The Fujifilm X100VI, greedily sought by more people than any Indiana Jones artifact ever was, remains a tough acquisition.
After Fujifilm shifted stock for the American market from X100VIs made in China to those made in Japan, in order to avoid the worst of Trump’s tariffs, they’ve made a limited reappearance onto retailers’ web pages, although they’re still backordered.
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If you’re sick of waiting, or if you never really bought into the Fujifilm hype but want a slim, portable camera of excellent image quality, perhaps as a secondary camera or a discreet option for street photography, say hello to the Ricoh GR IIIx. It, too, is one of the hottest cameras on the market, except you can actually find them in stock.
a more discreet option
Smaller and cheaper than both the Fujifilm X100VI and the Sony RX100 VII, the Ricoh GRIIIx is a compact camera that shines when you need something just a little bit smaller, with a smaller price tag to match.
One of my professional photographer buddies in New York co-hosts a Brooklyn photography meet-up, and he says the Ricoh is a frequent sight as the most popular camera in the group. Street photographers prize it because it’s very low key and doesn’t scream “Hey, I’m taking a picture of you!” nearly as loudly as hoisting a DSLR up to eye level.
Being light and easy to whip out at a moment’s notice means it’s easy to tuck away into a pocket for impromptu photo sessions without it being a burden, meaning that if a magical photo opportunity comes your way, you won’t be stewing that you left your camera at home. The Ricoh is a physically small camera but has a large image sensor, which equates to better image quality, but the negative flip side of that is that it can’t zoom in or out.
The lens’s sharpness was a welcome surprise, as clear and defined as those on cameras costing much more. Compared to the Ricoh GR III, the GR IIIx comes with a 40mm-equivalent lens closer to a “standard” lens than the wide-angle-only lens of the GR III. The autofocus could stand to be a bit quicker, but it works accurately, even in low light.
