GX-Day

Today, Ricoh have announced the new camera in the GX series. It is called GX200 after the GX100, the GX8 and GX. You can find all details and the press release here and the official website with sample images here.

The picture above is not from the GX200 but from the first GX released in 2004. So instead of posting a GRD II picture (although the GX picture is taken with the GRD II :D ), I decided to have a look at the changes made to the original GX now 4 years later. At the same time I have posted below one my favorite pictures from the GX and GX100 respectively.

So let's find out what we gained and what we lost in the 4 years of evolution.

The GX is a 1/1.8" 5MP camera with a 28-85mm lens starting at f2.5 at the wide end and f4.3 and the long end of the zoom, it has a 1,8" LCD screen and a integrated (as in all compact cameras pretty much useless) OVF. It has an ISO range from 64 to 1600, phase detection AF, full manual or A-mode and some scene modes, you can record images in TIFF format and it also takes AA batteries. The accessories offered were a 21mm wideangle lens and the adapter for it. You can read all of the specs here.

Now some of these specs would sound impressive even today, given that most manufacturers do not seem capable of putting a wideangle lens on their compact cameras at all or have no manual controls in them. So what has Ricoh done to improve on this.

Well, they have done quite a lot to be honest as you'll find out. I will skip the GX8 and GX100 since the GX8 is a refinement of the GX and has almost the same specs and the GX100 is very similar to the GX200 although the GX200 has been improved in all areas requested by the users.

The GX200 is a 1/1.7" 12MP camera with a 24-72mm image stabilized lens starting at f2.5 at the wide end and f4.4 at the long end, it has a 2.7" LCD and thankfully got rid of the integrated OVF and replaced it with a more usable external EVF. The ISO range is from 80 to 1600, it has full manual or A/P-modes and the same few scene modes as the GX offered, records RAW in the DNG format with a buffer for 5 shots, has an electronic leveler, auto rotate for images, 1:1 square mode, b&w color filters, three MY settings modes on the dial, two FN buttons, manual white balance adjustment and AAA batteries. The accessories are now up to a 19mm wideangle lens, a 135mm telephoto lens, a cable release and a new automatic lens cap.

So looking at those specs the camera has been improved in all areas but while it gained at the wideangle it lost the 85mm at the long end but you have the new tele adapter now to compensate for it. Unfortunately it also lost the phase detection AF so this could mean a much slower and less precise focus in good light, although to be honest the GX had issues with the focus but this has been addressed in the GX8 and GX100. A bigger issue is that the GX200 has gained the infamous "Smooth Imaging Engine III" that makes the jpgs in the GRD II more or less useless due to too much smoothing. Ricoh really needs to get their act together with their jpg engine, they went from having the best to having the worst jpgs (and I am talking worse than the Venus engine from Panasonic).

Overall, the new GX200 is a very impressive camera indeed and is better than the GRD II in some areas like buffer and flexibility thanks to the zoom. The question is now what will Panasonic come up with to replace the LX-2 and will Canon finally manage to put a decent wideangle lens on the G10 or maybe revive the S series? And what will Sigma do with the DP-2, will then finally put current technology (e.g. LCD and RAW buffer) in their cameras and iron their UI issues out?

GX, f4.3, 4 sec., ISO 64, JPG, 85mm

GX100, f6.2, 4 sec., ISO 80, RAW, 50mm