A Month in Hawaii with The Ricoh GR IIIx

There are so many places I've not been, even in our own United States. For most of my life, various responsibilities kept me anchored in one location. So, when those obligations began to ease some, I overcorrected in the other direction, traveling as much as possible and for as long as possible.

In January 2025, this pattern landed me on Oahu's famed North Shore for a long stretch of sunshine and waves. And after lugging a heavy camera bag around with me for the year prior, I decided to travel as light as possible. Knowing that my only mode of transportation would be a rusty old beach cruiser, I wanted to shed both the literal weight of my gear and the mental paradox that comes along with it: the itching thought of, "I've carried this weight all this way; I have to make good use of it." Now, I obviously love gear, but I'm definitely guilty of failing to be present in a moment because I'm overthinking how to use my gear.

Rather than simply enjoying beautiful views in good light, I'm focused on how best to shoot it.

I'd left my kit behind in the past and figured that I'd just turn to my iPhone to scratch the photography itch, but the experience of shooting on a phone has never managed to inspire me to think about composition. So I knew that I wanted to bring a camera to Hawaii that met a few criteria.

1. First, it had to be lightweight and nearly pocketable

2. Fixed lens – I didn't want to faff with anything beyond hitting the power button and shooting

3. Large sensor. I wasn't too concerned with resolution but did want the image quality benefits of an APS-C

4. A slightly longer focal length that suits my style

I feel like those requirements are not too picky, but there's really only one camera in the compact market that fits the bill.

Enter the Ricoh GR IIIx

I won't detail the specs – there are already a million technical reviews of this camera. I'll just say that it's a truly tiny camera, produces beautiful images in all conditions and handles with incredible ease while not sacrificing the control you want when coming from a proper full-size body.

Instead, let's look at a lot of images and talk about what I liked, wished were different and felt like I really missed from my main kit.

The Shooting Experience

Over a decade ago, I switched to Sony after a decade on Canon DSLRs for the form factor and weight savings. I never liked the ergonomics as much, but I got used to it and, as the Alpha series bodies became more refined, I found that they eventually felt like extensions of my hands. Every adjustment to exposure, shooting mode, focus settings, etc could be accomplished without ever taking my eye away from the viewfinder.

Picking up what's effectively a point and shoot for the first time in 15 years felt... unnatural. I had to watch a lot of setup videos to find a combination of settings that worked for me on the Ricoh. But, after getting things dialed in, I actually enjoyed the shooting experience very much.

The Ricoh I took on this trip sold on GearBridge many months ago, so I can't reference my exact setup to share here, but this is the gist.

• Touch-to-focus + shutter release

• Shooting in aperture priority, auto ISO with aperture controls on the front wheel

• Continuous autofocus

And that's it. Super simple. The strength of the GR IIIx is capturing moments as they unfold before you (at a reasonable distance) and my main settings were geared toward flexibility for exposure and getting quick shots. There's no AI autofocus point selection, so nailing focus on your desired subject with minimal lag between achieving focus and firing the shutter I found to be most easily accomplished with the touchscreen. Basically, when you tap to focus, it immediately fires a shot after focus is found. I thought this would be unusable, but it's how all of my favorite shots were captured and it's really not that difficult to eyeball a good framing in this mode.

This shooting mode does kind of require two hands, unless you have very large hands and great dexterity, so it's best suited to intentional shooting when you want to ensure nailing focus on the subject with competing foreground elements.

That said, I did still have decent success shooting moving subjects using the normal autofocus and physical shutter button. In this case, one hand was busy steering the bicycle while the other hand could pull out the Ricoh, turn it on, dial in f/2.8 and snag the shot – all within a few seconds of noticing a good patch of light ahead on the trail.

Surprise Surfing Contests

As it turns out, January on the north shore presents peak surfing conditions (for people that know how to surf these waters without immediately dying like I would). Over my time there, I got to experience both the World Surf League Pipeline contest and the Da Hui Backdoor Shootout. Each of these events draws some of the best pro surfers in the world and were absolutely incredible to experience in person.

Photographically, I captured some of the environment on the beach, but I simply didn't have the reach to catch surfers on the waves, which were absolutely massive. This was the time when I most missed the Sony 200-600. Still, I managed to get some frames using the touch-to-focus feature that I was happy with, particularly this solitary image of Kelly Slater getting into the zone before a heat.

While Slater was the biggest name on the beach that day, it was still incredible to be sitting in the cool sand, enjoying the pounding sounds and vibrations of the heavy surf and constantly spotting other olympians and former world champions. I'm just a casual surfing observer, but I think this experience in person would turn anyone into a more serious fan.

How Does The Ricoh Hold Handle Landscape & Nature

Surfing aside, many days in Hawaii were spent adventuring among the incredible jungle landscapes. I never went out for an intentional landscape shoot – again, I was trying to just be on a trip enjoying the experiences – but what landscape photographer can help themselves in a place like this.

These images were all more on the snapshot end of the spectrum, none really considered beyond quickly turning on the camera and grabbing a frame. I didn't do any working of scenes or searching for compositions – it was purely driven by wanting to have some personal record of the place. And in that context, I thought the Ricoh was great. Its dynamic range held up well to midday lighting, its focal distance was more than enough for some detailed shots, and I found myself actually preferring the colors and general feel of the raw files it produced. This was especially evident to me in how much fun I had capturing legit snapshots around the island and then reviewing the files, many of which are among my favorite travel shots.

My Final Thoughts

Would I buy another Ricoh GR IIIx? In a heartbeat. If you have one and would like to upgrade to the new HDF model, please consider selling it here. Eventually, we'll sell it to some other lucky soul but I'll probably keep it for personal use for at least a few months.

I think the best use for the Ricoh is as a legitimately pocketable everyday camera. You can honestly carry this camera on your person at all times and the images you get out of it mean so much more than those from your phone. My kids' last orchestra concert, their high school graduation, and the later years in our family's dog's life – all captured with the Ricoh in a format that I'll print and keep forever.

Some day, an even better camera will come along to fill this niche. And when it does, my only hope is that the engineers come up with a way to keep or improve upon the form factor while also including a proper view finder. Until then, don't hesitate to make the Ricoh your primary camera.