Ricoh GR IV: The Ultimate Snapshot Camera Arrives This Fall with Upgraded Features
The highly anticipated Ricoh GR IV is officially in development and set to launch this fall, promising significant upgrades over its predecessors. Ricoh Imaging has revealed that the GR IV will feature a newly designed lens, image sensor, and imaging engine, aiming to elevate image quality and overall performance. This announcement has excited photography enthusiasts, especially street photographers who appreciate the GR series' compact size and excellent image quality.
Key Upgrades and Features:
The Ricoh GR IV will inherit the core principles of the GR series, focusing on compactness, quick response, and high image quality. However, several significant enhancements set it apart:
- New Lens Design: The GR IV boasts a newly designed lens with seven elements in five groups, including an additional aspherical element. This promises improved image correction compared to the GR III.
- Higher Resolution Sensor: The camera features a new 25.7-megapixel image sensor, slightly up from the 24.2-megapixel APS-C chip in the GR III.
- Enhanced Image Stabilization: The GR IV includes a five-axis in-body image stabilization system, improved from the three-axis system in the GR III.
- Increased ISO Range: The sensor offers a native ISO range of 100 to 204,800.
- More Storage: Onboard storage has been increased to 53GB, a significant upgrade from the GR III's 2GB. However, the camera will now use microSD cards instead of full-size SD cards.
- Improved Autofocus: The GR IV will feature face and eye-detection for its autofocus tracking.
These improvements align with user expectations and address common requests for better performance and image quality in a compact form factor.
Design and Ergonomics:
The GR IV's exterior closely resembles the GR III and GR IIIx, maintaining the familiar oval-shaped shutter button, on/off switch, and mode dial. Some minor redesigns include the removal of the spinning dial around the four-way directional pad. There is speculation that the adjustment thumb wheel, labeled “ADJ,” may be a fully turning dial instead of a toggle.
Availability and Future Models:
The Ricoh GR IV is expected to launch in autumn 2025, with a variant featuring a Highlight Diffusion Filter (HDF) to follow after winter 2025. Interestingly, the Ricoh GR III will be discontinued in July due to component procurement difficulties, while the Ricoh GR IIIx will continue production “for the time being.” A new smartphone app called GR World will be released soon, offering support for all GR-series models released after the Ricoh GR I.
The announcement of the GR IV has definitely piqued the interest of photography enthusiasts worldwide. Will it live up to the expectations as the ultimate snapshot camera? What features are you most excited about?
Share your thoughts and predictions in the comments below!