Ricoh GR vs. Nikon Coolpix A Review

Video

The Coolpix A, GR, and GRD IV are all designed for photographers, and so their movie modes are rather rudimentary.  We will therefore keep our discussion in this section brief. 

None of the three cameras allow you to connect an external microphone.

Of the three, the Coolpix A has the best video mode, as it allows you to manually set the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.  You can also choose to enable or disable the microphone and record in high quality or normal quality (this setting affects the video compression).  During recording, however, you can only adjust exposure compensation, and to make matters worse, you cannot change the focus setting.

Although the GR does have more frame rate options to choose from (720p at 60 or 50 FPS), it does not let you control the exposure at all, not even through exposure compensation.  Like on the Coolpix A, the focus setting is fixed after recording starts.

The GRD IV might as well not have a movie mode, as it can only record in VGA or QVGA resolution and it doesn't let you adjust anything, just like the GR.

To access the Nikon's video mode, one must go into the status screen, select the drive mode setting, and scroll all the way down until "movie" is highlighted.  For those eager to shoot movies with the Coolpix A, the Fn1 button can be configured to control the drive mode, allowing you to access the movie mode much quicker (albeit still not instantly).  The GR is a bit smarter in this respect, as it has a dedicated "movie" setting on the mode dial.  The GRD IV, on the other hand, buries its movie mode in a sub-menu that is only shown when the "scene" setting is selected on its mode dial.

The Coolpix A and the GR record videos in the H.264 .MOV format, while the GRD IV produces .AVI files.