Tips and Tricks for the Ricoh GR

By aleksanderpolo in Ricoh GR on Aug 24, 2013

First a Little Bit of History

I am a little late as a Ricoh user. The first time I was conscious of Ricoh as a camera brand, was when I was looking for a non P&S to take better pictures of my baby girl. At around that time, Ricoh announced their GXR modular system.  Like many people’s reaction towards the lens module concept, it didn’t make much sense to me to permanently bind a lens with a sensor, as one would need to buy the lens again when they upgrade the sensor later. Little did I know about the long history of Ricoh as a compact camera maker; and that instead of a system camera, the GXR is aiming to be a series of fixed lens compact with a common body.  Well, I didn’t buy the GXR at that time and got a Panasonic Lumix GF1 instead.

Over time, I came to like shooting manual focus lens, especially Voigtlander and Zeiss’s M lenses. I was looking for a camera that does a better job in using M lenses than my GF1.  After some research, I picked up the Ricoh GXR+M module over the Sony NEX-5N.  I was very impressed by its built quality, button layout, customizability, and especially, the well implemented mode 2 focus assist.  I was thinking to myself: I don’t think I would need to get another camera anytime soon.

Then came the announcement of GR.  At first I thought: this is not for me as the lens module or fixed lens camera concept never appealed to me.  At around the same time, I was looking for a 28-35mm eqv. lens to be used on my GXR-M.  The only lenses that I was interested in were the Zeiss ZM 21/2.8 and the recently announced Cosina-Voigtländer CV 21/1.8.  Compared with GR, both of them are much larger, heavier, more expensive, not to mention that the GR comes with a free body attached. So the decision was made.

Again, I was really impressed.  The camera is so tiny compared with the GXR.  The GXR feels very substantial and solid in the hand, the GR in contrast is really light weight, about the weight of the GXR body with the EVF mounted, but it doesn’t feel cheap. The body is texturized, the rubber grip is very secure and pleasant to hold without having the feeling that one might drop the camera anytime (wink at RX100). 

Most importantly, it fits into my pants pocket perfectly.  Before I got the GR, I always carried the GXR with me in a camera case in my backpack.  There were many cases where I felt too lazy to get the camera out and take a picture.  Now the GR is in my pocket all the time and I find myself taking a lot more pictures that I would have otherwise have missed.

So, that’s my little history with Ricoh.  Now I would like to share with you some little bits of tips and tricks.  We all know how infinitely customizable Ricoh’s camera is, so a full coverage of all the options is not my intention.  But though experimenting, trying a few different settings myself, as well as reading other people’s discovery, I have collected a few things that I think is helpful to me, and hopefully helpful to you as well.

Family resemblance, two cameras, three companies