Why I Don’t Recommend the Ricoh GR IV - Buy the Ricoh GR III Instead

Introduction and Background

I owned the Ricoh GR III for years, shot thousands of photos with it, and wrote glowing reviews about it on this website. To this day, I love the GR III.

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the Ricoh GR IV. I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with the camera thus far, and I don’t plan to purchase another one. Instead, I will be buying a used GR III.

Problem 1: Bad Experience with the Ricoh GR IV Buying Process

While this wont be true for everyone, I unfortunately experienced some very poor quality assurance problems when attempting to buy the Ricoh GR IV. I was shipped 2 defective units!

I understand that sometimes a bad camera slips through the cracks, but 2 is a little unacceptable, especially after Ricoh forces customers to wait weeks on backorder for their cameras to ship.

My first GR IV would not connect to my computer. It had either a software problem or a hardware problem that prevented it from appearing as a storage device on both my Mac and Windows laptops.

The second GR IV had a lens retraction problem. After only 4 photographs, the lens stop retracting into the body completely. I had to apply physical force inwards on the lens to get it to retract when powering down… not exactly the quality you expect when paying $1,500.

After waiting weeks and receiving junk cameras, my patience with Ricoh has run out!

Problem 2: The Ricoh GR IV Updates are Not Significant Over the GR III

Having used the GR IVs before discovering their problems and returning them, I found that the GR IV’s updates do not represent a significant upgrade over the GR III.

Lens Sharpness

The updated lens is not significant. The lens on the Ricoh GR III was already laser sharp. The new lens, if an improvement at all, is barely noticable.

Improved IBIS

Better IBIS is always welcome, but I don’t know who was asking for this update. The 3-axis IBIS on the Ricoh GR III was sufficient for almost any reasonable shooting conditions. I would not upgrade a GR III or spend $500 more for this improvement.

Internal Storage and Micro-SD Cards (Gross)

Micro-SD cards are terrible, and the shift to internal storage is not an upgrade over SD cards for me. I would rather pop an SD card into the dedicated reader on my laptop than have a camera dangling from a USB-C cable in order to transfer files. Transferring photos over WIFI is not fast enough to be taken seriously by anyone who needs to transfer a large number of files.

Better Battery Life

Better battery life is great, but its not meaningful to me, and it comes at the expense of the full-size SD. I don’t need my Ricoh to blast off 500 frames in burst mode. The old battery life was completely fine for anyone who didn’t leave their camera on all day.

Better Dust Protection

Ricoh did not weather proof the camera, they just made some vague promises about better dust protection. Only time will tell if their improvements actually mitigate the problem.

Auto-Focus Improvements

Unlike the YouTube camera shills who did the marketing bidding of Ricoh, I found no significant updates in terms of auto-focus. The camera still hunted in the exact same manner as the Ricoh GR III. Even in single point auto-focus, the camera struggled to pick up on any subject that lacked contrast. The tracking auto-focus is still useless.

Ricoh is trying to make a big deal about the new auto-focus, but I think its mostly marketing talking-points. As a long time Ricoh GR III shooter, I was thoroughly unimpressed when I finally got the chance to use the GR IV.

Video is Still Trash

I know… I know… This is not a video camera, but as I said in my Ricoh GR III review, I would at least like to be able to take some decent 1080p video for the purpose of memory making. This should be a piece of cake for Ricoh engineers, especially considering there is a new sensor in the camera.

In what seems to me to be pure laziness, Ricoh decided not to improve the video quality on the Ricoh GR IV AT ALL! The video still looks like 480p video shot from a 2010 smartphone.

I have cameras made 14 years ago that shoot better video than the terrible 1080p coming out of the Ricoh GR IV. It’s unacceptable and confusing why Ricoh would put out a camera for $1,500 and make so few improvements.

Sample Photos from My Ricoh GR IV… Before I Returned It

Problem 3: The Price

I was fully prepared to shell out the full $1,600 USB (with tax) to buy the Ricoh GR IV, even after seeing the initial review and spec sheet. The YouTubers made it sound like, although the improvements were small, they added up to a meaningful update… They were wrong!

The Ricoh GR IV is essentially a Ricoh GR III mark ii. I would not encourage anyone (unless they were rich) to buy a Ricoh GR IV over the Ricoh GR III… It simply isn’t worth the money.

I think most consumers, including myself, would not have complained if the price had been $1,200 or even $1,300. Inflation is real and there has been a lot of it over the past few years, but $1,500 is unacceptable in light of the changes made to the camera.

*The Ricoh GR IV Monochrome was launched at $2,200 (disgusting). I hope they sell 5 of them.

From Ricoh Fan to Ricoh Critic

As you can witness from the past articles on this website, I was a big Ricoh fan in the GR III days, but Ricoh’s poor quality assurance and bad prices have somewhat turned me against the company.

I used to recommend them at every opportunity, now I’m a little bitter and disappointed with the company.