December will see the launch of Ricoh’s new GXR camera. Unique and innovative as the camera is modular labelled an “Interchangeable Unit Camera,” where the “Unit” in question is a lens/sensor module which slides into a housing that includes the rest of a point-and-shoot’s pieces. When it launches, consumers will be offered the body and 2 different camera units with more to come next year.
“One of the initial modules consists of a 24-72mm-equivalent f2.5-4.4 lens coupled with a 10-megapixel 1/1.7-inch sensor-shift-stabilized CCD; it supports ISO sensitivities from ISO 100 to ISO 3,200, VGA movies, and a raw burst speed of 5 frames per second for an unspecified number of frames. Essentially, with this unit the camera becomes a slightly updated version of the GX100, with the better sensor from the GR Digital III and a bump up in LCD-screen size.
The second module is a 50mm-equivalent f2.5 macro lens coupled with an APS-C-size (23.6×15.7mm) 12.3-megapixel CMOS that supports 24fps 720p video.”
The body will cost US$549. The 24-72mm unit will cost US$440 and the 50mm macro unit will be US$830. It’s not cheap, but the modular nature of the camera could mean you won’t need to replace your model till something really big happens.
