📍 San Francisco, California

All images are shot with Bennett 800 recipe

IG: @runbikeandshoot

Just thought I would share a high ISO comparison between GR IV & GR IV Monochrome. This isn’t a justification as I know how critical some on Reddit like to be. For MOST the monochrome isn’t worth it. The few advantages are expensive. But for those that love B&W.. it’s a lot of fun and performs very well. Already many of the images I’m seeing look better than those from the X100VI.

Here is a quick comparison of images taken at ISO 16,000. I took them at 2,000, 5,000 & 10,000 as well. The differences are already apparent at ISO 2,000. I did my best to match the exposure. Indoor shot with decent natural light.

I picked up a Ricoh Monochrome today! My old camera gave out after only a year, so after debating for a while, I decided to go for the Monochrome I’d been eyeing for ages. I’m absolutely thrilled with it.

I’ve been building a free desktop tool for the Ricoh GR IV / GR IV HDF (firmware 1.11). You pick the features you want, GR Mod builds a modified firmware file, writes it to your SD card, and you install it through the camera’s normal firmware update. Ricoh’s own camera code stays in place; GR Mod only adds to it.

What it adds

• Your own film looks in Image Control. Import a Lightroom/ACR Look profile (.xmp) or a .cube LUT. GR Mod fits it to the camera’s own colour pipeline (matrix + tone curves + a second matrix) and installs it as a real Image Control look.
  • You can replace Cinema (Yellow) and Cinema (Green), and add up to 6 extra slots.
  • Each slot gets its own name, its own menu icon (text or image) and its own adjustable parameters.
  • Works for shooting and for in-camera RAW development.
• Halation (new). Any added slot can get a CineStill 800T-style red glow around lamps and bright highlights, set to Off / Weak / Strong in the camera.
• More aspect ratios. Up to 8 extra crops next to the factory ones, e.g. 65:24 panorama, 17:6, 16:9 and 4:3.
• Soft focus on the ADJ lever. A digital soft-focus filter with Off / Weak / Medium / Strong.
• Date imprint. The classic orange date in the corner of JPEGs, with its own camera menu entry.
• GR IV Monochrome looks on the colour models. The six Monochrome looks become selectable on the GR IV and GR IV HDF.
• Custom power-off screen. Use your own image.

The app

• Windows and macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon).
• Live before/after preview of every look on a sample photo or your own.
• Downloads the official firmware straight from Ricoh’s site, or you pick the file yourself.
• Every build is self-checked before it’s written. GR Mod also keeps copies of what you wrote, so you can go back.
• Built-in updater (signed updates) with release notes.

Good to know

• No presets are included. You bring your own .xmp / .cube files.
• No Ricoh firmware is distributed. GR Mod uses the official file from Ricoh.
• Going back to stock: install the official Ricoh firmware again.
• This is an unofficial project, not affiliated with Ricoh. Modifying firmware is at your own risk. I’ve been testing on my own GR IV HDF, and other users have reported success, but please read the notes on the release page first.
• Free and open source (GPL-2.0).

Some snaps from this morning. Shot with Positive Film, and cropped from 2:1 to XPan.

A few photos from 2023 I found on my hard drive. They are jpeg soocs that I edited a bit in LR Mobile to get the this film vibe..

So nice to see some of my photos printed and in a frame. These are all shot on the GRIIIx.

Also very open to critique - I’m learning so much on the go, so if anyone has any tips or tricks when it comes to printing and framing it’d be very much appreciated!

Insta - dilen.jpeg

Been off Reddit for a while now. What's the deal with the sudden rise in custom firmware? I'm very interested, but don't want to risk bricking my camera.

Just ordered another brand new GR IV that arrived yesterday and there seems to be stuck aperture blade or leave shutter component that doesn't move when a picture is taken. I have had a previous GR IV and I don't remember this behavior occuring. I'm assuming this is not normal correct?

i love my bw preset

inst cold_mak

Went on a road trip over the weekend, here’s some snaps. Taken with GR2

(The furry friend was fine btw, just on one of their first outings with a sibling, ascended back up the tree shortly after.)

first time shooting with the ricoh (used to shoot a little bit of film, but that was years ago and i havent touched a camera since) and i feel like a newbie again.

i know my angles and composition suck and need a looooooot more work, but im also realizing that maybe the iiix was the way to go for me, as most of these were shot in the crop 50mm (i came across an offer for the gr iv that i couldnt refuse though, which was why i went with the iv)

i feel like my colors and overall photos arent as sharp as others ive seen taken with ricoh - is that potentially a recipe problem? the nyc ones (first two pics) were taken with default settings, and the rest were with a recipe. i did wipe my lens with a lens cleaning wipe and a qtip in between nyc and boston - would that have been an issue?

critique, feedback, comments all welcome!!

I seen a post on threads someone did this mod but just one picture . Has anyone on here actually done the mod and would you recommend it ?

https://grlife.app/en/

Had a good long outing. Which started sipping on some tea and looking at the rain fall, at 6AM. Then little bit of rising sun created some nice light. Then cloudy, with peaks of sun while on a hike.