subscribe 0330 333 1113 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 3 August 2019 43
glass element and a glass-
moulded element, which are
designed to keep distortion and
chromatic aberration in check.
The optical construction of the
GR III’s lens is made up of six
elements in four groups and it
has a nine-blade diaphragm to
ensure natural, rounded bokeh is
created at wide apertures. Being
a fixed lens zooming is out of the
question, but it does benefit from
two crop modes, which I’ll touch
on in more detail shortly.
Behind the lens the GR III is
equipped with a 24.2-million-pixel
APS-C size CMOS sensor that
excludes an anti-aliasing filter.
With the 16-million-pixel sensor
as used inside the GR and GR II
starting to show its age, it’s good
to see the GR III being brought up
to date here. As well as employing
a new lens and sensor, the Ricoh
GR III features the company’s
newly developed GR ENGINE
6 image engine to improve
performance and response. Not
only has this helped speed up its
start-up time (rated at 0.8sec), it
enables 14-bit raw output from
the sensor. Keeping on the subject
of sensor and processor, the GR III
has a sensitivity range spanning
ISO 100-102,400 and there’s
the option, should users wish, to
develop raw files in camera.
Other improvements include
a new hybrid AF system that
combines the accuracy of contrast
detection with the speed of phase
detection. This combination
should see it deliver a faster, more
responsive autofocus operation in
its selection of eight different focus
modes. Given its petite size, Ricoh
has done well to install a three-
axis in-body image stabilisation
system into the camera to
compensate for handshake. Itminimises shake on three axes,
including pitch, yaw and roll, and
is claimed to allow users to shoot
handheld shots four stops slower
than would otherwise be possible.
As we’ve seen on Pentax cameras
in the past, the GR III also inherits
an AA filter simulator, which shifts
the sensor ever so slightly during
an exposure to suppress false
colours and moiré.
The GR III isn’t a speed demon;
in fact it’s far from it. With a rather
measly 4fps burst it offers no
advantage over the GR II in this
respect. It has some other niceties
though, including an intervalometer
hidden in the drive mode settings,
an effective macro mode that lets
you shoot subjects as close as
6cm, plus there’s an in-built ND
filter that can be used to cut out
2EV of light when you’d like to
extend the shutter speed or use
wide apertures when shooting stillsin sunlight or recording video.
On the topic of video, the GR III
isn’t capable of recording in
4K so you’re limited to Full HD
resolution, which it offers at
60p/30p/24p. The lack of
microphone and headphone ports
reiterates that the GR III isn’t the
best-equipped camera for serious
moviemakers, though you do get
2GB of internal memory space,
which could get you out of trouble
if you happen to leave home
without an SD card.
A worry with all fixed-lens
compacts is the issue of dust
getting inside the camera and
landing on the sensor. Thankfully,
the GR III’s shake-reduction
system can be asked to vibrate the
sensor at high frequency to free
dust particles – a feature that’s
been requested from GR users for
quite some time. Some of
the newly added featuresThe GR III’s face detection works a treat.
It was used to acquire focus quickly and
precisely on this gentleman in the street
Ricoh GR III, 1/1600sec at f/2.8, ISO 400