Introduction

Ease of Use

As the Ricoh GXR body is common to all of the available camera units, virtually all of the comments that we made in our original GXR review apply equally to the new A12 28mm camera unit. Rather than repeat them here, you should read the Ricoh GXR review first and then our specific comments about the A12 28mm unit below.

With the A12 28mm camera unit fitted, the Ricoh GXR weighs 410g and measures 113.9 x 70.2 x 55.6mm (although still not including the the battery or memory card). When the lens is fully extended, the camera measures just over 6.5cm in depth, with the lens extending by 1.2cms from the front of the camera unit.

Front	Front

The A12 unit has a 12.3 APS-C image sensor and a 28mm f/2.5 fixed-focal lens. This is a unique offering in the Ricoh range, and is the second Ricoh camera module to feature the same-sized sensor that the majority of DSLRs use. When the GXR is fitted with this unit, it's automatically in the same league as a DSLR or the other compact cameras that have an APS-C sensor, the Sigma DP1 and DP2. The Panasonic GF1 and Olympus E-P1 / E-P2 cameras all use the smaller Four Thirds sensor size, so in theory the GXR with the A12 unit should deliver better image quality.

The choice of the 28mm lens is also interesting, in that a focal length of 28mm is well-suited to wide-angle land and cityscapes and useful for street photography, and the fast maximum aperture of f/2.5 is a real benefit for low-light shooting and creating that out-of-focus bokeh look. The A12 28mm has a responsive manual focus ring, and you can also make fine focus adjustments after the camera has auto-focused, useful if it hasn't quite focused on the specific area that you want.

Front	Front

The GXR A12 28mm is the second Ricoh GXR camera unit to offer HD video recording, the must-have feature of 2010. There are three movie sizes available - 1280x720, 640x480 and 320x240 pixels - all at 24 frames per second and all saved in the AVI file format, which unfortunately does result in some rather large file sizes. Sound recording is mono only, and there are no advanced features like Windcut or Pause / Restart as seen on other cameras, so Ricoh still have some work to do in this area.

If you don't like composing your photos by holding the camera at arms length and looking at the LCD screen, there's also another way of framing your shots. You can additionally buy the completely removable optical viewfinder, the new VF-2, which we'd particularly recommend for the A12 28mm camera unit. This slots into the hot-shoe on top of the camera, allowing you to hold the camera up to your eye and instantly giving the GXR the feel of a single-lens reflex camera.

A12 28mm Camera Unit	A12 28mm Camera Unit

The start-up time from turning the Ricoh GXR A12 28mm on to being ready to take a photo is fairly responsive at around 2 seconds. Focusing with the 28mm camera unit is quite quick in good light, taking around 0.5 second with a discernible in-and-out action of the lens barrel, and the camera happily achieves focus most of the time indoors or in low-light situations. It takes about 0.5 second to store a JPEG image, allowing you to keep shooting as they are being recorded onto the memory card, and there is virtually no LCD blackout between each image.

Shooting in RAW mode is also very quick, with the GXR only taking around 1 second to store a RAW image. In the fastest Continuous mode the camera shoots at a fast 4 frames per second for RAW images, or 3fps if noise reduction is turned on, taking a further 5 seconds to record the images before you can take another picture. This compares very well even to entry-level DSLRs. For JPEGs, in single shot mode image are recorded instantaneously, and in Continuous mode the A12 28mm shoots at the same 4fps rate as RAW files but for an unlimited number of images.

Now that we've discussed the new features that the A12 28mm brings to the Ricoh GXR system, let's take a look at its image quality.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of 4Mb.

The Ricoh GXR A12 28mm produced images of excellent quality during the review period. The performance of the A12 camera unit with its large image sensor is great, with noise not really becoming objectionable until ISO 1600, and even 3200 looking good, easily putting the GXR on a par with entry-level DSLRs. The Ricoh GXR A12 28mm handled chromatic aberrations very well with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations.

The 12 megapixel images were just a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting of Normal and either require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should increase the built-in sharpening level. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds allowing you to capture enough light for most situations. Macro performance is poor, only allowing you to focus as close as 20cms away from the subject. The GXR A12 28mm's small built-in pop-up flash worked well indoors at full power, with no red-eye and good overall exposure, and the ability to fine-tune the power output is very welcome.

Noise

There are 5 ISO settings available on the Ricoh GXR A12 28mm camera unit. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting for both JPEG and RAW files.

A12 28mm Camera Unit
JPEG	RAW
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Rioch A12 28mm camera unit has a wide-angle focal range that's equivalent to 28mm in 35mm terms.

28mm

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening setting of Normal. You can change the in-camera sharpening level to one of the preset levels if you don't like the default look.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

File Quality

The Ricoh GXR A12 28mm has 2 different image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

12M Fine (3.83Mb) (100% Crop)	12M Normal (2.21Mb) (100% Crop)
12M RAW (15.5Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Ricoh GXR A12 28mm handled chromatic aberrations very well during the review, with limited purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the example below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)	Example 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Ricoh GXR A12 28mm offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 20cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Ricoh GXR A12 28mm are Auto, Red-eye-Reduction, Flash On, Slow Synchro, Manual Flash, and Flash Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m with the 28mm camera unit.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (28mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On or the Red-eye-Reduction settings caused any red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red-eye Reduction	Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Ricoh GXR A12 28mm's maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds, which is excellent news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds at ISO 200. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Ricoh GXR A12 28mm camera, which were all taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The Ricoh GXR A12 28mm camera unit enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some Ricoh RAW (DNG) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Isometric View

Isometric View

A12 28mm Camera Unit

A12 28mm Camera Unit / Lens Extended

A12 28mm Camera Unit / Isometric View

A12 28mm Camera Unit / Isometric View

A12 28mm Camera Unit / Flash Raised

A12 28mm Camera Unit

A12 28mm Camera Unit

A12 28mm Camera Unit

A12 28mm Camera Unit

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

Rear of the Camera / Direct Menu

Rear of the Camera / ADJ. Menu

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

VF-2 External Viewfinder

VF-2 External Viewfinder

Conclusion

The new A12 28mm camera unit should widen the appeal of the GXR system, offering a great combination of an APS-C sensor and a fast 28mm lens, but the sky-high price-tag may prove too much for most potential buyers.

This is the first GXR module to both offer something new and to make sense - previous units have either replicated current Ricoh compacts or been too specialist (the A12 50mm macro unit springs to mind). The large APS-C sensor and fixed focal length of 28mm should instantly grab the attention of every serious street-photographer out there, especially as the GXR platform is both discrete and a delight to use. Great image quality all the way up to ISO 1600 and a fast burst mode of 4fps are also very welcome, although perhaps less satisfying is the maximum aperture of F/2.5, a little slower than some 28mm lenses for DSLR systems which typically offer F/1.8 wide-open, or F/2.8 at significantly less cost. That said, the A12 28mm is faster than both the Leica X1 and Sigma DP1s, two of its closest rivals.

While the A12 28mm and GXR body deliver a top-performing system that's seemingly tailor-made for street photographers, Ricoh's eye-watering asking price is less so in these economically challenging times. You've got to metaphorically and literally buy into the GXR concept to stomach the £529.99 / $699 cost of the A12 module, which is a lot more than a 28mm lens from Canon or Nikon, for example. With the GXR body currently retailing for around £250 / $350, this is definitely one expensive 28mm lens and APS-C combination.

Price aside, the A12 28mm is the best camera unit yet for the Ricoh GXR system, even if its overall score might be skewed somewhat by the overall cost. Ultimately it all depends on how you look at it - potential Leica X1 buyers, for example, could well be attracted by the half-price nature of the GXR and A12 28mm unit, especially as the Ricoh solution offers comparable image quality and faster performance.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	5
Features	4
Ease-of-use	4.5
Image quality	4.5
Value for money	3

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Ricoh GXR A12 28mm from around the web.

Specifications

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