Years ago, there was talk of a very unique Ricoh GR camera that had everyone salivarting. It was called the Ricoh GR-E — and it was supposed to boast a 36MP curved full-frame sensor as a very unique lens. That was back in 2018 and before the pandemic had its way with the world. But since then, we haven’t seen any real serious innovations come from the company on the compact front. Of course, there are the cameras like the HDF that have halation filters built in. But what the world really wanted was a camera with a full-frame sensor and weather resistance. In fact, perhaps more than anything, the latter is the most requested feature.
But with the world returning to compact cameras, perhaps there’s something else that Ricoh could do. Since lots of folks shoot with their phone and cameras like Camp Snap are loved by Gen Z, the small sensor Ricoh GR cameras could possibly see a return with monochrome sensors or something else. The Ricoh GRD III is a great example of this. If you go around shooting in black and white mode and just shoot JPEGs, you’ll get photos that you’re bound to be in love with.
Make no mistake, photographers love these cameras. And I think that everyone agrees that it’s time for something full-frame to hit the market simply because APS-C cameras are simply not innovative anymore. The latter statement is a fact — no APS-C camera has done anything innovative in the camera market since the Fujifilm X Pro 1 because brands save the really good stuff for full-frame where they can get more money from consumers. However, APS-C cameras often do something unique instead.
So if Ricoh didn’t use a full-frame sensor, they could at least make the next Ricoh GR weather resistant. That would mean that issues around the sensors getting dirty would be far less. And for what you’re. paying for, I’m not sure why the cameras aren’t weather resistant. These days, the second hand market includes so many weather resistant cameras like the original Panasonic S5 with a lens for nearly the same price point. Plus, that camera is full-frame.
Panasonic also isn’t huge in the camera market — so why can’t Ricoh just do the thing that everyone wants of their cameras?
Truth be told, they could be running out of time. Sony is reported to be announcing an RX1R successor, the Fujifilm X100vi exists, and Leica has the DLUX 8. Many years ago, Canon launched the G1x Mk III and it incorporated great weather resistance.
Look, all we’re saying is that the brand could do something that everyone else wants instead of just trying to make cool variants of their cameras that only the most fervent Ricoh lovers will reach for. Heck, if they charged $2,000 for the next Ricoh camera and they either made it full-frame or weather resistant, I think everyone would easily pay for it. And most of all, I think that photographers would use it to document the crazy world that we’re living in right now.