[luftfluss]

New: Best cameras for travel: Digital Photography Review

The Ricoh GR III offers direct control and excellent image quality in a pocketable camera. Its short battery life and fixed focal length lens mean this camera certainly isn't for everyone, but it's a compelling offering for travel, street and casual photographers alike.

There's also the GR IIIx, a variant with a longer, 40mm equivalent lens on it. This may be a little tight for documenting your travels, but it's historically a popular focal length.

[AgentL]

As it should be!

[pquirk]

Only if your travels never take you in to the rain or water, and you keep your pockets free of dust and lint when you put your camera in your pocket; otherwise, the Ricoh WG-6 is the better choice. The sealed design means you will never get dust on your sensor, even inside the dustiest of pockets, it can go in the water with you, and it covers both the 28mm focal length and the 40mm focal length plus others.

But putting the GRIII in a pocket will probably introduce dust a lot more quickly, because pockets are dust traps and the GRIII isn't even weather sealed.

[Blackwing1]

Huh...I thought DPReview was toes-up. Apparently it's still on-line and in business.

[Deesquared]

Huh...I thought DPReview was toes-up. Apparently it's still on-line and in business.

Someone else bought them. It’s a lot better now IMO. A letter from Gear Patrol CEO Eric Yang to the DPReview community: Digital Photography Review

[Vendee]

Only if your travels never take you in to the rain or water, and you keep your pockets free of dust and lint when you put your camera in your pocket; otherwise, the Ricoh WG-6 is the better choice. The sealed design means you will never get dust on your sensor, even inside the dustiest of pockets, it can go in the water with you, and it covers both the 28mm focal length and the 40mm focal length plus others.

But putting the GRIII in a pocket will probably introduce dust a lot more quickly, because pockets are dust traps and the GRIII isn't even weather sealed.

Most users buy a soft case which keeps the dirt out and it still fits in the pocket.

[Mikesul]

Amazing review!

[greyscale]

My GR3X is my most-used camera specifically because of its excellent quality and small size. This time of year it lives in my jacket pocket, to the point where I forget that I have it with me. But it took me a long time to buy one, given the many… disimprovements… to its controls compared to the previous generations.

I have considered buying a GR3 to go in my other jacket pocket; the two together would be an amazing travel setup. No more camera bag. But I'll wait to see what a GR4 might look like, especially in the hopes that moves to the 26Mpx sensor that might promise a monochrome version. If it doesn't do that, or doesn't fix the GR3's design flaws, then I'll probably just add the GR3 to keep the controls the same across both. I'd have no problem telling them apart, since I have the OVF on the 3X.

I did actually buy an Olympus TG6, from the family widely considered the best waterproof camera for many years, as an other-pocket companion to my GR3x. Tough, zoom lens, takes the same battery – it sounds like a perfect compliment. Unfortunately its image quality it resoundingly surpassed by my decade-old Ricoh GRDiv, and its controls are abysmal, making me regret using it from the moment I take it out until after I've edited the photo.

[Blackwing1]

Deesquared:

Thanks for the link to the new owner's announcement. The old detailed (multi-page) DPReview was one of the major reasons I bought a pair of used K20D's to upgrade from my original K100D. I found them on the web archive, which fortunately retained all of the links to the old reviews. I see that the rejuvenated site still has the old reviews up as well.

[BigMackCam]

I see that the rejuvenated site still has the old reviews up as well.

It also has both the old and later studio shot comparison tool, which is incredibly useful for assessing noise performance of raw files at various ISOs (especially as you can download those files to play around with), and comparing between different cameras both at full resolution and comparable reproduction sizes... It's the one thing about DPReview, old and new, that I value.

[Kiwizinho]

I did actually buy an Olympus TG6, from the family widely considered the best waterproof camera for many years, as an other-pocket companion to my GR3x. Tough, zoom lens, takes the same battery – it sounds like a perfect compliment. Unfortunately its image quality it resoundingly surpassed by my decade-old Ricoh GRDiv, and its controls are abysmal, making me regret using it from the moment I take it out until after I've edited the photo.

I think to successfully operate the TG-6 you need fingers liken an aye-aye.
I have one, primarily for underwater and macro use, and I'm thankful it shoots raw, as I can get decent images out of it with good post-processing, but it's certainly a fiddly thing to use compared to my K-70.
That it is the best waterproof camera isn't really so much an indication of how good it is, but how badly neglected this niche is. 70% of earth is covered in water, but I guess 99% of photographers only photograph in air. I don't want some bulky, expensive waterproof housing to photograph invertebrates in my local creek. Birders and bug photographers are well catered for with long telephotos and macro lenses respectively, but photographers into aquatic natural history are pretty much neglected unless they're into scuba diving and big housings. In my travels, photographing the nature I come across is what appeals to me, so annoying as the TG-6 might be, it's the camera that's always in my pocket. The WG-6 is similar but has more pixels on same sized sensor and no raw, so I wouldn't be surprised if same issues as TG-6 are even more pronounced.

[greyscale]

70% of earth is covered in water, but I guess 99% of photographers only photograph in air. I don't want some bulky, expensive waterproof housing to photograph invertebrates in my local creek. Birders and bug photographers are well catered for with long telephotos and macro lenses respectively, but photographers into aquatic natural history are pretty much neglected unless they're into scuba diving and big housings.

That's an interesting point, and very true. I've only ever had casual interest in underwater photography – arm's length is about as deep as my cameras go – but I've owned the Olympus 770SW, Panasonic TS3, and now the TG6. (In fact, because the cameras are basically immune to damage, I still have all of them.) The TG6 is, indeed, sadly, the best of the remaining bunch – Nikon had their 1-series ILC waterproof, Leica tried the XU, and they're all gone.

Squaring the circle on the subject at hand, I've actually considered the Sony RX0.2 as a possible alternative to the GR3 and the TG6. That's the little cube that reviewers mistake for an action camera, but its photography abilities are decent. It's waterproof to 10m without a case, has a 24mm lens that's a fixed f/4 aperture, a flip-up screen, and uses 15 of the 20Mpx that its 1" sensor comes with. (So yes, it's a 1" sensor camera like the RX10 and RX100, but no, it doesn't use the full sensor size, reducing some of the benefits.) You'll need to use a specially adapted narrow finger – or maybe a toothpick – to operate many of its buttons, its close-focus is terrible, and it has some other drawbacks, but it might actually be the best current combination of small size, waterproof durability, and image quality. And it even records video if you like that kind of thing.

[BigMackCam]

I've actually considered the Sony RX0.2 as a possible alternative to the GR3 and the TG6. That's the little cube that reviewers mistake for an action camera, but its photography abilities are decent. It's waterproof to 10m without a case, has a 24mm lens that's a fixed f/4 aperture, a flip-up screen, and uses 15 of the 20Mpx that its 1" sensor comes with. (So yes, it's a 1" sensor camera like the RX10 and RX100, but no, it doesn't use the full sensor size, reducing some of the benefits.) You'll need to use a specially adapted narrow finger – or maybe a toothpick – to operate many of its buttons, its close-focus is terrible, and it has some other drawbacks, but it might actually be the best current combination of small size, waterproof durability, and image quality. And it even records video if you like that kind of thing.

That Sony is a cool little camera, no doubt... BUT, it lacks optical zoom (it's a fixed 35mm-equivalent 4/24) and minimum focus distance is 20cm, which seems quite limiting for capturing smaller underwater critters Plus, here in the UK it costs GBP £679!! For all its limitations, the TG-6 seems a better compromise unless video / vlogging is your thing...

[StiffLegged]

… That it is the best waterproof camera isn't really so much an indication of how good it is, but how badly neglected this niche is. 70% of earth is covered in water, but I guess 99% of photographers only photograph in air...

There’s a fun story on YouTube about photographers moaning that fine art galleries won’t show their work because it’s merely representational and nothing new; it’s all been done before. One finally declares their only chance of doing something new is in the hitherto ignored field of fine art black and white underwater photography. Some months later comes the devastating news that a San Francisco gallery has just opened a show of … black and white underwater photography. Cue despair all round!!

[BigMackCam]

There’s a fun story on YouTube about photographers moaning that fine art galleries won’t show their work because it’s merely representational and nothing new; it’s all been done before. One finally declares their only chance of doing something new is in the hitherto ignored field of fine art black and white underwater photography. Some months later comes the devastating news that a San Francisco gallery has just opened a show of … black and white underwater photography. Cue despair all round!!

I've been thinking of producing a series of ultra low resolution photos... Each one downsampled to 1x1 pixels, then upsampled to the required display or print size. Any scene will therefore be rendered as a single colour. I'll be sending a press release to galleries soon, and look forward to their bids for exhibiting my work...