Ricoh go back in time with retro looking GR Digital

8.1 megapixel camera from Ricoh

13 September 2005 17:40 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Ricoh has gone old-school with its latest digital camera - the GR Digital. While the camera looks like something you might find in your grandfather's tool shed at the back of the garden, the Ricoh GR Digital is an 8 megapixel compact digicam based on the GR Series of 35mm compact film cameras.

The GR Digital will also sport a F2.4 fixed focal length lens equivalent to 28mm and a new GR Engine image-processing system and be available from October for £399.99.

The camera will also have a short photo interval of 1.7 seconds and the ability to shoot continuously until the memory is full, a 2.5in LCD display, RAW compression and RAW with JPEG support, plus Three metering modes are available: 256 multipoint, spot metering and centre weighted average metering giving the photographer the freedom to compose shots as they please under various lighting conditions and a sophisticated 9-point AF system assures fast and accurate focus from just 30cm and 1.5cm in Macro.

In addition the camera also offers an aspect ratio of 3:2 can be selected, the same aspect ratio as 35mm and most digital SLR's that allows images to be printed in standard sizes without cropping. Manual, Program, Program shift AE and Aperture Priority modes allow for greater flexibility and freedom of expression.