The Ricoh GR IV is formally “in growth”, with Ricoh teasing a spec checklist for the brand new mannequin alongside a few pictures. And there’s a lot to like.
The lens is getting a redesign, however nonetheless protecting the favored 28mm focal size and f/2.8 aperture. There may be 5-axis in-body picture stabilization, up from 3-axis on the Ricoh GR III, and the inner storage (which extra cameras actually ought to have) has been bumped as much as 53GB from 2GB.
But with regards to video, the proposed spec sheet nonetheless tops out at a decidedly last-decade FullHD 1080p. Sure, in 2025, and we’re nonetheless speaking a $1,000+ digicam with a max 1,920 x 1,080 video – the identical decision as its predecessor managed 6 years in the past.
Now, I would be the first to champion the GR lineage as a stills-first digicam constructed for unobtrusive road images somewhat than vlogging. However due to social media’s skew in direction of Reels, TikToks and YouTube Shorts, video is changing into the brand new norm – and I might battle to decide on a digicam that has video specs I couldn’t name upon if wanted for just a few fast clips.
Don’t get me fallacious, I’m not trying to shoot a function movie on my GR IV. It doesn’t want log profiles, ProRes or a fan – only a clear 4K 30p possibility would give me sufficient choices for cropping and allow my GR footage to seamlessly combine with footage from my telephone or different cameras.
If you happen to go searching, different area of interest photography-first compacts have embraced high-resolution video. Fujifilm’s X100VI, hardly a cine digicam, data a formidable 6.2K 30p that may be downsampled for sharp 4K or just reframed in publish. It doesn’t have a rotating display and there are not any ‘vlog modes’, however top-spec video is there as a result of it needs to be.
To be clear, Ricoh’s press launch ends with the caveat that designs and specs are topic to vary, so I sincerely hope that one thing will change within the video division between now and launch.
Till then, the GR IV is shaping up as the perfect pocket digicam of the yr… that I should must pair with my telephone for video.
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