The Gear Churn Continues: A Return To The GR. GRIIIx This Time.
Below is the bulk of an email I sent to Hamish of 35MMC. We often trade tales of gear churn via email. Many turn into blog posts or requests from Hamish for me to write a blog post for 35MMC. Exhibit A:
Back to the email.
…Has to do with my long term struggle of avoiding the obvious digital daily carry point and shoot solution and going around the horn five different ways just to trade everything towards what I should have just bought in the first place.
Started with an OG RICOH GR.
It was perfect. Then it got the infamous sticky shutter. Would still work, but you had to press the shutter after powering it up to unstick the shutter. Too expensive and might be impossible to fix. Too good to let go of just for that. Gave it to my son.
Should have just bought a new GR then.
But instead, I bought a RICOH GXR kit with the GR module.
My thinking was that it was only slightly larger and I could just buy another GR module if the first one failed. I quickly came to realize:
1. That slight increase in size from GR to GXR was enough so it was not the compact camera I was looking for.
2. I went nuts and bought other lens modules and an EVF which only made matters worse.
From there I pivoted to MFT. Again. Third or fourth time finally beating out Fujifilm for the top spot of my many fickle gear return trips. Panasonic this time.
Similarly:
1. That slight increase in size from GR to GF1 and 20mm f/1.7 was enough so it was not the compact camera I was looking for.
2. I went nuts and bought a mess of lenses and two more bodies which only made matters worse.
Then two events happened.
A recent protest march.
Started the night with my MFT kit.
But it required more messing about than I wanted so by the end of the march I was only using my ZV-1.
I much preferred the ZV-1. And I took some of my favorite recent photos with it that evening.
The next event was a singing engagement on Sunday. Based on the protest march experience, I brought the ZV-1.
And it did as asked. The first time I started to think the ZV-1 is fantastic for video and fine for stills, but a GR would have really been nice. Then I forgot about it.
The next step in the maze was the Olympus OM-3 release. Thought it looked nice. I might trade all of my MFT gear and a couple other pieces of kit collecting dust (Including <gasp> my Contax G1 kit that pretty much has not seen the light of day since my Rollei 35AF arrived. A first world problem of too many good cameras to use with any regularity. And I do not keep shelf trophies… Well, not many.) towards an OM-3. Then it arrived at my local camera shop. I do not agree with the hype about its feel. Despite what I have read it feels like a modern mostly too much plastic camera in a vintage film camera costume. Same issue I had with the PEN-F I had years ago…
…and more recently the Nikon Zf.
Looked the part, but failed miserably in hand. Then I briefly realized that I like had enough trade equity to get a used GFX 50S they had. Just the body. Not enough for a lens. Then I thought, I heard you could adapt M lenses… Then I snapped out of it:
- No AF lenses makes no sense.
- I can already do that with an M camera or Sony kit.
- The last time I tested it side by side with my regular “real” camera the GFX 50S was kicked in the teeth.
That is when I saw that the camera shop updated their Craigslist page to state that they had new GRIII and GRIIIx bodies in stock…
Hello. I did not know that.
They had GRIII and GRIIIx HDF models in stock, but I wanted an x with the ND filter, not the OG 28mm or mist filter. They had one x with ND. And it was an Urban edition.
Nice.
I did not even consider an X100VI which my local camera shop has been able to get their hands on new with some frequency amazingly. Like the other cameras above it is just large enough not to be what I am looking for. Also the similarly sized Remaster Slim/A7C combo really put the X100VI on a trailer for me.
Marking me safe from yet another Fujifilm backslide. Both are great. Neither are true alternatives to the GR. Both are too large to be truly pocketable.
It has not been 24 hours yet and I can already say this.
I should have just bought the GRIIIx in the first place. Similar to the ZV-1 a lack of an EVF on a camera this small ais not a big deal. Compared to the OG GR…
…it lost a flash, which I rarely used on the OG GR, but it still has a hotshoe if I choose to get a flash and it kept what I loved about the GR…
- Small size.
- APS-C sensor.
- ND Filter.
- Great lens.
- Snap focus.
- Macro mode.
- Great control scheme.
…while adding some stuff.
- A warranty.
- 40mm full frame equivalent lens preferred over 28mm.
- IBIS is a nice touch. I forgot it had that.
- Same goes for the touch screen.
- AF is way better.
- I had no issue with the GR’s resolution, but 24MP is nice.
Flickr gallery so far.
Back to real time.
This goes back to something I do that I usually do not realize until it is over. I called it the Epson effect.
Many years ago I wanted a color printer. Everytime I went to the store I was determined to get an Epson. I perceived them to be the best at it back then. But then I see something else significantly less expensive or on sale from another brand. This usually ended with much wasted paper and color ink accompanied by words not found in scripture. I did this a couple of times. Then I finally just bought an Epson. And it just worked. It is only then that I pondered how much time and money I spent… or wasted before getting what I should have purchased in the first place.
While I have moved on to another printer brand that does just fine this scenario basically describes my path to this GR.
But, I have no regrets. What is the point of that? I had fun. I got to try a lot of nice gear. WIth trades courtesy of the great compact camera culling (MFT and GXR kit primarily) along with letting some other gear go that has been collecting dust employed there is not out of pocket expense.
Well done RICOH.
It took me a while, but I got there.
Picked up extra batteries. A near must. Also got a thumbs up. That should do it. I understand that the GR has its own little ecosystem of RICOH and 3rd party accessories, but I am good. That should do it, We will see if that lasts.
Will be checking in on this camera in this space. Mostly for scenes seen posts. And that is as it should be. This is the best kind of camera. One to take many more pictures with than pictures of. It is meant to be a little workhorse and I will pick right back up where I left off with the OG GR in that regard. Welp. Enough of that for now.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 
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