Ricoh Lens A16 24-85mm f3.5-5.5 GXR Zoom Module Announced

After many delays Ricoh has now officially announced the GXR A16 24-85mm zoom module for the GXR, as reported earlier it has a f3.5-5.5 aperture and a new 16 MP sensor. The lens is as reported not a GR lens but the quality should nonetheless be much higher than your typical software corrected lens from the other manufacturers.
While the zoom range is great, the slow aperture is a bit of a let-down and not what most have expected from Ricoh. At least you get something better than normal kit lenses, both in zoom range and also quality but on the downside you get a sensor stuck to it as well.

The most notable new features are the ability to continue shooting while holding the shutter button pressed, this will use the same settings as before, and a new self closing and opening lens cap. Other notable features include a improved leveller, RAW only shooting capability (something I have never seen the reason for but people apparently want) and the ability to enter copyright information in the EXIF data. All other features are the same ones you can find in the other GXR modules so you will get a lot of customization and features aimed at photographers.

One feature which is still neglected and is typical for Ricoh is the video mode which is still only available in 720p and without any meaningful compression or options.

While this module will appeal to some people who want a APS zoom for their GXR camera, I think it is too big and the lens is too slow for any low light shooting, especially when combined with the maximum ISO of 3200. There also is no manual zoom or focus ring on the lens so it means using the zoom buttons on the body for this.

Below is the full press release and the full specs.

UPDATE: I just received an update on this and by the looks of it the sensor will not have an AA filter so it should provide excellent detail.

GXR A16 24-85 Pre-Announcement

Today, Ricoh has pre-announced their latest GXR camera unit as mentioned in my HK meetup post.
It's the new APS zoom module and while not all details have been made public I got some details from Ricoh regarding the module.

As you can see in the above image it will feature a 16 MP sensor, have a 24-85mm zoom and the lens will not be GR labelled. Further it should be relatively big as it will not collapse like the Olympus m4/3 kit zooms for example.

The release was planned for the end of this year but the flooding in Thailand caused delays sensor production so it has been pushed back slightly.

UPDATE: I have made some changes to the post as I am awaiting further information from Ricoh on a few points.

UPDATE 2: No further information, other than the display at PMA & CES 2012 was for the press only. I would expect the module to be announced and released in the next month (maybe at C+ in Japan) but have no further confirmation yet.

UPDATE 3: I have received more information from Ricoh and will prepare a special post for this.

UPDATE 4: The official announcement is out and available here.

Ricoh GXR Review - A12 50mm

The A12 50mm f2.5 module was one of the two modules released with the GXR body at launch. When it was released it suffered from quite a few performance problems with the AF and screen freeze but thanks to Ricoh's great support all of the initial problems have been fixed in subsequent firmware updates. This is the 3rd part of my ongoing GXR review and will focus on how the A12 50mm module performs now with the latest firmware update.

Ricoh GXR Mount A12 Announced

Today Ricoh has officially announced the long awaited GXR Mount A12 module allowing GXR users to mount M lenses on the GXR and by doing this Ricoh has managed to be the first consumer digital camera to separate the Body from the sensor and lens.

I am very happy to see this module and think it is exactly what is needed to show people more of the full potential of the GXR system.

You can read the press release below but here are some of the things I find most interesting and want to comment on.

- The probably biggest news in the press release and another first in digital cameras as far as I am aware are the two shutter methods. A newly developed focal plane shutter (1/4000 sec. to 180 sec.) and electronic shutter (1/8000 sec. to 1 sec.). This is big news in my view and the ability to either use a physical or electronic shutter makes this module unique and very versatile.

- Ricoh is using a custom sensor with no AA filter and micro lenses optimized for M lenses so it should produce a very good image quality even with wideangle M lenses, this usually poses a problem on the RD1 and also my GF1.

- The MF implementation was a big concern since Ricoh announced the module because it was not very well implemented in their other modules (as you can read in my review of the GXR A12 28mm module). Here Ricoh has again listened to the complaints and feedback and implemented a sort of peaking function which works great on the Sony NEX cameras and enhanced the normal magnification assist so I am very happy to see this being implemented. MF should work very well with this and be even easier than using a RF patch.

- Another great feature is being able to not only to add the lens data in the EXIF information but also read this easy from an SD card, shame it does not look like it can read the lens information from coding on the lens but overall this should not really be a problem if you can store your settings on an SD card and have easy access to them.

- The lens checking device is a great idea, who else other than Ricoh would get the idea for such a simple yet very usefull tool, it should work great for the colapsible Leica lenses which are always a bit of a concern to mount on other cameras.

In addition to what you can read in the press release here are some other interesting details I got from Ricoh.

- The Low ISO 100 setting will be available but will suffer from lower dynamic range.

- In S-mode the camera can raise the ISO when set to Auto or Auto-High.

- You can set if you want the shutter to close or remain open when you power the camera off!
You hear this Panasonic!! I have mentioned this when I first saw the G1 at Photokina and it's still not implemented, Ricoh shows how to do this right.

Read on for the full press release

Ricoh GXR Review - A12 28mm

There are currently four modules available for the GXR System with the A12 28mm f2.5 being the latest module. This part of my ongoing GXR review focuses only on this module so if you want to know more about the GXR system, the controls and the build quality read the first part of my review here.

Now lets see how the A12 28mm f2.5 module works as a photographic tool.

Ricoh GXR Review - GXR System, Body & Controls

How do you review a system camera that is not one camera but many or no camera at all? And more important how do you explain the system to other people if even the manufacturer did not do a very good job at explaining it?

These and other reasons (main other one being time) were what kept me from writing my Ricoh GXR review sooner.

Since this is more than a simple camera review I decided to approach it slightly different but without making it any less extensive than my other reviews.
So to start off I tought the best would be to look at what the GXR system is and try to explain it first before moving on to the body and modules.
There will be no comparisons done for the GXR review, instead each unit will stand on it's own. Don't worry though, I will post comparisons between the GXR modules and and other cameras but these will be done separate.

So without further ado let's go to the first part and look at what the GXR system is and at the build and controls.