Ricoh

On the heels of Olympus announcing the E-P2 follows Ricoh’s announcement of another camera system: The GXR. Its claim to fame are removable lens modules, where the sensor, the processing unit and the lens are encased in one removable unit. Therefore, the camera itself contains only the LCD, the flash show, the battery and memory card compartment and connectors to the lens units.

The advantages of such a modular system are obvious, but so are its disadvantages. By encasing the sensor with the lens, dust is no problem. The unit can be optimized for just one lens and thus made smaller – in fact, Ricoh claims the GXR to be the smallest camera with interchangeable lenses. Also, weight can be significantly reduced.

Ricoh GXR camera system with lenses

However, there are significant negatives. You can only use Ricoh lenses. So far, only two lenses have been announced and contrary to Olympus, a lens roadmap has not been released.

Ricoh GXR camera body without lens attached

Price is also a negative. Lens units contain sensors and thus are much more expensive. In fact, the 24-72 zoom “lens” is listed at $440 – most consumer zooms in this range are a lot less expensive (the 14-42mm zoom for the Olympus E-P1 retails for under $300). Even if more “lenses” will be released, building up a camera system with the lenses you want might just be too costly.

Snapping a lens module into the Ricoh GXR body

As always, dpreview.com has a good preview of the Ricoh GXR.

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