- Ricoh Gr IV Prototype now on exhibition to the public in the company’s GR Space exhibition hall in Tokyo
- Ricoh has already confirmed that Gr IV is ongoing for an ‘autumn 2025’ launch
- A variation with diffusion filter will be followed in ‘Winter 2025’
I have been waiting for a first look at the next Ricoh Gr IV, but now that it has happened, I can’t help feeling a bit disappointed. Disappointed, even.
The long -awaited replacement for the excellent Ricoh GR III (which will be suspended), the GR IV will be the next flagship model in the iconic rich range of premium digital points and gunfire.
The GR series has won a classic cult status among photographers, appreciated for its pocket size, unpretentious design and use of large sensors. They are ideal for street photography and holiday snapshots, so the launch of a new model is always an event for photos of the photos.
And now a prototype of the Ricoh Gr IV in GR Space, the Chamber Exhibition and photography of the Company, is exhibited, which allows the curious members of the public to come and take a look (but they do not have a practical experience, this is only an external prototype, so they do not work).
It should be an exciting moment for a fan of Ricoh like me, but I am finding the lack of changes on the GR III a bit worrying. The design, for example, is almost identical to GR III. I would have loved to have a built -in flash and an inclined LCD screen, but the prototype does not have either.
I also want improvements in the automatic approach and the robustness of the camera, and these things are also doubtful. Although I will notice that, this being a prototype, things could change between now and the release date of autumn and autumn 2025.
Reasons to be cheerful?
On the positive side, it will come with a higher resolution sensor, a new lens, a better stabilization of images, some control and refinement settings, such as a more / less switch and a D-Pad instead of a control wheel, 53 GB of incorporated memory (as well as a microSD card slot, no SD) and improvements in the way the images are shared, which is not good, if it is not as transformer.
Instead, it seems that the GR IV will be a small update. There is nothing wrong with that per se, and users who update older GR models or the purchase of their first camera will probably be made in some way. People who have a GR III or GR IIIX, on the other hand, can find few convincing reasons to update.
Said all this, I cannot wait to give the camera a real world test to discover the most important thing: how it works in the field. Be sure that Techradar will get a review show as soon as Ricoh can lend us one.
