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Product photos: Richard Butler
83%Overall scoreJump to conclusion
Ricoh has released a monochrome version of its GR IV enthusiast compact camera. The GR IV Monochrome features the same 26MP BSI CMOS sensor and 28mm equiv F2.8 lens as the color version, but is black-and-white only.
Key specifications
- 26MP BSI CMOS sensor with no color filter array
- On-sensor phase detection
- ISO 160-409,600
- In-lens shutter allows flash sync to 1/4000th sec
- E-shutter allows use of F2.8 at up to 1/16,000 sec
- Built-in red filter, giving punchier blues.
- 53GB of internal memory
- 250 shot-per-charge battery rating
- UHS-I Micro SD memory card slot
The GR IV Monochrome sells for a recommended price of $2199. This is a 46% premium over the list price of the standard GR IV, suggesting Ricoh feels that the mono version will have a smaller audience to foot the development costs. The MSRP in the UK is £1599, which is only a 33% mark-up over the standard version's original list price.
Index
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What is it?
As the name implies, the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome is a black-and-white only variant of the GR IV.
You get all the usual benefits and costs of a mono-only sensor: a higher base ISO, because less light is being lost to a color filter array (a 2/3 of a stop increase, in this instance), and much sharper detail, as there's no demosaicing taking place.
You also get better noise performance at any given ISO: again because there's no color filter sapping any light, but with that advantage disappearing if the color version can use its lower base ISO.
However, with only a single color channel, there's a lot less flexibility to the Raw files: once the image appears to be clipped, there's no way to approximate highlight data from unclipped channels.
The electronic shutter can deliver exposures down as low as 1/16,000 sec, letting you use the maximum aperture even in good light
To prevent overexposure when shooting at F2.8, the GR IV Monochrome lets you switch from its in-lens shutter to an e-shutter. The electronic shutter can deliver exposures down as low as 1/16,000 sec, letting you use the maximum aperture, even in good light, despite the camera not having an built-in ND filter. As with the regular GR IV, the mechanical shutter has an upper limit of 1/2500 sec at F2.8: you need to stop down to F5.6 to achieve the 1/4000 sec maximum.
Interestingly, Ricoh says the GR IV Monochrome's autofocus is the same as that on the GR IV, which means it has on-sensor phase detection. This would imply that, unlike the Leica Q3 Monochrom, it has to do some degree of interpolation during processing, to hide any disparity from the output of those phase-detection pixels. We've not seen any negative impact from this in our tests, even when trying to induce flare to highlight any issues.
The company also says that the sensor is not the same one used in the K-3 III Monochrome, though it wasn't specific about how the two differ.
Red Filter
Other than the lack of color filter array, the other difference is that the GR IV Monochrome has a slot-in red filter, rather than the neutral density filter in the color version. This selectively lowers the impact of blue and green light on the sensor, which gives more dramatic skies and higher contrast, generally.
The filter in the GR IV Monochrome reduces the overall light to the camera by around 3 stops, for a neutral subject (it's around a 4 stop cut for blues, 3.5 for greens and closer to a single stop for reds).
Body and handling
As you might expect, the GR IV Monochrome looks and handles exactly like the regular GR IV: it's a tiny camera for having such a big sensor and yet it manages to put a lot of control at your fingertips without seeming too cramped. The control logic is well worked through, as you'd expect for the eighth generation of a design (prior to 2013's GR, with its APS-C sensor, there were four iterations of GR Digital, which used a much smaller Type 1/1.7 sensor in a very similar body).
By default, the front and rear top-panel dials allow you to control exposure parameters, with the -/+ rocker acting as exposure compensation if you have any automatically-controlled settings (including Auto ISO in manual mode). In practice, this layout makes it easy to make changes one-handed, without having to adjust your grip too much. The multi-directional controller is also easy to reach, giving you either access to four customizable functions or direct AF point control.
The Adj. menu gives you one-handed control over your most important settings, without taking you out of the moment by forcing you to dive into a full-screen menu. You can choose up to five parameters and arrange them in the order of your preference.
This ethos goes beyond adjusting exposure, though. Click in on the rear dial, marked Adj., and it opens up a function menu which can be navigated using touch, the multi-directional controller, or the two command dials. You can use it to adjust settings such as autofocus mode, aspect ratio, flash settings, drive and self timer modes, etc. It has five banks that you can fill with the parameters that are most important to you, in the order you want them, giving you near-instant access to them without having to dive into the main menu.
The finish of the camera is also a little different, with a less textured matte black finish. The shutter button is also black and the GR logo on the front is a very dark grey, rather than white. The green LED ring around the power button is also white, to keep with the monochrome theme. Sadly, Ricoh has not borrowed the beautiful 'Monochrome' typography from its Pentax K-3 III Monochrome DSLR.
Despite its size, the GR IV's magnesium alloy body makes it feel very solid, without being overly weighty. And, unlike almost all other modern cameras, it will sensibly fit in a pocket.
Ricoh says the GR IV's lens was specifically designed to reduce the risk of dust ingress, but that they had to make the choice between the small form factor that a retractable lens makes possible and complete weather sealing, so there are no promises around the level of sealing.
Image Quality
Our test scene is designed to simulate a variety of textures, colors, and detail types you'll encounter in the real world. It also has two illumination modes, full even light and low directional light, to see the effect of different lighting conditions.
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Like its color sibling, the GR IV Monochrome's 26MP BSI CMOS captures a very good level of detail in its Raws. However, thanks to the lack of demosaicing, the black and white images look noticably sharper, even compared to the files from the higher-resolution Fujifilm X100VI.
The Monochrome doesn't have a noise advantage if you compare its base ISO performance to that of the color version, but its base ISO is 2/3EV higher, so it's delivering a comparable result despite being exposed to less light. Once you bump up to ISO 200, and give the two versions the same exposure though, the difference starts to become apparent: the GR IV Monochrome has less noise than its APS-C counterparts, and comes much closer to full-frame cameras.
This continues to be the case through mid to high ISOs, and the GR IV Monochrome continues to produce passable images well into ranges that we wouldn't bother with on a color camera; in addition to not losing light to any color filters, it probably helps that luma noise won't be as distracting as chroma noise to most viewers. Ricoh lets you go all the way up to a ludicrous ISO 409,600, though by that point the image has, unsurprisingly, truly fallen apart.
As we saw with the GR IV, Ricoh's JPEG engine doesn't quite manage to include all the detail that the camera's Raws do, though the results are still very nice to look at. At higher ISOs, though, the effects of noise reduction on the Monochrome's images are less noticeable; the JPEGs show more detail than their color counterparts, even if you compare images that received a stop less light".
This is typically where we'd discuss the JPEG colors but, of course, the GR IV Monochrome doesn't capture any. There is a cost for the extra detail and improved noise, after all.
Exposure Latitude | ISO Invariance
Like the standard GR IV, the Monochrome offers excellent dynamic range performance with relatively low read noise, giving you room to boost shadows, or to shoot at ISO 160 for maximum dynamic range and brighten to your preferred lightness in post without introducing too much additional noise.
With that said, it's worth remembering that once your highlights are clipped on a monochrome camera, they're gone. With a color camera, you have the chance of pulling back at least some detail from one of the three color channels, but that's not an option with the Monochrome.
If you want to go into more detail on the 28mm equiv. F2.8 lens that this camera shares with the original GR IV, you can check out our review of that camera. The short version, though, is that it's impressively sharp edge-to-edge given its size, even wide open, though it has a fair amount of vignetting throughout its aperture range.
Autofocus
You have several autofocus area settings, and can easily access them from the Adj. menu.
The GR IV Monochrome has essentially the same autofocus system as the color version. There are four single-focus modes: whole area, where the camera decides what to focus on, zone select, with a single, non-resizable zone, and then two single-point modes, one more precise than the other. It has two continuous modes, too: one with a mid-size selection point, and a tracking mode where the point attempts to stick to whatever you placed it over.
You can control where the focus point is by tapping on the screen or by using the multi-directional control; whether you first have to press a button to use the latter or not is up to you.
Face/eye detection works in the single-focus modes, and if you have it on and the camera recognizes a face in your frame, it will override your chosen focus point to select the face. (If there are multiple faces, it highlights them, and you can pick between them to choose which one to focus on.) You can then choose to move the focus point elsewhere in the scene if you want, but it can be jarring to have the focus point suddenly move without you asking it to, and it means you'll want to think about whether you want to leave it on all the time. There is, however, an option to only use face/eye detection in the auto-area AF mode. Regardless of your settings, face/eye detection isn't available in the tracking or continuous AF modes.
The tracking autofocus mode only gives you a single selection option, which turns green when it's locked onto a subject, or red if it fails to start tracking (something that wasn't rare in our tests).
The GR IV Monochrome's autofocus system isn't particularly flexible, as there's no customization for how large your zones are, and you can't use continuous tracking with a variety of selection point sizes. However, the camera has particularly powerful manual focusing tools; the magnification assist is quite clear, and it's one of the few compacts that will retain the same focus distance even if you turn it off.
There's also the Snap Focus feature, which is highly touted by some of the GR faithful. When using it, the camera will focus to a pre-chosen distance as soon as you press the shutter. While some people may use the camera exclusively in this mode, gaining a sense for how far away things are and keeping their camera at a preset shooting distance, it can also be used with autofocus: you can configure the camera to autofocus if you half-press the shutter, but to snap to a certain distance if you immediately fully press the shutter. This can be a lightning-quick way to shoot, once you're used to it.
Autofocus performance
In single focus modes, the GR IV Monochrome is generally quick and accurate, though it occasionally misses the mark by a touch or has to hunt for a second or two, especially (but not exclusively) in dark or low-contrast conditions.
Its continuous autofocus mode is less confidence-inspiring, hunting relatively frequently and sometimes failing to figure out the correct focus. The tracking autofocus is also off-the-pace compared to its contemporaries. In good conditions, it can do a good job of sticking to your selected subject, but it will frequently wander away from the subject or fail to keep up with it if it's moving. Generally, it's not particularly easy to trust, which makes us hesitant to use it.
Compared to the standard GR IV, the GR IV Monochrome's autofocus appears to perform quite similarly. While it's nice that it's able to reach the same bar – you aren't giving anything up by going black and white – it certainly isn't the highest performer. Some of that may be down to the fact that it has a unit focus lens, which trades responsiveness for edge-to-edge sharpness in a compact form. It's also, arguably, less essential for a camera designed for street photography with a fixed wide-angle lens to have cutting-edge autofocus tracking, but fans of the track-and-recompose method will likely find themselves having to get used to this camera's limitations if they're coming from another system.
In use
By Mitchell Clark
I'll try to avoid reiterating everything I said in the standard GR IV's "In use" section (though it all still applies), but one thing bears repeating: the control scheme is really enjoyable to use. Having direct control of all your exposure parameters via the two top-plate command dials and the + / - rocker switch, and the ability to quickly access and change the settings that are most important to you with the Adj. menu makes the GR IV Monochrome one of the easiest cameras to use one-handed that I've ever encountered.
Given that this is a camera that's designed to focus on the absolute essentials of photography, I also think it makes sense to praise the little touches that Ricoh adds to the GR series. Things like it telling you how many photos you've taken today and overall, when you turn it off, and the absolutely obscene level of customization you can do. Want to use the shutter button as a "confirm and close this menu" button? There's a setting for that. Picky about which dial does what? You can set them to almost any configuration. Don't like the default level UI (despite it being very good)? There are literally two other options that look completely different.
You can gain access to up to five settings in the Adj menu, or strip it down to the few parameters you care about the most.
None of this is specific to the Monochrome in particular, but when you're considering paying a premium for a photography-first experience with a focused device, these are the kind of small things that make a difference. It's not just a do-it-all mirrorless crammed into a small, fixed-lens body.
In lieu of the standard GR IV's built-in ND filter, the Monochrome's new electronic shutter mode allows for shooting in bright sunlight. However, its moderate rolling shutter rate means you might get some distortion on fast-moving subjects, or banding under artificial lighting (not that there are too many shooting scenarios where you'll need to shoot over 1/4000 sec without the aid of the sun).
The Monochrome's new electronic shutter mode allows for shooting in bright sunlight
The good news is that using it isn't a matter of selecting mechanical shutter or e-shutter mode; with it enabled, the camera will use the mechanical shutter up to its max speed, and the e-shutter if it still needs to tamp down on exposure. The red filter can also be used to cut down on some light hitting the sensor, but it can dramatically change the look of your image depending on the color of the subject you're shooting.
When I reviewed the GR IV, I thought its rear display was fine, but nothing to write home about. However, when trying to compose a black and white image, I found it that bit more difficult to work with at off-axis angles. It doesn't lose much brightness when you're not viewing it straight-on, but the lack of color means there are fewer hints about where the edges of your frame are, and distractions are harder to catch in the moment if they're shades of dark gray near the black bezels of the display.
Conclusion
By Mitchell Clark
Pros
Cons
- Excellent image quality
- Great built-in lens (for fans of 28mm)
- Unbeatable size
- Well-judged control layout
- Highly customizable
- Ample built-in storage
- IBIS works well in low-light
- Integrated red filter is fun to play with
- Very niche, and therefore very pricey
- JPEGs don't get the most out of the sensor
- Face/eye detection overrides selected AF point
- Autofocus performance isn't the strongest, especially in tracking
- Screen isn't great for off-axis shooting
- Battery life is just okay
I often find myself saying "not everything is for everyone," but it's rarely as applicable as it is in the case of the GR IV Monochrome. It's an extremely niche proposition because of how focused it is: when you're shooting with it, you have to see the world at 28mm, and in black and white: the camera doesn't allow you to capture it any other way.
Many (most?) won't see the appeal in a camera so inflexible, but the GR IV Monochrome makes a strong argument for why you should want to. Its image quality is the best you'll find in a camera this small (though there's the obvious caveat that its color performance is very poor), and the controls, customizability and UI all do a great job of getting out of your way and letting you get into the groove. And it's worth saying outright: if this is a style of shooting you enjoy, there's essentially nothing else out there that provides the exact same experience.
However, there are still parts of that experience that could use some improvement. We wish the JPEGs captured a bit more of the detail available in the Raws, and that the autofocus was at least closer to comparable with what we expect from modern systems. And while the black and white being a hardware decision rather than a software one forces a discipline you can't get from a standard GR IV set to a monochrome profile, the premium Ricoh is charging means you'll have to really consider how much you personally value that.
If the answer is "a lot," the GR IV Monochrome is easy to recommend, because it mostly does what it does really well. However, the autofocus performance and inaccessibility to the achromatic-curious make it hard to give it our highest award. But if you're truly devoted to the style of photography this camera provides, consider it a gold, captured in monochrome.
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Scoring
Scoring is relative only to the other cameras in the same category. Click here to learn about what these numbers mean.
Ricoh GR IV MonochromeCategory: Enthusiast Large Sensor Compact CameraBuild qualityErgonomics & handlingFeaturesMetering & focus accuracyImage quality (raw)Image quality (jpeg)Low light / high ISO performanceViewfinder / screen ratingOpticsPerformanceMovie / video modeConnectivityValuePoorExcellentConclusionThe GR IV Monochrome fills a very specific niche, but does so very well with excellent image quality and controls.Good forMonochrome street photography enthusiasts
People looking for a unique second cameraNot so good forPhotographers only looking to dabble in black and white83%Overall scoreRegularScoreCompareWidget({"mainElementId":"scoringWidget","mainProduct":"ricoh_grivmonochrome","scoringSchema":{"id":"SLRs","variables":[{"id":"BuildQuality"},{"id":"ErgonomicsAndHandling"},{"id":"Features"},{"id":"MeteringAndFocusAccuracy"},{"id":"QualityRaw"},{"id":"QualityJpeg"},{"id":"LowLightHighISO"},{"id":"ViewfinderScreenRating"},{"id":"Optics"},{"id":"Performance"},{"id":"Movie"},{"id":"Connectivity"},{"id":"Value"}],"categories":[{"id":"EntryLevel","label":"Entry Level Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Entry Level"},{"id":"MidRange","label":"Mid Range Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Mid Level"},{"id":"EntryLevelFullFrame","label":"Entry Level Full Frame Camera","shortLabel":"Entry Level Full Frame"},{"id":"MidRangeFullFrame","label":"Mid Range Full Frame Camera","shortLabel":"Mid Range Full Frame"},{"id":"SemiProfessional","label":"Semi-professional Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Semi-professional"},{"id":"SemiProfessionalFullFrame","label":"Semi-professional Full Frame Camera","shortLabel":"Semi-professional Full Frame"},{"id":"Professional","label":" Professional Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Professional"},{"id":"LargeSensorCompactEntry","label":"Entry Level Large Sensor Compact Camera","shortLabel":"Entry Level Large Sensor Compact"},{"id":"LargeSensorCompactEnthusiast","label":"Enthusiast Large Sensor Compact Camera","shortLabel":"Enthusiast Large Sensor Compact"},{"id":"VideoCamera","label":"Video Camera","shortLabel":"Video Camera"}]},"helpText":"Choose one or more cameras from the drop-down menu, then roll your mouse over the names to see how their scores compare to the camera on review."})
Compared to its peers
There are very few cameras that truly compare to the GR IV Monochrome. There is, of course, the standard GR IV, which is essentially identical except for the fact that it shoots color. It's a fundamental difference, and has some impact on IQ – the color filter array eats up around 2/3EV – but depending on your disposition using that camera in a black and white color mode may get you close to having the same experience (while giving you a bit of room to fall back if you shoot something that needs color, or if you overexpose a touch).
The Leica Q3 Monochrom comes the closest to being a like-for-like comparison with its truly monochrome sensor and 28mm lens. However, while its full-frame sensor, tilting screen, and EVF might thrill some people who wish the GR series included such features, they also make the Q3 a much bigger and heavier option; it's almost three times as heavy as the GR IV, and you couldn't fit it into most pockets. And if you thought the GR IV Monochrome was hard to bear, bad news: the Monochrom's price tag has over three times the heft, too.
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