For three weeks I was given the opportunity to trial the new Ricoh M-Mount module ahead of its launch at FotoRiesel. Not being a Ricoh user myself, I was also supplied with the GXR body and electronic viewfinder. Here are my impressions:

At first I was expecting an experience close to that of the Fuji X100, which I have had since day one, despite the comfortable 35mm equivalent focal length and straight-forward operation, I had longed for a compact large sensor interchangeable lens camera, either Micro Four Thirds or even the Sony NEX system. Each one had its compromises so I wasn’t too hasty in investing in a new system.

The two primary things which made the Ricoh an intuitive camera to adapt to was the simple control, reminiscent of a film camera (you can also operate in aperture priority mode) through changing the aperture on the lens itself and a multi-purpose dial to change shutter speeds, the other being that of the focusing assist, which uses focus peaking similar to that of a high pass filter in Photoshop highlighting sharp edges which greatly assists with manual focus lenses. This experience is a pleasant one, akin to that of the Sony NEX system and is one of the Olympus’ shortcomings in which the EP series only magnifies the center spot. The Ricoh also offers magnification but I did not find a necessity for it.

Now to where it matters! Image quality!

Colour

Colours on this unit were more than acceptable. Never before had I used a camera with such good tonal rendition. I found myself using the “natural” setting more often than standard, however in all of the different colour modes you can actually adjust the saturation, contrast and even sharpness. The B/W setting also had a sepia mode whereby you can select the tint colour. I found the B/W with contrast adjusted to 9 giving the most pleasant effect where both blacks and whites are rendered prominently.

Lens and Sharpness

The two lenses which I had used over the course of this trial were both Carl Zeiss; the Distagon T* 18mm f/4 ZM and the Carl Zeiss Biogon T* 28mm f/2.8 ZM. The M-mount lenses with an APS-C sensor certainly gives me an angle of view that I’m comfortable with, in a relatively compact package. I much preferred to carry this unit around rather than my Nikon D7000. The lack of AA filter on this module is a joy, giving the optimum performance of the lenses. AA (Anti-Aliasing) Filters are featured on many digital cameras in the market in an effort to reduce moire, however at the cost of resolution. I found that without the AA Filter, the images were rendered differently to that of other digital cameras I own (with the exception of the Fuji X100, whereby the lens is optimized for the sensor), there was a level of unprecedented sharpness especially when photographing cats… seriously, who doesn’t like cats? (Also below is one pretty cool cat.)

The last thing I feel important to address in this review is the EVF itself. The high resolution screen certainly made it a pleasant experience, however two things that warranted my concern were: lack of locking mechanism when mounted onto the hotshoe; I was worried that the viewfinder would come loose and detach itself, secondly being having taken the place of the hotshoe, I had no EVF and had to rely on the viewfinder for composition whilst using a transmitter for strobes, but a screen is a screen and composition didn’t suffer.

All in all, great compact system, end of rambling.