Ricoh GR II First Shots posted: Flattering new features, but image quality remains almost unchanged
posted Monday, October 5, 2015 at 5:01 PM EST
The original Ricoh GR from 2013 saw the cult-favorite GR line of advanced compact cameras move in a new direction with a fixed lens and a big jump to an APS-C sized sensor. Now, with the updated Ricoh GR II, the company has included a laundry list of various improvements and enhancements, such as built-in Wi-Fi, improved RAW burst depth, movie mode upgrades and in-camera RAW processing, just to name a few.
However, much remains unchanged in this new model compared to its predecessor, and in terms of comparing test shots and image quality, this is one area where the GR II and GR are practically identical. Both cameras share the same imaging pipeline: a 16.2-effective megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, the same Ricoh GR Engine V image processor and a 28mm-equivalent f/2.8 prime lens.
We finally received a review unit of the new Ricoh GR II in-house, and we're now able to share our First Shots set of lab images. Below you can see a couple of comparison crops between the GR II and original GR, both at base ISO and ISO 6400. As you can see, apart from minor exposure and white balance differences, the detail and noise characteristics are strikingly similar. Nevertheless, be sure jump over to the Ricoh GR II samples page to view and download JPEGs and RAW files from our Still Life test shots. You can also compare the Ricoh GR II test images against any other camera we've tested using our Comparometer.
Stay tuned as our Ricoh GR II Review gets underway!
