I’ve recently gotten into photography and didn’t know what camera to get so I was lucky that my friend recently lent me his Ricoh GR III so I could try and I’ve had it for nearly 2 weeks at this point. Let me start out by saying I think the Ricoh GR is an amazing camera especially for street photography. It has a 24 megapixel sensor so the photos are very high resolution more than enough if you want to print them out matching bigger, heavier and more expensive cameras. It’s also built very solidly, is compact and feels a joy to use and shoot with.

It does have some limitations though or advantages depending on how you look at it. First is that there isn’t any zoom; you can crop the image to 35mm or 50mm but it does make it harder since you really have to get close with your subject to take a good shot which might not always be possible with wildlife or animals for example. But the camera is mainly designed for street photography so that isn’t really an issue most of the time (except for introverts like me). I do wish the screen was brighter during the day but it’s nothing putting your hand over the camera LCD can’t fix. I think the main advantage of the Ricoh GR is it’s portability. It fits in your pocket (well your jacket pocket; pant pocket would be a really tight fit) and is really compact so it makes me want to take it everywhere with me which is really important as you end up capturing a lot of everyday moments which is why I got into photography. It also really helps with street photography as most people don’t like a big camera pointed at them and it’s more conspicuous so it can ruin the shot vs the Ricoh GR which almost looks like a toy and is so small most people don’t even notice compared to pulling out a much larger camera.

I’m still a total beginner when it comes to photography but so far I’ve had a good experience. Photography is hard especially street photography and my photos need a lot of work but that’s more to do with me as the photographer than the camera and honestly no matter what camera you get it won’t fix your skills as a photographer when it comes to composing good shots and making art with light essentially. I can see it being limiting in a sense as a beginner photographer you probably want to experience different lenses / focal lenses which is a bit difficult with the Ricoh GR but at the same time shooting with one lens and focal length really challenges you to find good shots that fit and eventually it becomes second nature or at least I hope. All in all I’d recommend getting yourself the Ricoh GR III or maybe wait for the GR IV to come out or at least that’s what I’m planning on doing.