Some two years ago, the GXR system saw the light of the day. Ricoh, jumping on the mirror-less bandwagon, bet on the lens-sensor solution to capture the expanding customer bases. In this vein of development, the A12 modules (the 50/Marco and the 28/f2.5) were rolled out in response to the keen upmarket competition while the P10 and S10 modules were launched for casual shooters. Among diverse public opinions about its market viability, such a lens-sensor strategy is still a matter of debate. In a nutshell, the system has in its infancy drawn more debates than purchases.
For one thing, factoring in the body overhead cost, the higher-end modules become too pricy to be attractive than the mid-level DSLRs. For the lower end modules, the admission fee is not what many would pay for a point-and-shoot camera. Price aside, certain operation performances have come under fire, most notably the sluggish focusing speed of the A12 50mm Marco lens especially in low light situations. What hits the system hardest could be the inadequate choice of lenses, which is badly limited by the lens-sensor bundling.
An Important Step
With the A12 M-mount module (M module), Ricoh has taken an important step. A much welcomed deviation from the lens-sensor concept, the M module serves to expand the lens choices. Apart from a wide range of available Leica lenses, those on a tighter budget could opt for the compatible Voigtländer lenses. The lens choice can be further extended upon purchase of the optional M39 mount with the M module. The remaining issues are probably budget and for some, alas, the permission of your wife or partner.
Selling Point 1
Touted to be the advantages of the lens-sensor bundling are the near-undefeatable dust-proof and the well-toned image formation capabilities. So, what about the M module non-complaint with the original GXR concept? After all, one may with an adapter mount a Leica lens on any mirror-less camera.
The M module is bestowed with the well-toned image formation capability as it is tailor-made to perfectly suit the 27.80mm flange distance of the Leica M-mount lenses. This advantage can be reproduced in the same way for, say, a K-mount module for Ricoh’s K-mount Pentax lenses. Now that Pentax is part of Ricoh, it is not foolhardy to prophesise the coming of such a module.
Selling Point 2
The M module is codenamed A12 in the same fashion as the existing 50mm and 28mm modules – undoubtedly, the numeral 12 refers to the 12 megapixel APS-C sensor inside. However, the new comer is unlike the old ones in that it does not feature a low-pass filter. As we all know, the anti-aliasing (AA) filter has a blurring, softening effect on the final images. Removing the AA filter enables the M module to produce 3-dimensional-ish images. This trump card, together with a high quality lens as the one used in the review, helps produce crispy straight-out-of-camera images, which arguably have less to do with the sensor or algometric processing.
Selling Point 3
The total number of Leica M and M39 lenses is believed to be in the ballpark of over two hundred. The high-quality lenses are big draws to entice photographers to grab the M-module. In passing, it should be pointed out that some M-mount super wide-angle lenses and collapsible lenses have tail too overextended to fit in the module. For that matter, the M module comes with a measurement ring as a handy tool for figuring out lens compatibility. It works in an intuitive way. With the ring capping on, those lenses whose tail goes beyond the ring bottom do not fit in the M module, and vice versa.
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The M module sounds enticing enough. Next, we will go into how the camera feels in action.
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