Ricoh GR Digital III
Ricoh may not be as popular as Canon or Nikon in the camera industry, but it sure can produce some good products. Today, it is reintroducing the GR Digital III it first announced in 2009. This camera system boasts of shooting flexibility and exceptional image quality in a neat pocket camera design.
At the heart of the GR Digital III is a 28 mm f/1.9 GR fixed lens. It may already pale in comparison to highly-advanced mirrorless systems, but it can still provide very decent shots. Keep in mind that the Digital III is not a DSLR or a Mirrorless system. It is a pocket camera with a 3-inch LCD on the back.
Given the fact that it is a pocket camera, one can always find comfort in the fact that its spec sheet borders that of mirrorless systems. It comes with a maximum shutter speed of 1/2000 seconds plus a minimum ISO sensitivity rating of 64. Conventional pocket cameras give you an ISO rating of 100. Some professional DSLRs can have as low as 50. Its highest ISO sensitivity is 1600 – a far cry from the 102400 in modern-day DSLRs like the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV.
The 10-megapixel pocket shooter may pale in comparison to the 20+ MPs of present-day camera systems. However, it still provides exceptional shots courtesy of its 1/1.7-inch CCD sensor. Most camera systems today have the CMOS sensor platform. Because it uses CCD technology, the GR Digital III provides higher quantum efficiency and lower noise. What this means is that the images you take are more defined than a CMOS shooter with the same effective pixels.
The Ricoh GR Digital III is now a decade old. However, it remains a great gift for photography lovers and one of the brand’s most remarkable photographic equipment for the snapshooter of modern times.
