The Ricoh GR IV 30th Anniversary Edition Kit is now available to pre-order in both the US and UK, giving fans of one of photography’s most iconic compact camera lines the chance to pick up something a little more special.
In the US, the limited-edition kit can be pre-ordered from B&H for $1,799.95, while UK photographers can pre-order it from Wex Photo Video for £1,499.
And with Ricoh producing just 6,000 units worldwide, I suspect that this version of the GR IV may not hang around forever.
US retailers
UK Retailers
The special edition has been created to celebrate 30 years of the Ricoh GR series, which began with the GR1 film camera in 1996, and Ricoh has thankfully done a little more than simply put an anniversary badge on the box.
The camera itself gets shutter and rear buttons finished in dark silver, inspired by the original GR1, along with a special GN-3 (30th) ring cap featuring a diamond-cut finish and a dedicated 30th anniversary power-off screen.
The kit also comes with a commemorative 30th anniversary-branded metal hot shoe cover and genuine leather finger strap, and a rather wonderful set of 16 GR-series pin badges.
Underneath all those anniversary touches, however, this is still the Ricoh GR IV – and that is certainly no bad thing. The camera uses a 25.74MP APS-C CMOS sensor paired with a redesigned 18.3mm f/2.8 lens, giving the classic 28mm full-frame equivalent field of view that has become synonymous with the GR series.
You also get hybrid autofocus, 5-axis sensor-shift image stabilization and a sensitivity range stretching from ISO100-204800, all squeezed into the sort of genuinely pocketable body that continues to make the GR such an appealing camera for street and everyday photography.
And that is really what makes the GR IV so interesting. There are plenty of small cameras on the market, but very few manage to combine an APS-C sensor, a genuinely sharp fixed lens and this level of portability without becoming something you have to consciously decide to carry.
The GR has always been a camera designed to disappear into a pocket and be ready when something worth photographing appears, and the GR IV continues that philosophy rather than trying to reinvent it.
The 28mm equivalent lens might not suit everyone, but for street photography, travel and everyday documentary work, it remains an incredibly versatile focal length.
The Ricoh GR IV 30th Anniversary Edition Kit therefore isn't about getting better image quality than the standard GR IV, because mechanically and optically the two cameras are essentially the same. This is very much the collector's version, celebrating three decades of one of the most distinctive compact camera families around.
At $1,799.95 from B&H in the US and £1,499 from Wex Photo Video in the UK, it carries a premium. But with only 6,000 being produced worldwide, the combination of GR1-inspired details, exclusive accessories and a genuinely excellent camera underneath could make this particularly tempting for GR fans.
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