(Ricoh GX200)The greatest asset of Ricoh is probably the culture it affords to instill in its users that the fun in photography is to take advantage of the photo opportunities presenting themselves at the next street corner. This mentality can be seen in the unassuming body design and the highly user-friendly interface of Ricoh cameras, which together contribute to the "stealthiness" of them. Take the shot of today for example. It was a candid snapshot made possible with the dial slot which instantly recalls the pre-set functions. The author has set one of those three programmable slot with a combo of ISO200, a manual focal distance at 1 metre with a focal length of 28mm. The only thing left to do while taking this shot was to press the shutter release all the way down. The author was sitting just 1 metre next to this stranger on the street.
This mentality makes it very enjoyable going shooting with the Ricoh cameras, be them the GX, GRD or GXR models. The problem is that with the new GXR M-mount for manual focusing lens, the mentality is somewhat lost. The GXR with a M-mount compatible lens will be something of a head turner. The focusing can sometimes require more tweaks and turns on spot too. What does the new system combination best suit for then? Most important of all, is there a mentality behind the change or is it just a market orientated move? Why do one needs such a tool except for to reinvigorate the old lenses?
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