A Tale of Two Compacts
The first for a second
Since posting about my experiences with the Halina 160 I’ve been thinking about what to do with it next. I gave it to my son a few weeks ago, and he’s become quite attached to it, opening and closing the back and getting me to say cheese. Borrowing it back now seems out of the question.
Given my new found and likely fickle love for the 160, I was briefly tempted to buy another one, but I have a number of under-utilised cameras in my collection as it is. Adding another didn’t really seem like a solution.
An Analog Analogue
One of these under-utilised cameras is my Ricoh GR1, which secured a place in my collection in a way unlike any of the others. I bought it as part of a cunning plan: I bought the GR1 to see if I would like a Ricoh GRIII, (its digital equivalent).
Seduced by the idea that the Ricoh GRIII was ‘perfect’, and that I should buy one, I resorted to buying the GRIII’s antecedent as an experiment. Would I fall in love with a 28mm prime lens compact? Could it pave the way for a GRIII?
The cameras have a similar field of view, and both offer an f/2.8 aperture. They both offer snap focus and a slim, pocketable form-factor. One could surely stand for the other.
Having packed about six other cameras for a short sojourn in Normandy between lockdowns, I bought the GR1 in time to take it away with me.
France was good to me
The trip was good. I had time with my family and time with my cameras, each refreshed by the other and by the change of scenery.
Testing the GR1 on a holiday, after months of lockdown, worry and disconnectedness, was bound to produce photographs I would like. Throw in some of my favourite emulsions and we were away to the races.
I enjoyed the increased level of control that the Ricoh gave me over my Olympus MJU II, and really liked the pictures. Upon my return I sold a few bits to make the transition easier and got the money together to buy the GRIII.
Buyer’s Remorse
As soon as it arrived I was aware of a rising panic. The Ricoh GRIII is a superb camera. Small, light, packed with features. There are all sorts of options for everything. The more I looked through the menus the less it felt like a digital GR1, and more it felt like a neutered DSLR.
I began dragging it around with me, all over the house and whenever we went out for our ‘exercise’ in the hope that it and I could build a rapport.
When this didn’t work, and aware that the French trip had given the GR1 an unfair advantage, I orchestrated a day out with a friend specifically to shoot the GRIII.
I was constantly fumbling with the touch screen interface and missing the picture I wanted. (It’s worth noting that many of these are pictures I wouldn’t have even attempted with the GR1.)
Gradually the GRIII started to feel like an expensive boondoggle. With no rapport and no images I was happy enough with, it was spending more and more time on a shelf, charged, loaded with a card, and not going anywhere.
Ironically its place on the shelf wasn’t far from where the Ricoh GR1 was also resting, which has been on hiatus since my return from France. The GR1 and has seen less action than the GRIII and yet I felt no such guilt.
Double Standard
My expectations of the GRIII were high, my expectations of the GR1 were low. The GRIII was tasked with fast moving targets, during a dour autumnal pandemic. The GR1 was blessed with serene French tableau in the the late summer sun.
The GR1’s images are immediately stored in a time-capsule until you can process them, adding distance and time to both the pictures and your recollection of making them.
The GRIII’s images are are open to immediate interrogation, failure confirmation, and the beguiling opportunity to retake, to your sanity’s discontent.
In short, one camera won a place in my heart with 72 images taken over 10 days, the other failed to do so after 500 over 4 months.
Conclusions
It always worth trying something new, and you never know where embracing a new technique or technology will take you.
While there is nothing wrong with the Ricoh GRIII, it wasn’t for me and I’ve sold it. I’ve now tried and failed to love the Fujifilm X100, the Sony RX100, and the Ricoh GRIII.
I’m swearing off digital compacts for a few years. I’m instead going to embrace the cameraphone as my digital compact. I’m also going to refrain from stealing my son’s new camera. I’m going to stick some HP5 in the GR1.