In an exclusive interview with ThinkCamera, Dominic Wingent, National Sales Manager of Ricoh UK, talks about the new GR DIGITAL II compact camera.
TC: What is the motivation behind the Ricoh GR concept?
DG: The idea of the GR in the original film version was to have a compact for the professional's use. The GRD and now the GRD II we have evolved along from that, and added more features to it, to make it a bit easier for the professional to use.
Is the GRD II designed purely for pros?
No, it's also for the amateur that wants the opportunity to shoot in RAW, in 1:1 format, to have a prime lens... and the picture clarity is absolutely fantastic. Where we see the camera 'being' is quite a niche market, appealing to the user who already owns a DSLR and who uses the GRD II as an everyday, everywhere camera.
Why does the GRD II look almost identical to the GRD?
In keeping with the previous Ricoh models, we've kept the design relatively modest; it's not an in-your-face camera. It's discreet, which the professionals like very much.
What do you think are the big innovations in the GRD II?
The GRD II has a couple of extra features that we think will make it extremely popular, including the electronic leveller (which I find very exciting), the changes to the pop-up flash and there's now a telephoto lens adaptor, which takes it up to 40mm and allows you to have a 'human eye' view alongside the teleconverter, which takes it down to 21mm.
Did the GRD II changes spring from user comments?
There was a lot of feedback from our customers. Through our registration and our website, we spoke to hundreds of GRD users. One of the biggest aspects of the GRD was the slow RAW writing speed. That was highlighted, as well as the lack of accessories; that was why we brought in the 40mm adaptor and also a mini viewfinder and a cable release similar to a basic SLR.
What about noise?
On the original GRD, some of our users did mention noise. We looked into this and decided to manufacture a new GR engine (moving from 8MP to 10MP in the process). What this means is noise at ISO 400 on the GRD II is as low as ISO 100 on the GRD. That's a massive improvement.
What's with the new little viewfinder?
The feedback we received from our customers was that they wanted an optical viewfinder, but they found that the GRD1 viewfinder is a little bit obtrusive. So, we narrowed that down a little bit and it looks... quite neat!
The pop-up flash has been changed. Why?
If you are in a dark area, if you have an unassuming camera and the flash goes off, it's no longer unassuming. So we've got a pop-up flash that has to be released by the user. So, if you photograph someone and you don't want the flash to go off and you forget about it... it won't go off. Instead, it will just tell you on the LCD that you need to put the flash on.
Is there still a market for a fixed lens digital compact?
Our users have been very accepting of the single lens technology that we use in the GRD II. They like the fact that being a fixed focal length lens, the clarity is so much better than an optical zoom.
Will there ever be a Ricoh DSLR?
From Ricoh's perspective, we like to produce high-end compacts. Our goal is to promote products like the GX100 and the GRD II. The reason for that is we want to have features in these compacts that people are used to in a DSLR without being a DSLR - which means professional use for an amateur price or for a pro to use straight out of their pocket.
