During the period of testing, I was fairly impressed by the image quality of the A12 module which sports a 50mm prime GR lens with macro capability and an APS-C size CMOS sensor with a GR Engine III doing the arithmetic for the 12.3M pixel images.
The reputable GR lens has a lens configuration of 8 groups and 9 ASPH. elements. Owing to the module design, there is no need to accommodate the back focal length, which Ricoh says enables them to design the refractive capabilities of each element in a more efficient and practical manner. Lab tests to prove such a theoretical claim can be read in lots of websites. As usual, the Ricoh webpage displays a MTF curve graph for the new GR lens to show its more superior performance as compared with the old lenses. But let's translate the gobbledegook into some layman languages.
Optical Performance
For over 500 shots I have taken so far with the GXR, the images show good edge-to-edge resolution (download the full-size photo here to check out). I have not found any noticeable deterioration in sharpness at the corners or along the edges. If you have a penchant for bokeh, be rest assured that the GR lens does a good job in this area.
Barrel distortion is not an issue, but the lens is just 50mm equiv. and the effective in-camera distortion correction can be turned on anyway.
A big plus about the images by A12 is that they give a richer sense of layers and textures, as compared with the Panasonic GF-1's clear and smooth images which look bland after you study them for a while. The previously uploaded photos may give some credence to this observation. Likewise, you may check out the GF-1 review posts and the GXR posts.
Colours and Characters
Another good news about the A12 is that Ricoh retains the nice film-like character for the images. This film-like character is most obvious in the black and white images.
While Pany's GF-1 features some very playful My Colour settings, the A12 takes the usual Ricoh's strategy which is a big reason why I prefer Ricoh's serious compacts.
^My favourite Ricoh camera function: Turn the front wheel of the camera body to move the dot around the matrix, ending up with the photos below (from top right clockwise) with a bluish, purplish, reddish or yellowish tint. 
With this usual strategy, the A12 not only lets photographers select from a range of image settings (vivid, standard, natural, black and white, black and white (toning effect) and two customisable settings), but also allows them to tinge the colour images to their taste by way of the White Balance Correction function.
For black and white images, users may try the toning effects (sepia, red, green, blue and purple) while tuning the vividness, contrast and sharpness of the images.
^From left to right, top down: Images are set to vivid, standard, natural; black and white, sepia, purple; green, blue, red.
A note should be added that the the A12 gives stronger colours to the images as compared with the previous Ricoh cameras, including the GRDIII which was already given improvements in this area over the older models.
^This shot was done in black and white with contrast tuned to maximum.
I like the pure black and white best with the contrast tuned to the maximum.
Focusing
As for focusing, some have complained about the previous Ricoh's camera models for the audible mechanical noise during focusing. The issue carries over to the A12 module (the lens barrel zooms when the macro mode is activated) but in fact not as bad as the audible noise I mentioned about the GF-1 kit zoom lens. So, it is not really an issue.
The focusing ring is situated on the lens and works smoothly. Users can activate AF plus MF combination or simply MF while using the focusing ring. Unfortunately, as you've probably learnt that the LCD display doesn't magnify the focusing area automatically and the users have to turn on and off the magnification manually.
The A12 sounds very fine up to here. But no roses are without thorns. This A12 rose has a gigantic thorn.
The Thorn
When reviewing the GF-1's kit zoom lens, I wrote that it hunted like a fanatic for low-light and close-up shots. This is also found in the A12 GR lens. The biggest culprit is the macro mechanism.
There is an auto-macro detection mode with the A12 which I suggest users turn it off. In most cases when the scene is dimly lit, or the subjects are less contrasty (like, to my puzzlement, when indoor lights fall on a person's face evenly and make it less shadowy) or at too close a distance from the lens, the GR lens will take the subject as one within a near-focus distance and switch to the macro mode automatically.
In this case, the lens extends to the maximum to search through all the focusing range to suss out the optimal focus spot, then retracts completely and moves out again to lock the focus. The problem is, it locks the focus even when the focus is not found. Generally, the process takes about two seconds to complete.
When I first discovered the issue, the first thing sprung to mind was to call up the distributor to see if the lens was defective. But having confirmed it with a fellow tester, I confirmed that this focusing flaw was generic to the A12 module.
Fortunately, switching off the auto-macro detection mode can largely solve this problematic behaviour of the lens. Of course, this behaviour occurs when the macro mode is turned on.
^This macro shot was done at the closest focusing distance possible (about 7 cm) between the lens and the knight figure which you will see in a photo below.
As for the general focusing speed, my impression is that under good lighting conditions the GR lens performs at a speed close to the GF-1 pancake/ kit zoom lens. However, for indoor shots, the GR lens is a wee bit slower in comparison. But when using multi-AF, the GR lens focuses in a speedier fashion.
White Balance and ISO Values
Thanks to the larger sensor and the new GR Engine III arithmetic, the A12 can produce nice images up to ISO 1600. Honestly, I have no hesitation in using its ISO 3200 images. I have uploaded the full-size photos done in all the available ISO values with the A12 in bright light and dim light situations. Download those full-size photos here.
The A12 inherits the array of white balance options from the CX2 and GRD III, namely, auto, multi-P auto, outdoors, cloudy, incandescent lamp, fluorescent lamp and manual settings. Users can also do white balance bracketing for mixed lighting scenes.
During the testing I shot images under different lighting conditions. I left the white balance on auto and multi-P auto (for more difficult lighting conditions). The white balance is accurate unless for an occasion or two under some rather yellowish bulbs which made the A12 fail to switch to the right value. But the same happened to the GF-1; so I would say that is acceptable.
^Top down: White balance performance with auto and multi-p auto. The scene was lit by a yellowish bulb and some white light bulbs while the toy cars in multiple colours complicated the white balance.
The auto and multi-P auto distinguishes the lighting differently, with the multi-p auto doing a better job.
That's all for the A12 test results. The GXR field report series is to be continued.
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