Ricoh GR IV Monochrome Review: Black and White Comes at a Premium

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Why buy a dedicated monochromatic camera when a regular camera can take black and white photos? It’s more expensive, far less versatile, and made for a very small market of users. That’s the question I hear a lot, and I get it. But I would argue that photography isn’t always about the most efficient tool, or the easiest path to a final result.

Sometimes the journey really is the most important part of the experience, and if you love black and white photography, a dedicated camera just seems to fit right. Leica is no stranger to making these dedicated cameras and has heard complaining for many years from the naysayers — and rightfully so — that their niche products are overpriced.

The only other company to really give it a go has been Ricoh Pentax, and it’s arguable whether the K-3 III Monochrome made a meaningful impact. I never thought that camera would sell terribly well, as fun as it was to shoot, but now Ricoh has made a dedicated black and white GR IV Monochrome camera and the company may have gotten it right this time around… mostly: the $2,200 price is going to be hard to swallow.

A man with short brown and gray hair, wearing a black jacket, holds a compact camera up and smiles while standing outdoors in a snowy landscape.

Ricoh GR IV Monochrome Review: How It Feels

I should provide the context that I have already reviewed the baseline Ricoh GR IV camera, giving a detailed explanation of all the controls and features, so in this article, I will only give a brief overview. The GR IV Monochrome looks and feels almost exactly the same as the original GR IV, minus the white lettering of the original and the color filter array over the sensor. The GR IV is 2mm thinner than the GR III, making it very pocketable and Ricoh has made a return to the GR II layout of buttons and controls. I far prefer this setup and applaud Ricoh for doing so. At only 9.24 ounces (272 grams), the GR IV is incredibly portable.

A person in a dark jacket takes a photo of a smiling person with long red hair wearing glasses, a blue winter coat, and a colorful beanie, standing outdoors near a red structure.

A compact black digital camera with a textured grip sits on a gray grid-patterned surface against a black background.

2.8” is positioned on a flat surface against a black background.

A close-up of the back of a Ricoh digital camera, showing its screen, control buttons, and textured grip against a plain black background.

You will get twin command dials with customizable push-in buttons incorporated, as well as a vertical plus and minus bar, which works well for exposure control. The mode dial is easy to use and locks in place, and all the controls are sleek so as not to catch or hang up on clothing when the camera is stored in a pocket. The grip is comfortable to hold, and the entire camera is easy to use one-handed. Sadly, that same sleek design means there is no place for an EVF, so you’ll be relying on the million-dot back panel display, or you might want to purchase an optional optical viewfinder to go in the hot shoe of the camera. This setup works surprisingly well, given that the Rioch GR IV uses a fixed 28mm full-frame field of view lens with an f/2.8 aperture.

A close-up of a hand adjusting the mode dial on a black digital camera, showing settings like P, A, S, and M, with the on/off button and part of the camera lens visible.

A compact digital camera is shown from above on a gray grid surface, highlighting the retractable lens, shutter button, power switch, mode dial, and hot shoe against a dark background.

Ricoh have updated the dust seals around the lens barrel, which should help with sensor dust issues, and you can get an accessory filter adapter that goes around the lens mount, too. Ricoh upped the battery life on the GR IV series to around 250 CIPA-rated shots. There is also around 53GB of internal memory, so an additional card is not necessarily required. If you do want extra storage, however, you are looking at the smaller microSD cards.

A Ricoh digital camera sits on a grid-patterned surface with its battery compartment open. The camera’s battery is partially inserted, standing upright above the compartment.

Close-up of the back of a digital camera showing buttons, dials, and part of the screen. Visible labels include "Red Filter," "Fn," "ISO," "MENU," "DISP," and an adjustment dial. The camera is black with a textured grip.

Ricoh GR IV Monochrome Review: How It Shoots

The 18.3mm f/2.8 lens was updated from the previous models and sports better sharpness overall, with more clarity towards the corners of the frame. I really liked the close-up performance of this new lens and the overall improvements to sharpness, plus I really prefer a fixed 28mm full-frame equivalent field of view on a pocket camera. You also get a better image stabilizer in the camera, which now promises about six stops of performance. Everything about the GR IV platform just feels a little faster and a little tighter than before.

Snow-covered plants in the foreground with a frozen river and pine trees in the background. The sun shines brightly in the sky, casting long shadows over the wintry landscape. The scene is in black and white.

A black and white photo of a modern, covered pedestrian bridge with an arched, geometric design. Two people walk along the pathway, with a city skyline visible in the background on a snowy day.

A view of leafless trees and a cloudy sky seen through the triangular mesh window of a tent, with the dark tent fabric framing the scene in black and white.

However, all of these features are already a known commodity from the base GR IV camera, so the real change lies in the new 26-megapixel sensor which has no color filter array on the GR IV Monochrome. The camera I tested was a version that was equipped with final firmware, so we are limited on what we can say about image quality results, but this is what we do know:

When you switch to a monochromatic sensor, you always get appreciable improvements to the overall image quality. There will be less shadow noise and better high ISO performance that can often be as much as one full stop better. I certainly noticed less noise and better detail than with the standard GR IV with a black and white profile, but we will test this further when we get final units. Regardless, there is a benefit to making a dedicated monochromatic camera, which black and white photography shooters will appreciate.

Leafless trees cast long shadows on snow in bright sunlight, with a frozen landscape and partially cloudy sky in the background. The scene has a calm, wintery atmosphere in black and white.

A black and white photo of a city skyline with tall buildings in the background, a partially frozen river in the foreground, and snow covering the riverbanks and trees. The sky is cloudy with sunlight peeking through.

Snow-covered trees line a road and pathway under a partly cloudy sky in a winter landscape. Snow blankets the ground, and the scene appears calm and serene in black and white.

Ricoh has also added six new monochrome profiles ranging from more dramatic high-contrast looks to very soft and tonally rich profiles better suited for harsh light. You also get a few custom profiles so you can make your own recipes, and the Ricoh RAW file format is always DNG, so they are easy to edit afterward, too.

I especially liked the addition of a physical red filter, which cuts about two stops of light and gives you a more dramatic-looking shot. Blue skies and greenery will go darker, and any warm colors will tend to brighten up. I often used a dark orange or red filter when shooting analog black and white film and found this to be a nice enhancement on the Ricoh. This means that the ND filter we would normally have is not available anymore, but you can always use a filter adapter and add your own filters. Ricoh have also changed the electronic shutter limit up to 1/16000 second as well, so if you want to cut light this way without using ND filters, you can.

Two black-and-white photos of a snowy park with benches and trees; the left image has no filter, while the right image uses a red filter, making the sky and clouds appear darker and more dramatic.

A person with long hair, glasses, and a beanie smiles while standing on a modern, covered pedestrian bridge on a cloudy day. The scene is in black and white.

Three people enjoying a winter day on a frozen lake, holding hands and smiling. Bare trees and snow line the background. The image is in black and white.

Three people in winter jackets laugh and hold hands while standing on a frozen, snow-covered lake surrounded by bare trees under a cloudy sky.

Ricoh GR IV Monochrome Review: Latest and Greatest

I fell in love with the base GR IV based on its many quality-of-life improvements. It is a popular camera that will probably sell every unit that Ricoh can deliver. This is also a line of cameras that will undoubtedly have many different iterations going forward, such as the popular HDF filter version. However, this is the first monochrome GR camera, and it is definitely about time. We need more alternatives to the Leica Q3 and M series Monochrom cameras, which are, of course, wildly expensive.

A person holding a camera takes a close-up photo of a frosty evergreen tree branch, with delicate ice crystals visible on the needles.

Close-up black and white photo of pine needles covered with melting ice crystals and water droplets, with a blurred background creating a soft, serene atmosphere.

Scattered items, including bags, a glove, and litter, lie on snow-covered ground near a rocky ledge. The scene appears cold and desolate.

This brings us to the crux of the main issue working against the GR IV Monochrome camera: it is expensive. Nothing is Leica M or Q expensive, but the $2,200 price on the GR IV Monochrome represents a $700 premium over the standard model. The justification, I suppose, is that this camera is already a highly desirable niche product, with a relatively small target audience, and even at this price it will likely still sell out completely.

However, it still places a large hurdle in front of those looking to try it, making it hard to justify the extra cost over the standard GR IV. I absolutely want the monochromatic version for myself, but I absolutely cannot justify the extra cost. Lucky for Ricoh, there are assuredly enough prospective buyers who can.

A wooden bench faces a snowy field under a cloudy sky, with distant buildings and a row of trees in the background. Another bench is visible further away amidst sparse vegetation.

A sidewalk in winter with snow on the ground and a painted pedestrian symbol with an arrow. In the background, a person walks a dog on the path.

A group of trees with no leaves.

Are There Alternatives?

As stated already, the main competition is going to be the original GR IV, which is an enviable position for Ricoh to find itself in. Even the standard GR IV is quite expensive, but it looks like an absolute bargain in comparison.

shutter speed 1/16000, aperture f/4.5, ISO 320, with green indicator marks. The background is mostly black.

A close-up of a dark marble surface with white, irregular veins forming an 'X' shape across the stone.

Should You Buy It?

I would still say yes, for two main reasons. This represents a fun and worthwhile purchase to a dedicated black and white photographer in the same way that I would recommend the otherwise impractical M11 Monochrom. And there is simply nothing else like it on the market that combines beautiful monochromatic imagery in such a capable and ultra-compact body design.

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