24 Hours in Paris with the Ricoh GR IIIx

Every corner of Paris feels familiar before you've even arrived, due to being photographed from every angle by countless travellers, tourists and photographers over the years. But in 24 hours wandering through the 7th arrondissement area with the Ricoh GR IIIx in my pocket, I realised that this camera is one that lets you disappear into the city. Small enough to carry all day, yet capable enough to handle whatever was in front of me, the GR IIIx changed not just how I photographed Paris, but how I experienced it.

There's a reason so many cameras end up left at home. Not because they aren't capable, but because they demand too much of your attention and energy. A large body, a heavy lens, and a camera bag hanging from your shoulder all day eventually make photography feel like a separate part of your travel experience. I recently travelled to Paris for an event and had a whole 24 hours to myself beforehand. I thought the Ricoh GR IIIx would be a worthy companion to try out for the trip. 

The Ricoh GR IIIx sits in a very different category from cameras I am used to. It's one of the few cameras I've used in the last few decades that holds the ability to disappear into your day. Small enough to live in a jacket pocket, quick enough to react instantly, but still capable of producing files and handling situations, such as low light, that feel far beyond what its size suggests.

Tech Specs

• Sensor: 24.2 MP APS-C CMOS
• Lens: 40mm equivalent f/2.8
• Stabilisation: 3-axis sensor-shift
• Autofocus: hybrid phase/contrast
• Weight: 262 g (with battery)
• Battery: ~200 shots per charge

The Ricoh GR IIIx features a physical 26.1mm lens which, when paired with its APS-C sensor and a 1.53x crop factor, delivers a 40mm full-frame equivalent field of view. This specific focal length serves as a "normal" lens that closely mirrors the natural magnification and perspective of human vision. This makes it a good carry for capturing what I saw on my travels.

I took the Ricoh GR IIIx with me on a recent working trip to Paris. I had one day to myself before I was needed, so this was a perfect opportunity to give myself a time-limited goal. I stayed around the 7th arrondissement and spent most of the day simply wandering with no aim, sitting and observing. No itinerary, no planned shoot list, no attempt to photograph Paris in the way it usually appears in travel brochures. Instead, I wanted to use the GR IIIx exactly how I imagine most people would actually carry it: as an everyday camera.

Most of the day was spent shooting ordinary moments, which could really exist in any city around the world. The familiarity of these moments drew me in. The weather was very mixed during the course of the day. The morning was overcast, the sun came out for a short while in the afternoon, and then the rain poured heavily in the evening. 

Paris is one of the most photographed cities in the world, and it's surprisingly easy to spend your entire time chasing the same images everybody else already has. The GR IIIx pushed me in a slightly different direction. I did make it around some of the key tourist destinations, but the camera asks you to move around, reposition yourself, and simplify compositions, so I found myself ignoring obvious postcard shots and instead looking for fragments of the city. I was drawn to photographing people who were snapping portraits of themselves, family and friends with recognisably Parisian icons in the background. Even the Eiffel Tower became something that appeared naturally within scenes rather than dominating them. I particularly enjoyed sitting and watching people take selfies and images of each other on Rue de l'Université, one of the best streets for photographs with the tower in the background. If you want to push this kind of deliberate cityscape work further, Photographing the World 3: Advanced Cityscapes is worth a look.

If you want the entire Eiffel Tower comfortably framed with the GR IIIx, you quickly realise you need to physically position yourself differently. For the classic full-tower composition, I found myself over towards Trocadéro. It's one of the few nearby locations where the perspective really opens up enough for the 40mm equivalent lens to have enough space to shoot a structure of that size.

One of the reasons the camera worked so well for this trip was simply how easy it was to carry. I attached the GR IIIx to a Peak Design Capture Camera Clip strap setup using their threaded mount system. Ricoh does include a strap in the box, but I wanted something that allowed me to stay hands-free while walking around the city all day.

That setup made the camera incredibly accessible. I could lift it, shoot and put it back down in seconds without thinking about it. By the middle of the day I'd almost forgotten I was carrying a dedicated camera at all. And honestly, that's probably the highest compliment you can give a travel camera.

The only time the setup fought back was later that evening, and it wasn't even the camera's fault; it was just a matter of circumstance. Heavy rain had rolled into Paris as I headed out to photograph the Eiffel Tower illuminated at night. This was one of the moments where I needed to use a tripod to work in low light with longer exposures. Unfortunately, the threaded Peak Design mount occupied the same mounting point I needed for the tripod plate. Standing in the rain, trying to juggle a small camera with wet hands and trying to change to the tripod plate while not missing the tower lights, was probably the least elegant part of the entire trip. The tower is illuminated all night, but the lights only sparkle for the first five minutes of every hour, and if I missed this, I would have to wait an hour in the rain for the next opportunity. 

This, of course, is not a flaw with the camera itself, but more the trade-off that comes with trying to build an ultra-portable setup. The eyelets for a designated camera strap attachment are too small for my Peak Design strap. Using the Ricoh strap would avoid the problem entirely, but it wasn't conveniently placed for carrying around hands-free on my body all day. For me, the convenience of being hands-free throughout the day was worth the compromise. That moment reinforced what makes the GR IIIx special. For most of the day, it behaved like an effortless everyday carry camera. Then suddenly, late at night in terrible weather, it was sitting on a tripod being used for deliberate longer exposures like a much larger system camera. Very few cameras comfortably live in both worlds, but this one did that for me.

Final Thoughts

Phone cameras and ultra-wide lenses often encourage you to fit everything into the frame at once. The Ricoh GR IIIx does the opposite. It encourages restraint, and I feel that influenced being more selective about what I captured during that trip.

I've very much enjoyed this camera, as it makes recording your trip part of the process and not an interruption. The camera never felt like it was out of its depth, and I didn't have to think too much about the camera as I was moving around shooting; it just did everything I asked it to do. Does it replace larger professional systems entirely? Of course not, but because it removes the friction between seeing something and photographing it, I would reach for this camera over any larger body and lens combination in a similar travel scenario. Much of my time is spent on the go, with my dog, in a campervan, or shooting on location, and I can't wait to try the Ricoh GR IIIx in these scenarios.