Ricoh GR Flash

Coverage and Range
Good flash range for its size, but with somewhat narrow coverage. Our standard shots required an average amount of exposure compensation.

Coverage and Exposure. Flash coverage was rather uneven with dark corners and edges, though some of the corner darkening is caused by the lens itself. For our Indoor Portrait scene test, the Ricoh GR's flash required +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment to produce reasonably bright results in normal Auto flash mode (1/40s), which is about average for the cameras we've tested. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode (1/6s) produced very bright results without any compensation, though with an orange cast from the ambient lighting, especially noticeable in the shadows.

ISO 200 Range. With the lens set at maximum aperture, Ricoh GR's flash exposures started out bright at 6 feet in the center of the target, and brightness actually increased with distance, peaking at 9 feet, then it gradually dropped off from there. We'll call the usable range at ISO 200 at about 12 feet, which is quite good for a tiny built-in flash.

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Ricoh GR's flash guide number is 5.4 m / 17.7 ft at ISO 100. That translates to about 8.9 feet at ISO 200 and f/2.8, the maximum aperture of the lens. In the shot above, the GR appears to perform a bit better than Ricoh's specification, producing a slightly overexposed flash target at the rated distance. Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 200, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.