Hi Petr, This is a great camera with some unique features. You have been very honest with your comments, for example in naming the famous dust problem. I do mountain biking and I usually use compact cameras in complex environments, wind, dust, sun, rain, falls. I have broken several cameras, some so expensive to fix that it was no longer worth it. And I have come to some conclusions: there is still no brand that guarantees that the sensor does not accumulate dust, but dust is not the only problem, other residue could also arrive due to mechanical friction or even some lubricant. Getting to the sensor of a compact camera is tricky, usually involving disassembling almost all the modules, and there is always a risk of breaking a flex or connector along the way, so cleaning is often expensive. I have read GR users tired of having to have the sensor cleaned very often, or wasting time in post-production or trying not to take photos above f5.6 to minimize the impact of dust on the sensor. It is an expensive camera to have such a problem. Therefore, a compact camera that does not show me the sensor is money wasted in the short term. There are cameras options that are still compact and allow you to clean the sensor easily and efficiently by yourself and also allow us the flexibility of changing lenses. I understand that it is “cult camera” but I like polygamy gear and there are others cheapesr and more reliables options to do good photography. Thank you.
I can imagine that mountain biking adds another level of strain on anything electronic, yet alone a camera like GR with retractable lens. It is true that sensor cleaning on GR cameras is a pain and one is better to leave it to professionals but GR III and IIIx are a lot better in this regard than the previous generations. I'm curious to see if (how) Ricoh will address this problem in the next generation of the GR camera.
Great review of accessories! 👏👏👏 For my GR iii I have one Ricoh battery and five aftermarket batteries. I’m a street photographer in NYC and love to use the wide angle adapter lens in a lot of my work. I love the lens itself, extremely sharp and the colour rendering is fantastic. The adapter for it however feels so cheap that it took me quite awhile to trust it holding the weight of the adapter lens. Because I use that lens quite a bit I like to use a thumb grip. I have a red one manufactured by Hoage that is seemingly shorter in length than the ones offered by JJC. It allows me to disperse some of the weight of the camera with the lens attached. It also helps me keep my thumb from inadvertently changing setting on the menu wheel area. I have a leather case for it that incorporates a half case that’s attached to the bottom. That protects the camera itself as I shoot a lot at extremely low angles aiming up that requires me to set the end or bottom of the camera on the ground. I love the GR iii more than any of the Sony or Fujifilm bodies I have, and because of that I shoot with the GR iii 95 percent of the time. Again great review!
Thank you! I'm glad you liked my thoughts on the GR III accessories. I liked my wide angle lens on GR II for hiking (had it with half case as well). It was the only camera I would take with me and with the wide angle lens it never failed - quite the opposite - delivered outstanding results every time. I didn't use the thumb grip then but can imagine that in a street, where you get low, it comes in handy. What leather case & half case combination are you using? Sounds interesting! Thank you for sharing your experience. I too love my Ricoh and am always battling if I should take out my X-PRO 3 instead... but GR III usually wins :)
Thank´s for a great video . I have purchased an extra Ricoh battery, UV filter , filter holder and original case. Unfortunately the case will not fit to the Ricoh 3 camera when the filter is attached . The use of a lens cap is probably a better solution . The reason why I use the filter is to protect the sensor from dust but I am not convinced that it is nessary ?
As far as I know the GR3 does not suffer from dust on sensor as much as previous models. The GR3 has a dust shake off mechanism which helps a lot in this case. I use the lens cap more as protection for the lens - the fact it prevents dust to settle on the camera while not in use is a good bonus. Thank you for watching! I'm glad you found my video useful.
Hey Petr, I too was using an old KOSS bag as my griii storage case but then it started flaking D: Not to promote but if you ran into the same issue and are looking for another drawstring solution LightPix Labs has a very nice leather one
I use the lens cap, the reason is the lens leafs dont close cerrectly when I switch it off it protects my lens also with the cap it is very strong and you can grab the camera out of your pocket or bag with your hand very easily.
Hi. I have tried the jcc charger and the batteries fits but with some difficulty. So I returned and bought the patona one, with two spare patona batteries. Not exactly the same voltage (I think is 0.2v less or so) nor capacity. But I hope they will do the job and won't spoil my camera. I also bought an adhesive UV FILTER from JCC to protect front from dust entrance. Bad idea. The dust can still enter and can't go out. It was removed at technical support center. The front protective cap seems good. But what happens if you accidentally turn on the camera with it attached? Can it damage the lens or the mechanism? I also wonder about aluminum grips. May they will be worth.
Hi Nacho, thanks for sharing your experience. The JJC charger holds batteries with mere friction but I would exchange it as well if they do not fit easily. I considered the UV filter as well but do not like to glue stuff to my cameres in general - good to know it was the right decision and glad your GR is ok! The protective cap just falls off as the lens protracts out when turned on. Throughout the years I've had maybe one occurence when my GR was turned on while in a pouch and the camera (GR II) was fine. The On/Off switch is recessed in the camera body to prevent this from happening. From my experience with GR II and III the lens motor and mechanism is quite robust so I do not fear anything gets damaged due to the protective cap. It just slids out. I have been eyeballing some aluminium grips with integrated base plate to use in combination with the 21mm conversion lens. Seems like a good solution to balance out the massive glass. I will share my experience soon on the channel.
Thanks for the video. I have a comment about the lens ring (7:08): Original ring and accessory ring are different. The original ring has a tiny screw at approx. 4h with which the ring can be screwed on relatively firmly, so that it is not so easy to lose it. The replacement ring (mine from JCC) does not have this property.
Glad you found it helpful! Thank you for pointing this out - the screw is really there. I'll make sure it's tighten well up on my GR IIIx (review coming soon!).
aftermarket 1200Mah are excellent and you can get 4 for less than the price of 1 Ricoh 110 battery. so 4800Mah in your pocket is better than 1350Mah. For dust issues you should have a look at the GA-2. Cheers
@@PetrGardianTV i hope the GR IV to have a non retractable lens (like x100 fuji series). That would reduce a lot the dust issue and would really boost the battery duration. And it would be still pocketable, given i have a Olympus Mju 1 film camera, with a larger lens (35 mm "full frame") that the ricoh and is still very pocketable in the jeans.
No, I don't. When the GR is in my pocket it needs to be ready to shoot. Also, if I leave the cap on I always forget it's there and it ends up falling on the ground the moment I take the camera out and push the power button :)
Get the Olympus LI-92B as one can find it at about half the price of the DB-110 and works just as well. I found that the Lowepro tahoe cs 20 fits the camera and extra battery perfectly at a very low price.
Maybe it's me but I can't find LI-92B for less than DB-110. That is for the original Olympus battery. Thank you for the Lowerpo case recommendation, looks very good!
@@PetrGardianTV I can in my country. I found it cheaper when I bought the GR3 and now also with the GR3x. However, if you live in US I see both are really cheap. In UK they are similar in price. Here the DB-110 costs $90 and the LI-92B costs $45.
@@PetrGardianTV Best luck :-) Ah I checked that one can fit two batteries in the Lowepro case. It of course gets a bit more bulky, but nice for transporting the camera with some protection.
my after market batteries (2) are made in China and the original one is made in China. Camera ist working well but duration is lower. I recently purchased GA2 for GRIIIX and a UV filter and honestly found this GA2 very expensive ena low in quality, all plastic, I think 20-30€ is a reasonable price than 50. Furthermore the portability of the camera is lost, then you have to carry an extra bag. I have also metal cap. I think that I will return GA2 and filter (63€) back to invest in agood book. If necessary I can always pick up in my shelf another more reasonable camera.
With batteries you really get what you pay for. The GA-2 adapter can be replaced by one from Nisi - it's all metal and looks better imo. But yes, portability is lost and unless you are planning to mount the teleconvertor, it doesn't make much sense.
To be fair I found out my GR III has some dust on sensor - by accidentally taking photo of a blue sky on F16. A few specs. It will never ruin my pohos but the feeling of not having 'perfectly working' camera is what bugs me the most, lol. I guess that is the case with most complaints related to this 'issue'.
The link should show you different thumb grips for the GR III, I'm not sure why are you seeing them for Fuji but it works for me just fine. I've added the link as some people prefer to add the thumb grip as well. I don't use it on any of my cameras but that's just my preference. The GR will benefit from it if you mount adapter with wide angle lens. Otherwise it doesn't need it!
There is a bunch of tutorials online how to take the camera apart and clean the sensor but I'd find a local service shop and ask them to clean it. Or just shoot wide open only (but that's not what you wanted to hear, I know...).
I don’t like that it uses adhesive to stick to the lens. For me the lens cap fits the purpose of protecting the lens from dust when not in use. Otherwise it’s better to use filter adapter with a screw in filter when heading out to a more challenging environment.
I did this number of times and the lens cap just falls off. Nothing happened to the lens so far and I don't expect it will. The lens mechanism is quite strong.
@@PetrGardianTV I had one but found it a bit of a nuisance - bought the JJC protective cap - the same on as recommended here. Another great accessory is the finder GV-2 for those sunny days when you cannot see the screen. Of course this means I cannot use the thumbs up (that I like) on sunny days. However I am in the UK so not that many days that are so sunny as to cause a problem !!!!!
Nice video. But the JJC charger is having just 2 contacts, so the temperature sensing pin which has thermistor on it is not being used during charging. There may be some temperature sensing in the charger itself, but the heat transfer per construction seems to be limited. So for original batteries I would rather buy original BJ-11 from Ricoh.
Good point! Thanks for clarifying that. I have been chargin my original Ricoh batteries with the JJC charger without an issue but I also keep an eye on it and when the light says 'fully charged' I take it off. The temp. sensing in Ricoh charger is then reflected in its price, I guess.
@@PetrGardianTV You are right, the temperature sensing pin on Ricoh charger will probably make the construction of the charger more expensive. They could use it somehow in marketing materials, to explain why they recommend original accessories. I guess most people don’t take such recommendations seriously. I often do too.
@@maquark They also don't hesitate to charge more but then again it's business first :) I agree that an explanation of why is the charger built this way would go a long way. Thanks again for poiting this out!
Hi Petr, This is a great camera with some unique features. You have been very honest with your comments, for example in naming the famous dust problem. I do mountain biking and I usually use compact cameras in complex environments, wind, dust, sun, rain, falls. I have broken several cameras, some so expensive to fix that it was no longer worth it. And I have come to some conclusions: there is still no brand that guarantees that the sensor does not accumulate dust, but dust is not the only problem, other residue could also arrive due to mechanical friction or even some lubricant. Getting to the sensor of a compact camera is tricky, usually involving disassembling almost all the modules, and there is always a risk of breaking a flex or connector along the way, so cleaning is often expensive. I have read GR users tired of having to have the sensor cleaned very often, or wasting time in post-production or trying not to take photos above f5.6 to minimize the impact of dust on the sensor. It is an expensive camera to have such a problem. Therefore, a compact camera that does not show me the sensor is money wasted in the short term. There are cameras options that are still compact and allow you to clean the sensor easily and efficiently by yourself and also allow us the flexibility of changing lenses. I understand that it is “cult camera” but I like polygamy gear and there are others cheapesr and more reliables options to do good photography. Thank you.
I can imagine that mountain biking adds another level of strain on anything electronic, yet alone a camera like GR with retractable lens. It is true that sensor cleaning on GR cameras is a pain and one is better to leave it to professionals but GR III and IIIx are a lot better in this regard than the previous generations. I'm curious to see if (how) Ricoh will address this problem in the next generation of the GR camera.
Great review of accessories!
👏👏👏
For my GR iii
I have one Ricoh battery and five aftermarket batteries.
I’m a street photographer in NYC and love to use the wide angle adapter lens in a lot of my work.
I love the lens itself, extremely sharp and the colour rendering is fantastic.
The adapter for it however feels so cheap that it took me quite awhile to trust it holding the weight of the adapter lens.
Because I use that lens quite a bit I like to use a thumb grip.
I have a red one manufactured by Hoage that is seemingly shorter in length than the ones offered by JJC.
It allows me to disperse some of the weight of the camera with the lens attached.
It also helps me keep my thumb from inadvertently changing setting on the menu wheel area.
I have a leather case for it that incorporates a half case that’s attached to the bottom.
That protects the camera itself as I shoot a lot at extremely low angles aiming up that requires me to set the end or bottom of the camera on the ground.
I love the GR iii more than any of the Sony or Fujifilm bodies I have, and because of that I shoot with the GR iii 95 percent of the time.
Again great review!
Thank you! I'm glad you liked my thoughts on the GR III accessories. I liked my wide angle lens on GR II for hiking (had it with half case as well). It was the only camera I would take with me and with the wide angle lens it never failed - quite the opposite - delivered outstanding results every time. I didn't use the thumb grip then but can imagine that in a street, where you get low, it comes in handy.
What leather case & half case combination are you using? Sounds interesting!
Thank you for sharing your experience. I too love my Ricoh and am always battling if I should take out my X-PRO 3 instead... but GR III usually wins :)
I've used some Hoson batteries they work just as well.
Thanks for the tip!
Thank´s for a great video . I have purchased an extra Ricoh battery, UV filter , filter holder and original case. Unfortunately the case will not
fit to the Ricoh 3 camera when the filter is attached . The use of a lens cap is probably a better solution . The reason why I use the filter is to protect the sensor from dust but I am not convinced that it is nessary ?
As far as I know the GR3 does not suffer from dust on sensor as much as previous models. The GR3 has a dust shake off mechanism which helps a lot in this case. I use the lens cap more as protection for the lens - the fact it prevents dust to settle on the camera while not in use is a good bonus. Thank you for watching! I'm glad you found my video useful.
Hey Petr, I too was using an old KOSS bag as my griii storage case but then it started flaking D: Not to promote but if you ran into the same issue and are looking for another drawstring solution LightPix Labs has a very nice leather one
It was good bag, haha. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll actually need to buy something as my KOSS bag is falling apart too :)
I use the lens cap, the reason is the lens leafs dont close cerrectly when I switch it off it protects my lens also with the cap it is very strong and you can grab the camera out of your pocket or bag with your hand very easily.
Exactly!
Hi. I have tried the jcc charger and the batteries fits but with some difficulty. So I returned and bought the patona one, with two spare patona batteries. Not exactly the same voltage (I think is 0.2v less or so) nor capacity. But I hope they will do the job and won't spoil my camera.
I also bought an adhesive UV FILTER from JCC to protect front from dust entrance. Bad idea. The dust can still enter and can't go out. It was removed at technical support center.
The front protective cap seems good. But what happens if you accidentally turn on the camera with it attached? Can it damage the lens or the mechanism?
I also wonder about aluminum grips. May they will be worth.
Hi Nacho, thanks for sharing your experience. The JJC charger holds batteries with mere friction but I would exchange it as well if they do not fit easily.
I considered the UV filter as well but do not like to glue stuff to my cameres in general - good to know it was the right decision and glad your GR is ok!
The protective cap just falls off as the lens protracts out when turned on. Throughout the years I've had maybe one occurence when my GR was turned on while in a pouch and the camera (GR II) was fine. The On/Off switch is recessed in the camera body to prevent this from happening. From my experience with GR II and III the lens motor and mechanism is quite robust so I do not fear anything gets damaged due to the protective cap. It just slids out.
I have been eyeballing some aluminium grips with integrated base plate to use in combination with the 21mm conversion lens. Seems like a good solution to balance out the massive glass. I will share my experience soon on the channel.
Thanks for the video. I have a comment about the lens ring (7:08):
Original ring and accessory ring are different. The original ring has a tiny screw at approx. 4h with which the ring can be screwed on relatively firmly, so that it is not so easy to lose it. The replacement ring (mine from JCC) does not have this property.
Glad you found it helpful! Thank you for pointing this out - the screw is really there. I'll make sure it's tighten well up on my GR IIIx (review coming soon!).
aftermarket 1200Mah are excellent and you can get 4 for less than the price of 1 Ricoh 110 battery. so 4800Mah in your pocket is better than 1350Mah. For dust issues you should have a look at the GA-2. Cheers
Thanks, that's helpful.
What is the brand for the 1200Mah? Or do you have a link?
Just to clarify: the dust issue is still very present in the GR III. It was not resolved.
True. Although it was much worse with GR II. That lens will continue to suck air (and dust) inside the camera...
@@PetrGardianTV i hope the GR IV to have a non retractable lens (like x100 fuji series). That would reduce a lot the dust issue and would really boost the battery duration. And it would be still pocketable, given i have a Olympus Mju 1 film camera, with a larger lens (35 mm "full frame") that the ricoh and is still very pocketable in the jeans.
@@martinohesse That is an interesting thought! It would require a significant redesign of the camera internals but one that may be worth it.
Do you use lens cap when carrying camera in your pocket?
No, I don't. When the GR is in my pocket it needs to be ready to shoot. Also, if I leave the cap on I always forget it's there and it ends up falling on the ground the moment I take the camera out and push the power button :)
@@PetrGardianTV Awesome, thanks!
How do you know when the battery is fully charge in the jjc battery charger adapter? Thank you!
It has LED that will stop flashing once the batteries are fully charged.
The lens cap is a good idea.
It works quite well.
Get the Olympus LI-92B as one can find it at about half the price of the DB-110 and works just as well. I found that the Lowepro tahoe cs 20 fits the camera and extra battery perfectly at a very low price.
Maybe it's me but I can't find LI-92B for less than DB-110. That is for the original Olympus battery. Thank you for the Lowerpo case recommendation, looks very good!
@@PetrGardianTV I can in my country. I found it cheaper when I bought the GR3 and now also with the GR3x. However, if you live in US I see both are really cheap. In UK they are similar in price. Here the DB-110 costs $90 and the LI-92B costs $45.
@@innstikk That's a good deal you've got there. I will look around a bit more, maybe I get lucky. Thanks!
@@PetrGardianTV Best luck :-) Ah I checked that one can fit two batteries in the Lowepro case. It of course gets a bit more bulky, but nice for transporting the camera with some protection.
my after market batteries (2) are made in China and the original one is made in China. Camera ist working well but duration is lower. I recently purchased GA2 for GRIIIX and a UV filter and honestly found this GA2 very expensive ena low in quality, all plastic, I think 20-30€ is a reasonable price than 50. Furthermore the portability of the camera is lost, then you have to carry an extra bag. I have also metal cap. I think that I will return GA2 and filter (63€) back to invest in agood book. If necessary I can always pick up in my shelf another more reasonable camera.
With batteries you really get what you pay for. The GA-2 adapter can be replaced by one from Nisi - it's all metal and looks better imo. But yes, portability is lost and unless you are planning to mount the teleconvertor, it doesn't make much sense.
Four years of use… what is this dust issue people speak of..? Seriously I’ve had no issue. Sandstorm photography..???
To be fair I found out my GR III has some dust on sensor - by accidentally taking photo of a blue sky on F16. A few specs. It will never ruin my pohos but the feeling of not having 'perfectly working' camera is what bugs me the most, lol. I guess that is the case with most complaints related to this 'issue'.
I noticed that you didn’t cover the Thumb Support you listed from Amazon which shows that it’s for Fuji. What are your thoughts on a decent support?
The link should show you different thumb grips for the GR III, I'm not sure why are you seeing them for Fuji but it works for me just fine. I've added the link as some people prefer to add the thumb grip as well. I don't use it on any of my cameras but that's just my preference. The GR will benefit from it if you mount adapter with wide angle lens. Otherwise it doesn't need it!
I have Gr iiix recently noticed two small spots while in f16. Any suggestions?
There is a bunch of tutorials online how to take the camera apart and clean the sensor but I'd find a local service shop and ask them to clean it. Or just shoot wide open only (but that's not what you wanted to hear, I know...).
How about the JJC Lens UV Filter? Do you think it is necessary?
I don’t like that it uses adhesive to stick to the lens. For me the lens cap fits the purpose of protecting the lens from dust when not in use. Otherwise it’s better to use filter adapter with a screw in filter when heading out to a more challenging environment.
Great point about the thumb grip! almost bought one before I saw your video
Glad I could help!
Will the camera be damaged if I forget to remove the lens cap and turn on the camera?
I did this number of times and the lens cap just falls off. Nothing happened to the lens so far and I don't expect it will. The lens mechanism is quite strong.
@@PetrGardianTV thanks.
I recently paired a GR III with my Leica rangefinder as my out and about kit and it fits in very well...
Great combination, but I have to say that GR goes with pretty much anything - it's so tiny! :)
Very nice video! GR II here and I bought the Peak Design Cuff and Leash to be able to easily switch between strap and handstrap. Works very well!
Thank you! Peak Design products are really well designed - I am also looking at the Cuff for my GRIII for the added flexibility.
I second that. Peak Design products are high quality.
good advice, thank you
Glad it was of help.
Would you recommend a filter adapter for the Ricoh GRlll?
Nisi make a nice metal one. I've added a link in the video description.
GA-1 and GA-2 from Ricoh - and prevents dust at the same time. Cheers.
@@PetrGardianTV Thank you!
@@oscarm4154 Thank you!
How about jjc auto lens cap? Is it useful?
I like the idea but it will make the camera permanently thicker which goes against its pocketability.
@@PetrGardianTV I had one but found it a bit of a nuisance - bought the JJC protective cap - the same on as recommended here.
Another great accessory is the finder GV-2 for those sunny days when you cannot see the screen. Of course this means I cannot use the thumbs up (that I like) on sunny days. However I am in the UK so not that many days that are so sunny as to cause a problem !!!!!
@@ericcheek7410 I need to test the GV-2 viewfinder soon!
You are absolutely correct about the OEM batteries, don't cheap out on an extra battery and risk damaging your expensive camera.
Yep, here applies that you get what you pay for.
Nice video. But the JJC charger is having just 2 contacts, so the temperature sensing pin which has thermistor on it is not being used during charging. There may be some temperature sensing in the charger itself, but the heat transfer per construction seems to be limited. So for original batteries I would rather buy original BJ-11 from Ricoh.
Good point! Thanks for clarifying that. I have been chargin my original Ricoh batteries with the JJC charger without an issue but I also keep an eye on it and when the light says 'fully charged' I take it off. The temp. sensing in Ricoh charger is then reflected in its price, I guess.
@@PetrGardianTV You are right, the temperature sensing pin on Ricoh charger will probably make the construction of the charger more expensive. They could use it somehow in marketing materials, to explain why they recommend original accessories. I guess most people don’t take such recommendations seriously. I often do too.
@@maquark They also don't hesitate to charge more but then again it's business first :) I agree that an explanation of why is the charger built this way would go a long way. Thanks again for poiting this out!