Ricoh drops GR II price $100 three weeks after announcement

The Leica X Vario is definitely not pocketable and cost much more. The Ricoh GR is. The GR is so treasured by photographers is because of its very compact size. Due to its excellent fixed 28mm (equivalent) f/2.8 lens, it can produce excellent images which is rare for its size. It can also take very good B&W photos.

I have used many cameras with contrast-detect autofocus, including a series of Lumix LX cameras that had genuinely brilliant autofocus.

By contrast, although the GR is fast and sure in the actual focusing action, it prioritises brightness over frame placement to such an extent that it focuses on the background if there is the slightest hint of light there. The number of photos I missed because of this was disappointing to say the least.

(I had a GR Digital IV before that had exactly the same problem, though because it had a small sensor, it was sometimes masked by depth of field.)

Otherwise the GR is spectacularly good, even if it’s a bit too complex.

Thank you for mentioning this, I thought I was the only one that gets this problem. It's easy to work around for someone familiar with the camera, but hand it off to someone to take a photo of you and expect a nice sharp background and blurry face. The biggest annoyance about the camera.

Rx100 small sensor soft lens, ea focus is far less critical

Actually the Sony has a pretty nice 20mm f2.8 compact prime that works pretty well. Plus the mp differences will make up for the slightly sharper lens on the ricoh. The only reason to go for the ricoh will not be iq but for a different shooting experience. It's a more integrated product while the Sony a6000 is a more mass market product and will not handle the same as the ricoh

'Still, it seems that the a6000 is a better buy'

The two cameras are just not equivalent. 'Better buy' is a blanket concept that does no one any favours when it comes to thinking about complex commodities like cameras. For example, the ergonomics and UI is more important to me than EVF or megapixels.

The GR is a compact camera with a a fixed focal length wide angle, thereby being smaller and sharper than a zoom. I don't know what a imaging hardware platform is, but 16mp with a really sharp lens is plenty and the Ricoh screen and interface have always been very good.

I like the Sony and see why some would choose it if that was the choice, but I love my GR for pocketability, and the shooting experiences is supreme once you learn it thoroughly. The A6000 even with a 20MM is huge and heavy compared to a Ricoh GR.

http://camerasize.com/compact/#454,535.369,ha,t

Ricoh is half the weight and size. I agree 16MP is a bottleneck and disappointing for fans, but thats enough for me.

The GR is almost perfect as it is except for some dust issues. It is one of the most user friendly cameras around and produces one of the sharpest images for a 16 Mp APS-C sensor.

The only camera that can challenge its image quality is the new Leica Q with a full frame sensor and a much faster lens but it is not "pocketable" and is about eight times the price.

For stealth and performance, the GR is supreme. Those who shoot regularly would appreciate its value. A 16 Mp APS-C sensor is more than enough. Its the quality of the pixels that matters not just more pixels.

@onlooker
that a felicitous answer and not correct. You cannot just do a currency translation to get a Eruo or UK price. Otherwise I would not have said anything.
All UK prices are still £599. And no mention has yet been made of official European RRPs, which is what we need.

Eruo?

Tungsten, is it perhaps the new money that will be released soon after the ongoing, known difficulties of many European countries?

It doesn't heve a viewfinder, proper grip, interchangeable lenses, built in image stabilization, PDAF and a tilting touchscreen. No buy for me and a shame on Ricoh!!!

:-)

Scchh don't tell anyone - IS is totally unnecessary on a 27 mm equiv lens. Leica even recommend it be disabled on the Q.

@Jerome - many of my friends and collegues like the Ricoh GR series.....but none lf us have bought it because we feel the 28 is too wide. Ricoh is not in the same market as Leica...thus the fact Leica has a 35 is irrelevant.

No doubt. That's why the price is down now.

That's just software changes. Thanks for confirming it wasn't really a new camera

@vadims
Ricoh have a longer history of firmware upgrades than Fuji. And some of these options are not firmware upgrades.

'Fuji would just release a firmware update (or two, or three...), and wouldn't bother with re-badging the camera.'

Wow I find this insanely hilarious! Fuji really have done a marketing number with their FW updates. Ricoh have been quietly doing this for years and doing it better.

While this is a new and slightly modified camera it does have hardware changes, but the 'great Fuji' would never do that! *cough* X-A2 *cough* and *cough* pretty much every camera they have brought out in the last two years is a repackaging of the same camera *cough*.

I guess it is really easy to make firmware updates on a regular basis when all your cameras are exactly the same in a different shell.

*sigh*

Fuji did add a new film simulation filter to the XQ1 and rebadged it as the XQ2.