Once upon a time as long as a camera had a fine lens that was all that mattered; controls were pretty much uniformly the same: mechanical shutters and standard aperture rings. These days, a good lens is still the starting point, but since everything is now electronic and auto-everything, modern compact cameras can prove less than satisfactory in spite of having very fine lenses. The finest lens in the world is wasted if the shutter doesn't fire when you want it to. And what earthly good is a focusing system that routinely gives unpredictable results?
We do a lot of walking, and our larger cameras were being left behind more and more often. There's only so much you can carry if you've got to take a load of stuff for a couple of kids as well as yourselves. My wife hadn't used her chunky, manual zoom SLR for over a year - we decided it was time for a change.
Prior to finally deciding to buy a new good quality, solidly-built compact camera with a decent fast lens I had a short-list of favorites which did not include the GR1. I didn't think I could live with a 28mm lens; my preference would have been closer to 35mm. Top of the list had always been a Hexar, followed by a T2, minilux and 35/28Ti. The Hexar in particular was a "proper" camera, with full manual control, a spot meter, manual ISO setting, no shutter lag, and a fast lens of excellent quality. I came close to selling up and getting a Hexar several times, but always stopped short thinking that ultimately I wouldn't be happy with a top shutter speed of only a 250th. I didn't think a built-in flash was mandatory; too close to the lens axis, practically guaranteeing red-eye. The Contax T2 had shutter lag, which I knew I hated from previous experience. A friend, who had both a T2 and a minilux, definitely preferred the minilux. But I only take casual snaps for the fun of it and have to enjoy using a well designed camera. The minilux at least had a real-time shutter - but the finder struck me as if the designers didn't even bother to try, and I knew from experience that having to rummage through 8 or so push-button modes every time I wanted to turn the flash on or off would just be frustrating.
I also have a Nikon AF SLR, and if I don't spot meter I leave it to the trusty Matrix, especially for color prints. Thus the Nikon Ti pair had great appeal. I particularly liked their viewfinders, but neither of these have been available in the UK for years, and, again, certain controls are not particularly well thought out, like the flash cancel button on the 35Ti, and because I don't bother getting new glasses on a regular basis the analog dials are hard for me to see.
None of the cameras on my list had shutters much faster than a Hexar (only in certain modes at a specific EV and stop), nor did any of them focus particularly close. I was sure they all delivered excellent quality, but the more I looked into each of them, the more I felt that the designs fell short in one aspect or another; each had an Achille's heel as far as I was concerned. None of them stood out as being the perfect small camera - my ideal would have been a mix of design features from all of them. (I also looked at nice compacts by Fuji, Pentax, Olympus, and Yashica; but I just can't bear that shutter lag.)
Now there are the Contax T3 and the Rollei AFM 35, two undoubtedly very fine cameras, both of which use passive autofocus, like the GR series Ricohs. I particularly like the retro look of the new Rollei, which has a 1,000th sec. shutter and an f/2.6 38mm lens. It was previously sold in Japan as the Fuji "Klasse." It's slightly heavier than the T3 at 250 grams. But to me it's gorgeous! It reminds me (vaguely) of an old Argus C-4 I found in a junk shop many years ago.
I had studied the GR1 literature, too, but, although impressed by published tests and reviews, I failed to realize how cleverly the focusing modes worked in practice. I thought it would be too fiddly to use. On paper everything seemed to be somehow too complicated by half. I couldn't have been more wrong!
After reading an e-mail on photo.net where the writer, a professional photographer, said he wished his medium format camera could do the things with flash that his Ricoh R1 could, I coincidentally had the chance to use my son's R1 for a few days. It instantly impressed me. Going through the manual I was delighted to discover what Ricoh called the pre-focus mode, for real-time shutter release - no shutter lag! Maybe it's just me, but I was surprised to find the controls were so easy and quick to use - so well thought out - on such a small camera. There was more useful technical sophistication than on ordinary compacts (and one or two very much more expensive ones). The finder was very sophisticated, with illuminated LCD overlays for all formats plus parallax shift lines for close-ups. Compared to virtually anything else, this finder's fantastic. It's focusing brackets brilliantly eliminated the problem all other compacts (except other Ricohs) had of not knowing where they've actually focused until later, after you've seen the results. In use I found the flash out-of-distance warnings surprisingly helpful (and now wouldn't want a compact camera without them). This seemed to be a most perfectly thought-out little camera, easy to set for different situations.
Then, when I saw the results, I was sold.
Since then, that R1's been through a tough period and come through with flying colors. It gets carried in pockets and bags wherever my son goes, and gets used spontaneously day or night, indoors and out, by rowdy university students - and I do mean rowdy: my son is 6'1" tall and 197 pounds and player/coach of his own skater hockey team. They like to bang into people at high speed. He plays rugby for fun and likes to party - this camera's not been treated like an heirloom. It goes everywhere. It's picked up a good-sized dent and some serious scratches. The snap-on central top and bottom pieces occasionally pop off with the frequent knocks; the case is worn smooth. Yet my son reports that whenever other friends have taken the same pictures, his R1 pictures are always the best. With the R1 he has recorded his life at university and his international travels afterwards. He used it for all the illustrations in his dissertation. He's done landscape panoramics in three adjoining segments; he's even taken pictures of clouds lit by lightning at 1:00am.
This is a back-lit flash picture from that first roll with the R1. I can't fault it technically. (Back to Rough Guide)
It's been said that there's no perfect camera. In the last 10 years or so manufacturers have presented us with a fine crop of high tech, high quality compact cameras, but I for one balked at one thing or another on all of them. Bits from three or four of them cobbled together could come close to my idea of the perfect camera, but I kept putting off buying one because I was undecided as to what "essentials" I felt it was possible to live without. Discovering the R- and GR-series Ricohs cut through the indecision and settled the question for me once and for all. To me, they came the closest, and by a wide margin, to absolute perfection in a small camera. I'm sure many will disagree, and I don't mean to disparage other fine cameras, but that's the way I saw them. All things considered, nothing else even came close.
Subtle is the word that accurately describes the Ricoh's ability to precisely blend ambient light with a dash of flash in such a way that you can't tell flash was used. This is what the R1 e-mail on photo.net referred to.
The image quality ranks with the world's best in 35mm. Thanks to the revolutionary, relatively fast (f/2.8) GR lens design, images are sharp and bright right into the corners - this fast, wide angle lens is nothing short of superb. Anybody who doesn't like it is just grabbing at straws. (Tests by Erwin Puts of Leica Fofografie place the GR1 lens between the 3rd and 4th generation of f/2.8 M-Leica 28mm Elmarits. What more does anyone need in a pocket camera that sells for just over £200?)
The camera's controls are clear and straightforward, and quick to use - instead of clumsily accessing modes via multiple presses of a single button, the various control functions are shared among two dials, a three-way sliding switch, and two buttons. Better still, settings stay put even after switching off.
The viewfinder is very good, with the best and most usable AF indicators on any compact camera. The metering is excellent, and there's a spot (well, partial) metering option. Flash output-control is wonderful. The focusing is quick and precise >>> the lens zips into position with the first press of the shutter button (there's no infuriating time lag after the shutter is released).
It's well built (read about the one that went to the South Pole). The solid die-cast magnesium alloy body (including back cover and top and bottom plates) is very much to my liking. The newest Canon pro SLR is also cast magnesium alloy. One reason other top-end compacts cost so much is that the titanium used for their thin body shells, though light and durable, is very difficult to tool and work. Compacts with titanium shells feel gorgeously rock-solid; they give the impression they're bombproof. Titanium is as strong as steel. Like steel, it dents if you whack it; a surprising number - well over half - of the used Contax and Leica compacts I've looked at have at least one dent (here's a recent example from eBay.com to prove it!).
Here's another recent real-life true story; it refers to a brand new Yashica Contax T3:
"I love mine and was hearbroken (sic) when I dropped it onto some rocks while on vacation last week in the mountains. It still continued to take perfectley (sic) exposed pictures. However, since it suffured (sic) a serious ding to the top of the case, I sent it in for a check/repair to revalidate the three year warranty." - P. Bonner (Contax T3 - User Comments, Discussion; greenspun.com : LUSENET : Camera Equipment : One Thread)
A GR1 that fell off the roof of a truck at 60mph did not dent, although the plastic finder window did pop out, and easily popped back in (ref: photo.net); another fell onto cobblestones 3 times and still worked. The Contaxes use toughened glass viewfinder windows, but they also cost two and a half times as much. (In fact, for the price of one T3, I bought a GR1 for myself, a GR10 for my wife and an R1 for my son and there was enough left over for two more R1s!)
So the GR1 costs less - by design - and avoids that whiff of pretentiousness associated with the more expensive "posh" compacts.
Compared to the GR1, the T3 is rather conservative. It's neither bristling with cutting-edge technological breakthroughs nor is it an ergonomic tour-de-force, yet by all accounts whole shipments are selling out practically overnight. For people who simply want to buy the best (in optical and mechanical terms) one glance at the price and the name is enough to convince.
Cost aside, the T3 is an appealing camera. Like the Tix, its design seems to pay more than a little homage to the GR cameras: the lens is in two parts and telescopes into itself (zoom technology, for slimness); the passive autofocus modules look identical. They could come from the same factory, though the Contaxes have fewer focusing steps and have fewer AF zones (5 vs. 7) for their wide area autofocus, and no single (spot) AF is listed at all for the newest T3. The Tix has spot AF and it remembers flash modes. The Tix even has Ricoh's out-of-distance warning for flash. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Contax engineers must have recognized the virtues of the Ricoh designs. The T3 is their response (the Japanese way is: learn=copy, then dominate). But neither Contax has 3 point focus confirmation, and the T3 doesn't have a metering option. Their flash mode menu is accessed by a series of button presses, which I dislike. It's just frustrating compared to a straightforward sliding switch. As a user of classic rangefinder cameras - real Contaxes (pre-war) and both old and new Leicas - I want immediate access to controls and instant, accurate visual confirmation of focus in the finder.
"Another new feature for me is a distance readout on top of the camera, which can come in handy if you're not sure it locked on the right subject." - A. Schank (Contax T3 - User Comments, Discussion; greenspun.com : LUSENET : Camera Equipment : One Thread)
This point cannot be over-emphasized. Ricoh's three point focus confirmation in the finder is the key feature that raises these cameras head and shoulders above all others in terms of shear usability. Would you really want to have to hold a button in while looking at a top plate LCD every time you wanted to confirm where the camera's focused? Contax T3 owners apparently do. A GR1 not only shows you when and where it's focused across the 2-D field of view, it also indicates distance range via symbols at the bottom of the finder.
For me, the GR1 is the yardstick other designs have to measure up to. Now, when looking at any new compact, I check not only for similarities with the GR1 (or, yes, possible improvements), but also for what's inevitably been left off and/or not as well executed.
I believe in sticking with a good camera for as long as it lasts, getting to know it inside and out. As Imogen Cunningham said, one camera and one lens is the best thing that can happen to any photographer - David Alan Harvey sticks to his Leica because it's the only camera he knows how to work.
Considering its miniaturization, the GR1 is surprisingly close to being a full-fledged, proper camera. It has just about everything a real camera should have (the GR1v even has manual film speed setting). I do not regret getting this camera and am constantly delighted by its performance. In use one cannot avoid forming the impression that these endearing little Ricohs are highly evolved, intelligent little cyborgs. Virtually every detail seems to have been thought through. Congratulations to whomever designed the R- and GR-series, and thanks for giving them to the world.
Have just had my first look at a GR21, and this is one impressive little camera bristling with useful features. It's got another outstanding lens - another breakthrough in optical design. It's unusual; it's not for everyone. The lens doesn't retract into the body all the way, but it has the quality feel and great ergonomics of the GR series.
http://www.gr1.artsociety.net/