First off, I must admit that my first trial test with the Ricoh GRD4 left me disappointed. I guess all the reviews online drove my expectations sky-high. I quickly got back down to earth after 4hrs with the camera. It cost me S$750 (after a percentage discount), and I admit that this is a costly little 'point and shoot' of a camera.

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View specifications of the camera via Ricoh. In short, this is a very quick camera that has good image quality, fantastic menu settings that you can calibrate to your needs/wants, and is extremely stealthy.

Built

Its small, yet feels extremely good in your palm. The design of the grip is nothing that I have seen in other cameras, not even the Panasonic LX5 or the Canon's. From what I read, it is remodeled after the famous GR1 (Ricoh's famed 28mm compact camera). View its specifications here.

Operations

Its lightning fast. The menu has three main tabs for you to scroll through. The advantage of this little camera is the personalized settings you can pre-set for yourself. You have three to choose from (MY1, MY2, MY3). You can customised everything about 'shooting'. This is amazing. It gives you the ability to operate on the fly, quick and nimble, just like Mohammad Ali. Let me explain a little further. Lets say you constantly shoot in Black & White mode, with your favourite ISO setting of 400, and on the Shutter Priority Mode. Consider it done. Now add a little sharpening to the pictures, and lets say you prefer for a little more contrast than its assigned setting. Done. You wish for all these to be in JPEG, 4:3 format, at 10M Pixels. Done.

Save this setting to your preferred MY setting (for me its MY1), and you are all set to go.

Hang on. You wish to change the setting on the go. Done.

Flick the ADJ knob while you shoot and you get to access the quick menu tab, where you can now make adjustments to ISO, White Balance, Colour Mode. This does not affect your MY1 setting so long as you do not Save it. Carry on shooting, and the moment you change to another MY mode, it resets those edits, reverting back to your initial MY1 setting.

Snap Mode

This is a fantastic feature where I think, makes the GRD (or Ricoh) for that matter, stand out in the competition. I admit that when a point and shoot comes to mind, Ricoh does not stand for much. The marketing could be lacking, but this camera should have its head held high for setting a cult following.

You can preset the focus distance from as short as one meter, increasing to 1.5, 2.5, 5, and Infinity. What does it do?

It just snaps. It works, period.

Regardless of the focus mode, it will snap its focus at 1.5m (depending on what you set it on). This saves the Auto Focus motor to attain focus on your subject, yet take the shot. This is ingenious. No other camera comes close, well except for a Nikon F3HP or a Leica M2, where fully manual cameras excel in their 'tactile feeling'.

It becomes an extension of your arm, with the capability to meter a scene (quite accurately, I should say), yet focus in dim light of street lamps.

It makes a fantastic street/walk-about camera that works quietly, and discreetly.