So I sold my Ricoh GR Digtall III a day or two ago to a very happy purchaser, who like me back in 2009, was very unfamiliar with the Ricoh GR line and legacy. I just received a text message from him literally thanking me for selling it! hahaha - awesome to hear him this excited about a little cam that's meant so much to me. It literally traveled around the world with me from late 2009 through mid 2011, and half that time it was inoperative. I paid about 500 AUD in Sydney to have the lens assembly replaced .... It had been broken since the mechanism binded likely from a bit sand getting in on a beach in New Zealand about a year prior. Never regretted shelling out money to revive it and used it, arguably as much or even more often than my Pentaxes after that. I may well seek out another III or IV down the road when they're even cheaper.
I still have my new GR and it is a joy, particularly the IQ, which still astonishes me in comparison to the older GRDIII... Still, there was a scrappiness and organicness to the GRDIII's images that I miss.... This also applies to it's speed and handling. Slightly smaller, slightly lighter and (my only true gripe) the AF was much MUCH quicker in extreme lowlight situations, which I used it for aplenty. The GRDIII could lock on with just a smidge of available contrast in a completely dark room, and do it quickly. The GR is much better than when it was released after a firmware update in October, but it's AF is still much more methodical in very lowlight ( in bright day light it's probably actually faster than the older one). This is not a factor at all if the focus assist light is enabled, but for me and my shooting style, the assist light is *never* on. I feel it completely defeats one of the strongest draws to this camera, a nondescript tiny ninja of a thing.
At any rate, as close as they are, they're different cams and a part of me misses the little III. But it's out there doing what it does best in the hands of someone loving it. Just thought I'd post here.... Very odd for me, the first time ever after many many cams, to have this much sentimentality attached to a camera... I've had *many*, but none that left me like this. Hehehe. Very odd indeed.