On what's supposed to be my first photo walk of 2021 (and the last one before Kuala Lumpur goes in for a full lockdown), I ended up taking the Ricoh GR III for a field test, completely by accident.
I typically go out with a Fujifilm X20, Canon 200D or Panasonic GM5 for street shoots. I had already packed the X20 into my backpack. Unfortunately, I removed the battery to charge, and forgot to pack it back in after. I was prepared to shoot with my smartphone, but luckily my buddy Calvin came to the rescue with the spare Ricoh GR III he brought with him.
I wasn't completely unfamiliar with the GR series, as several friends owned the GR and GR II. Nevertheless, using it for a proper photo shoot beyond taking a few test shots was a novel experience that required an adjustment period, albeit a brief one.
With the camera set up and ready to go, it's onward to shooting! I had the GRIII for roughly two hours roaming the Brickfields district with my friend Robin loosely leading the walk to shoot content for his blog. With a lockdown incoming (as it turned out, 3 days later), it could be the last chance any of us were going to be able to shoot anything for awhile. Possibly months even, given the drastic spike in covid-19 cases over the past week.
Here's I got from those two hours of shooting. Photos were processed with Lightroom 5.7 using the default Adobe colour profile. Black and white images were processed in On1 Effects 10 using the Fuji Neopan 400 film emulation, a film stock which I have some experience shooting with and is one of my personal favourite film stocks.
Takeaways
What's my takeaways from using the GR III? In general, I liked it. The 28mm equivalent focal length is already my favourite focal length for walkabouts and I already usually shoot at that length with my other cameras. So using the GR was a pretty natural experience.
Handling and ergonomics
The GR III is also a reasonably solid camera with nice tactile feedback. Necessary buttons are on-hand, and I never really needed to deep dive the menus once I knew what goes where. But while it's not a huge camera, the screw on lens barrel extension on Calvin's setup prevents it from being pocketable. The snap focus option (directly press down on the shutter button to ignore autofocus and let the camera snap at a predetermined focus distance) was something I head many good things about, and it didn't disappoint, even if I didn't use it as much as I thought I would since it was daytime and the GR focused well enough in most cases.
DNG Raw files
What I REALLY liked about the GR III is the raw files are saved in DNG format. Since I was shooting on a rather overcast morning, I'd needed to do a fair amount of colour and white balance tweaking, while adjusting shadows and highlights. I had shot JPEG+DNG, but most of JPEGs simply don't have enough latitude to work with. Using the DNG files instead of a proprietary RAW format, I was able to process my images on Adobe Lightroom 5.7.1, which dates back to 2014 and before. Granted, I could always run raw files through an Adobe DNG converter, but since the GR saves files natively in DNG format, it saved me a fair amount of time.
Drawbacks
However, even if the camera handled quite naturally, I don't see myself getting one. Not so much as because of any major issues, but mainly because I already have the cameras I need for street shooting.
With that being said however, the GR III wasn't all smooth sailing. I experienced some problems with focus hunting. Even in broad daylight, I had to pre-focus on a better contrasted subject, then recomposing my shot on numerous occasions. I'm primarily a low light photographer, so if the GR already has focusing problems in daylight, they're only going to become more pronounced when night shooting. Having a built-in image stabilizer is a valuable addition though. But since it was daylight, I didn't need it and I wish there was an option to turn it off. The IBIS can make the camera rather warm while significantly draining the battery.
There's a slight delay in focusing due to the focus motor: you can feel the motor shifting before clicking into place. It's never outright slow, and my Fujifilm X20 takes longer to focus than the GRIII. But my X20 is also from 2012, while the GR III is from 2019, so expectations are a lot higher as well. And my Panasonic GM5 absolutely smokes the GR III when it comes to autofocus speed.
The GR III isn't a big camera, but my Panasonic GM5 with the 14mm f2.5 offers the same field of view in an even smaller package, with an electronic viewfinder to boot. The GM5 isn't exactly known for battery life (it's borderline bad even), but the GR III absolutely guzzles batteries in comparison. I went through two half-charged batteries in the brief time I shot with it, and was already on a third by the time I returned it. That was already with switching the camera off between shots. Thankfully the GR is pretty snappy to start up, so I wasn't really in danger of missing moments.
Conclusion
Street shooting from the hip with the GR III was fun. As someone who prefers shooting at eye level on a viewfinder, shooting through the LCD screen was a good exercise in composition. Everyone should give shooting from the hip a try. It's an entirely different experience.
I don't see myself getting one for the simple reason that I already have the cameras that fit my needs. It's not a negative reflection of the GR in itself, I do like the camera despite its few quirks, and can I understand why the GR series is such a popular camera for street shooting.
Very special thanks to Calvin Cheah for loaning me his Ricoh GR III, which gave me a reason to write this article.
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