Shades of gray: did Ricoh just hint at a Monochrome GR?

Ricoh's Mayumi Ueda, Kazunobu Saiki, Shigeru and Ryutaro Aratama

"We don't just want to focus on the results of photography: we want people to enjoy the photography process," says Kazunobu Saiki, general manager of the Ricoh Camera Business Division.

We spoke at the recent CP+ trade show in Yokohama, Japan, where he told us about the challenges of DSLRs, the reaction to reviving film, the future of the GR series and why they're not particularly focused on video.

"We have to put our resources into making sure supply catches up with that demand. That's the first priority as a brand"

"The total number of compact cameras has largely decreased over the years," Saiki says, "but for unique products, which can attract the creative people, especially from the younger generation, I believe the market trend is to increase." He's referring to the prospects for models such as the WG waterproof series and the GR APS-C compact: "GR users, globally, are increasing."

In fact demand for GR is so high that the company has found it difficult to build enough.

"Thanks to increased demand for the GR series, there's a slight shortage of supply on a worldwide basis. So we have to put our resources into making sure supply catches up with that demand. That's the first priority as a brand, we believe."

The market for DSLRs

The DSLR market is rather more challenging, Saiki says: "New product sales [of DSLRs] are still in rapid decline in comparison to the huge emerging market of mirrorless. But we do believe there is a still a certain group of DSLR lovers."

"A lot of DSLR users still exist, but they're use their existing DSLR, which they bought a long time ago. Also the second-hand market of DSLRs is really booming."

"If we only count new product sales numbers it looks like the user is rapidly disappearing, but we don't assume in that way. We believe there's a group of DSLR lovers who still want to see real light, right through their lenses. And also want to enjoy the handling of the DSLR shooting experience."

"We believe there's a group of DSLR lovers who still want to see real light, right through their lenses"

"We know the second-hand marker for Pentax interchangeable lenses. But one of the reasons is that some people have sold their DSLR systems and moved to mirrorless. This has happened with all the brands."

"But we have a lot of very specialized lenses, such as the Limited and Star series lenses, and we appreciate that a lot of users still like to purchase these as a new products."

"We will carefully research the market and then listen to our users and DSLR fans," says Saiki. "Then we'll draw our business roadmap."

The revival of film

Saiki says it's too early to say what lessons can be learned from the Pentax 17 film camera. "I think there's two ways to evaluate it," says Saiki: "In terms of brand value, I think it was good sense to release the Pentax 17, as the first new film camera fifteen or twenty years after the industry discontinued them."

"We wanted to show to smartphone users what the basis of photography is. In that sense, the Pentax 17 played a very good role in saying what Pentax stands for."

"On the business side the contribution of film cameras has been smaller than the GR business. It's not the same size as GR."

This doesn't automatically rule out future film models, Saiki suggests: "If we can generate more interest in film photography, we can consider how we could make a product group. Now is not the time to consider that, though because we have only just released the first film camera in fifteen years. We need time to communicate with our users and find out what they appreciate or were disappointed by. We need sufficient time to evaluate the usage of Pentax 17."

The future of the GR series

The Ricoh GR III was launched back in 2018 but a revival in interest in compact cameras has seen demand outstrip supply. Photo: Barnaby Britton

However, Saiki says, sometimes user feedback can be hard to respond to; something they're finding in the process of planning a future GR model.

"Compactness, high image quality and responsiveness are the core of the GR brand, along with evolution, so everyone looks for improvements in these three areas. So we have to think about how to evolve from here."

'We have conducted a lot of research in many countries. A lot of research tells us many users request built-in flash and that they are using small flashes, including 3rd party products, because we dropped the flash feature between GR II and GR III. So we know that a lot of people want flash, if it can be packed into the very small size of the GR III."

"These things are in conflict, though. Because people want improvements in all three areas, plus flash. If we want to make the image quality better, the body might become bigger, or if we use a more powerful processor to improve the speed and responsiveness, that would require a bigger battery, but the battery endurance should also be longer. "

"But we know the requests from the users," he says.

The demand for a GR Mono

We ask whether he believes there's any potential interest in a monochrome GR model.

"The K-3 Mark III Monochrome got a nice reaction from users. To be frank, more than our expectations. We knew from the Leica M9 or M11 that there were certain photographers who love real monochrome cameras, and the K-3 Mark III has maybe caught some of this demand."

"We know that a lot of GR users are already using the monochrome filter modes on that camera. And one of the symbolic photographers who uses GR is Daido Moriyama, who's famous for monochrome photography."

"Our research says a lot of GR users are waiting for the release of a monochrome compact camera"

"I've visited local GR fan events all over the world and I've observed many times people using Leica monochrome cameras or the K-3 Mark III Monochrome alongside their GR."

"Our research says a lot of GR users are waiting for the release of a monochrome compact camera. Of course that dedicated number is smaller than for other products. But at the moment there's only Leica, which is extremely expensive. If we released such a camera, I think we can appeal to them."

On photography

Finally, we asked about the future of photography, in a time when it's the industry's video features that have been advancing most obviously.

"The speed of evolution in video has been very quick, and the part of the industry dedicated to still imaging is maybe smaller now," Saiki says: "Sony, Canon and even Nikon are following that technology as well."

"We value not only the results of photography... we want to provide an enjoyable process"

"But among our brands, both Ricoh and Pentax, we value not only the results of photography or the result of recording: we want to provide an enjoyable process for photo taking. That's why we don't want to get heavily involved in video features."

"Of course we don't ignore it, but taking for example, GR. The user, if they just walk around the city they become sensitive to what's going on. They focus on capturing the real moment of something that stands out to them, rather than recording all the time. We want to cultivate that street photography culture, that's why we're not so much concerned about video or recording technology."