I'm intrigued by the Ricoh GR Digital IV, a camera that really has no direct competition. Preview here: http://www.dpreview.com/previews/ricohgrdiv/ It appears to be a nearly ideal camera for street photography (something I don't really do yet, but I digress...)
What struck me is the way the IV "adds (Ricoh's) 'Hybrid AF' system with which they claim a 2x improvement in AF speed over the GRD III." This hybrid system uses the conventional (sensor) contrast AF, and an external AF sensor. According to one poster on dpreview, Ricoh had this feature "years ago" on their GRD2 and GX200 and there were "curses when they later removed it". It makes me wonder if this might be one way of addressing what has always been seen as a Pentax weakness (AF speed/accuracy). Another difference noted on the IV is with regard to the LCD screen. Ricoh has apparently found a way to boost the brightness so it is more visible in daylight. Perhaps some of the lessons that Ricoh has learned will find their way into future Pentax models? Darren Addy Kearney, Nebraska -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
