The Ricoh GR Mk III is one of my favourite cameras. Or at least, it’s one of the ones that I find myself using most frequently. Perhaps those two aren’t quite the same thing… Anyway, it is a pocket-sized compact shooter which is known for being one of the best street photography cameras that you can buy. Its combination of unique features, quiet shutter, and discreet looks make it an almost perfect choice for those that want to be as invisible as possible.
However, despite all of its greatness, the 28mm f2.8 lens can sometimes be just that tiny bit too wide. If you’re shooting in a city like Tokyo or New York, where you are right up close to lots of people this is less likely to be a problem, but if you are in a more sparsely populated city like Glasgow, getting near enough to people to get great pictures on a 28mm lens becomes a bit more perilous.
Thankfully, Ricoh have listened to the pleas of their users, and released the GR IIIx – which sports a 40mm f2.8 lens. That is the only difference between the III and the IIIx. After a few months of humming and hawwing, I picked one up a while back. See if you can tell which one has been more heavily used from the picture below…
28mm v 40mm lens
Now a 12mm difference might not sound like a lot. However, in practice it has a significant impact on the field of view. Below are two pictures I shot from the same angle and with the same settings of my pal Lee to illustrate this. The top one was with the OG GR III – the one with the 28mm lens – and the second one was with the GR IIIx (the 40mm one). Ignore any colour differences – that will all be down to my subjective post processing.
Processing preferences aside, the 28mm lens was obviously more suitable in this kind of scenario, where you are sitting across from somebody at a bar or restaurant. However, It does demonstrate just how much more the wider angle captures. It is not an insigificant difference, and makes the decision about which one of these to use all the more trickier.
Now, I know what you are thinking. Why on earth did I buy an almost identical copy of a camera which I already own, especially given that these things are not exactly cheap? Does the 40mm lens really make that much of a difference?
Well, yeah, actually. It does.
For ages I had really been struggling with street photography in Glasgow, specifically with never being able to get close enough to ‘my subjects’ without risking some kind of confrontation. That isn’t a problem I’ve really faced when travelling, as I always end up in much busier places. Glasgow’s wide streets may well be one of the reasons it has consistently been listed as one of the ‘most romantic cities in the UK’, but they make shooting decent candids a real nightmare. With the 40mm lens of the GR IIIx, a bit of that extra ground is covered. Or at least, that was my justification and hope when stumping up the money for one.
Cropping
This obviously begs the question: With a 24MP APS-C sensor on the OG GR III, why not just shoot wide and then crop in, to save hundreds of £££? I mean, it’s a reasonable question. However, if you speak to any street photographer, you’ll discover that cropping pictures is a bit of a contentious issue.
I am not one of the ‘no-cropping‘ purists. However, it’s not something that I love doing, for a variety of reasons. For a start, tight crops can highlight any imperfections in the picture – be they technical or otherwise – but it also means that you end up in the position of effectively deciding on the composition of the shot after the fact. That not only changes the whole dynamic of the process, but I can never get the results to look natural (though perhaps that is inevitable having seen the original).
My Experience
I’ve banged on about how much I like the Ricoh GR series in previous posts. Not just the GR III, but also the GR I. It’s a brilliant camera that punches far above its weight. As much as I love it though, and as great as it is for street photography, I always felt like there was something missing; some last wee bit of ground that could be covered, and the slightly longer focal length made all the difference.
If I had to buy just one GR, it would probably be the original with the 28mm lens, as I think that is the better general purpose camera. The wider field of view lets you capture so much more of what’s going on, and the people you are spending time with, which is especially important when travelling. So perhaps that’s as much of a conclusion as you’re going to get. It’s a GR III, but… tighter.
