Received this little gem in the mail yesterday. Soooo happy as I’ve wanted one of these for quite a while now. What? Never heard of Ricoh or the GR Digital III? Don’t feel bad, quite a few people haven’t, but that’s OK.

Ricoh is a Japanese company most commonly known for its copiers, but the fact is that they’ve been making cameras for a hella long time now, with many having been quite highly regarded. For me, this is somewhat of a homecoming as I’ve owned a number of Ricoh cameras over the years, starting with my first SLR, a Ricoh KR-5 Super, back in the early 80′s.

The GR-Digital, or GR-D as it’s often known as, is a compact point and shoot camera that currently is in its third generation, hence the “III” suffix. All of the GR-Ds look pretty much the same, though the III is a bit taller then prior models. Size is similar to maybe a Panasonic LX-5 or Olympus XZ-1, but not nearly as bulky as a Canon G12, which is a thicker camera. The build of the camera is a stand out over any other compact, and actually very similar to many top-end DSLRs. It has a magnesium alloy body and panels, a real rubberized grip, and an oh-so-sweet 920k pixel LCD panel, which is nearly identical to the LCD on my D3. It also has a host of configuration options for the external controls, which can be highly customized.

What it doesn’t have is a lot of extraneous crap like beach or night or hyper kid modes, and no face recognition or wink timers and the like. It also doesn’t have – gasp – a zoom lens! That’s right, no zoom. Instead you get a very fast, sharp 6mm f1.9 prime lens which is equivalent to 28mm on a 35mm full-frame camera. You also get a nifty snap focus mode that’s available which works using a preset focus distance and avoids the lag induced by the need to focus for a shot. It’s similar in feel to those disposable cams that you just point and snap, and very fast when you want to work without hesitation. Of course, you can always use regular AF if you like, and there’s even an option to set it up so that you can use either at any time on the fly without having to change any settings or having to remove your finger from the shutter release.

Image quality is on par with other top end compacts as it shares the same 10mp sensor as the Canon G12, and you can shoot in a variety of aspect ratios, as well as in either RAW or jpg, or both.

So what’s the catch? None really, except you honestly should have a decent knowledge of photography to get the most out of the camera. It’s geared towards that fact more than any other compact camera out there, and while sure, you can slap it into green box mode like most compacts, you won’t be hitting anywhere near the camera’s potential with your shots, which is a waste. For the knowledgeable photographer though, it’s a refreshing camera to use, and a nice offbeat piece of kit most people will have never seen. With a range of optional accessories, including two optical viewfinders and a 21mm equivalent wide-angle adapter, it’s a versatile little minx that’s not the girl next door.

And for your pleasure, here’s a pic from tonight when I took a short walk. I haven’t really used or tested it much yet as the weather has been the suxor for the last few days, but you’ll see more in the upcoming months as this is my “everywhere” camera now.

BTW, the GR-Ds are considered probably the quintessential compact cams for B&W digital shooting, especially the first GR-D. They have loads of character and a large cult following among street shooters.