First GRD III Impressions

Instead of posting my last text mode picture I decided to post a few first impressions of the GRD III and some pictures. Actually most of the text pictures from this week have been taken with the GRD III so you've all seen pictures from it already. ;)

First, the build is fantastic. It is probably the best built compact camera at the moment, nothing feels flimsy on it. The feel is more like the GR21 with the protruding lens but it still fits in the same case and in practice it does not make a lot of diffrence.


The controls are as usual excellent but the best feature is the ability to quickly chose the Snap focus distance by pressing the Up button and using the front wheel. This makes a massive difference and is great for street photography. It is a shame that this does not work for MF in the same way.

The new S-mode is also great and a big help in certain situations so it's about time Ricoh implemented it.


There have been concerns from people about using the old adpater lenses on the GRD III due to the different adapter and filter size. The bad news is you can't use the old adapter on the GRD III but you can use the lenses with the new adapter and step-down filter if yu are prepared to live with some vignetting.


Now most are probably insterested in the image quality. This is a massive improved from the GRD II and is the best in any Ricoh camera so far. Extremely detailed with very good and accurate colors and low noise. I still think the GRD I JPGs had their own unique character and prefer them especialy for b&w but the IQ here is great.

High ISO image quality is very good and the pictures retain a lot of detail without having too much noise.


All pictures are developed RAW files and aside from the first have been taken at ISO between 1000 and ISO 1600.
More in the upcoming reviews.