveying factual information and evoking emotions. I’m looking forward to reading and seeing more from you. And you will get used to everything here, even D.B.’s comments. 🙂 JP

        • Kein problem. Danke JP. I always look forward to DB’s comments. I very much enjoyed reading your experiences with the Olympus system. Your article is superlative as usual. I make pictures better than I make words. It’s surprising although there is no perfect camera but perhaps there is a always an unforgettable experience with our cameras. Whatever we choose to use. Take care mein Freund.

  5. Thanks for the review and nice contrasty images. As a Ricoh user myself these B&W high contrast are indeed the closest you can get to a TriX film -contrasty and grainy. Poor battery life has kept me from upgrading to the 3rd APS-C GR iteration and I stick to GR2. I also enjoy the high contrast of earlier models (the GRD series with the small CCD sensor or the GXR with the Cmos sensor).
    Enjoy your Ricoh and your analog camera
    Jean

    • Thank you. I do not know if it’s anecdotal or otherwise, many users of the Ricoh throughout its many iterations mention positive film preset looks better in the older cameras. I have been mulling over the possible purchase of the GRIIIx with its equivalent 40mm lens. That would definitely impinge upon time spent with my current camera. Not necessarily a good thing. I am convinced the 28mm focal length remains superior.

  6. Thanks for this enjoyable article Gireesh and welcome to the list of contributors. I liked the way your photos illustrated the changes as life returned to a ‘new normal’.

    • Thank you. I owe a debt thanks to Mike for the layout of the images and also helping me greatly with this article right from its formation.

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