The Best Compact Camera for Street Photography? A Review of the New Ricoh GR IIIx

The Ricoh GR has long been a popular choice of compact camera for fans of street photography, and a new version was recently announced. The IIIx brings an interesting change to this point-and-shoot heavyweight.

The GR III arrived back in 2019 featuring a 24.2-megapixel APS-C sensor. Its fixed f/2.8 lens gives a full frame equivalent of 28mm. The GR IIIx brings a notable change: the fixed f/2.8 lens is 26.1mm, giving a full frame equivalent of 40mm. This sits it nicely in between 35mm and 50mm, the two focal lengths that tend to be most popular among street photographers.

Personally, I'm a big fan of 40mm as a focal length and, no longer a Canon user, I miss shooting on my Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens. Initially, it can feel like you’re stuck between two lengths, and it’s neither one thing or the other, but after a while, you come to appreciate its versatility, and it can give a taste of both 35mm and 50mm when used carefully.

At present, the GR IIIx is only listed on Ricoh’s European website at a price of €999, suggesting that it will be on sale in the U.S. at around a thousand dollars.

Will you be pre-ordering? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Andy Day's picture

Andy Day is a British photographer and writer living in France. He began photographing parkour in 2003 and has been doing weird things in the city and elsewhere ever since. He's addicted to climbing and owns a fairly useless dog. He has an MA in Sociology & Photography which often makes him ponder what all of this really means.

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2 Comments

a fuji xe-3 will do all that a ricoh, and will also act like a real camera

Two different cameras jack but at least one has IBIS and is much more pocket friendly without any compromise to image quality. The ability to use DNG (RAF yuck) as well transfer it to a mobile device via Wi-Fi can come in pretty handy while on the go.