My 2013 pocket camera is better than your latest and greatest phone camera

I was at the Big Local Electronics Store here in Finland. Whenever I go there I have a habit of walking through their outlet section. In case there are bargains to be found. There usually aren’t. This is probably the only purchase I’ve made there. I’m not sure. It was ten years ago that I laid my eyes on it.

“But Sami, the title of this article refers to a 2013 camera!” That’s because it was released in 2013. I bought mine in 2015 for 419 euros. Not a bad price considering that your 1 000+ EUR/USD iPhone or Android device doesn’t stand a chance when it comes to the quality of still images.

Video? We don’t talk about video. I don’t think it even does video (It does, but I had to check, because I’ve never used it for that. The program dial might just as well be stuck at aperture priority, and I probably wouldn’t notice.).

Specs we can talk about. It has a battery and even after a decade there’s still some life left to it. I wouldn’t count it to last for more than 200 images though. It has a lens, and a damn good one. It’s so good that I have had hard time believing the sharpness of the images, after taking a break from shooting with this camera. The maximum aperture is only f2.8, though, and there is no image stabilisation, so it’s not well suited for low-light situations. But neither is your phone.

Can you already tell what camera I am talking about? If you know your stuff, f2.8 probably gave it away.

Here’s another hint: the lens is 28mm full-frame equivalent, giving a field of view that is most likely the same as in the main camera of your phone. And since I used the word “equivalent” you will have recognised that it has a crop sensor. APS-C in fact. And all the 16 megapixels in it are glorious!

The camera even has a macro mode for pretty decent closeups.

This little thing has traveled with me all around Finland. I have dropped it. I have given it to my daughter to play with when she was 4 years old. And it still works! There is dust on the sensor, though. But the images are worth the hassle of doing a bit of cleaning up on Lightroom if need be.

It has been with me in Cologne, Iceland, Washington, New York, Tallinn, Edinburgh, Prague, Barcelona, Madeira, Canary Islands… It almost got eaten by a cow in a petting zoo. A horse farted on it.

What I absolutely love about this camera is that it’s truly pocketable. The amount of photos I take drops drastically during winter. It’s cold, dark and wet. But this I can carry whenever I feel like it, and taking a glove off to snap a quick photo is much less of a hassle than working with a big camera in freezing conditions.

I turn on the camera, use my forefinger to adjust aperture (or shutter speed if don’t shoot with aperture priority, which I usually do), lock the exposure with my thumb on the AEL button, focus (single point at the center of the frame), recompose, and press the shutter all the way down. It’s fast, easy, intuitive, and getting the exposure just right becomes a breeze.

Being able to operate the camera and access all the important settings with just one hand is not only good for winter. When the other hand is free, you can hold an umbrella and take photos in the rain without you or the camera getting wet. Or you can drive a car and take photos at the same time. Not that I’d recommend you do that.

Another advantage of its size and discreetness is that people don’t seem to really notice, or care, when I take photos with it. It makes me feel stealthier too. This camera is ideal for street photography.

It’s the camera I’ve owned for the longest time. Namely because its successors, while having better specs on paper, have gone downhill when it comes to ergonomics. There simply hasn’t been a compelling enough reason to upgrade.

Until now perhaps. Ricoh just announced the GR IV. To my delight they seem to have finally realised the error of their ways, and the design of the new GR is closer to the one I have, instead of GR II and III that have come in between.

I don’t think I am going to buy one, though. I am perfectly happy with the battered old GR that I have. The last few months have proven it still has what it takes to produce outstanding images. But if Ricoh will release a GR IVx with a 40mm-ish lens… Now we’re talking.

I <3 Ricoh GR