- Ricoh GR IV prototype now exhibited to the public in the company’s GR Space Showroom in Tokyo
- Ricoh has already confirmed that GR IV is on course for a ‘autumn 2025’ launch
- A variation with highlight diffusion filter follows in ‘Winter 2025’
I’ve been waiting a lot for a first look at the upcoming Ricoh GR IV – but now that it has happened, I can’t help but feel a little underestimated. Disappointed, even.
The long-awaited replacement for the excellent Ricoh Gr III (which will be interrupted), GR IV is set to be the next flagship model in Ricoh’s iconic series of Premium Digital Point-and-Shoots.
The GR series has been given something of a cult classic status among photographers appreciated for their pocketable, modest design and use of large sensors. They are ideal for street photography and holiday snapshots, so the release of a new model is always something of an event for photo enthusiasts.
And now a prototype of Ricoh GR IV appears on the GR room, the company’s Tokyo camera and photography showroom that allows curious members of the public to come and see (but not have a practical experience-this is just an exterior prototype, so not functional).
It should be an exciting time for a Ricoh fan like me, but I find the lack of changes over Gr III a bit. For example, the design is almost identical to GR III. I would have loved having seen a built-in flash and a tilting LCD screen, but the prototype hasn’t either.
I also want improvements to autofocus and to the camera’s robustness – and these things also look questionable. Although I want to warn that things with this are a prototype, things can change between now and autumn 2025 release date.
Reasons to be cheerful?
On the plus side, it comes with a higher resolution sensor, new lens, better image stabilization, some control adjustments and improvements, such as a plus / minus switch and a D-pad instead of a control wheel, 53 GB of built-in memory (as well as a microSD card cast MicroSD card that I was hoped for.
Instead, it seems that GR IV will be a small upgrade. There is nothing wrong with it in itself, and users upgrading from older GR models or buying their first GR camera ever will probably be in a treat. People who own a GR III or GR IIIX, on the other hand, find a few convincing reasons to do the upgrade.
All of this said, I can’t wait to give the camera a real test to find out the most important thing: how it works in the field. You can be sure that Techradar will get a review test as soon as Ricoh is able to borrow one for us.
