I’m very exciting to announce a new project that I’ve been secretly working on for the last several months: Ritchie’s Ricoh Recipes! This is similar to Fuji X Weekly film simulation recipes, except for Ricoh GR cameras. Obviously, Ricoh and Fujifilm cameras are much different, so the recipes are much different, too; however, I’m very pleased with how these turned out. If you own a Ricoh GR, GR II, or GR III camera, you’ll want to check it out!
Why Ricoh GR? I often get requests to make recipes for other camera brands, but the top asked-for brand is Ricoh. At first this might seem strange, since Canon, Sony, and Nikon (and probably a few other brands, too) are much more popular than Ricoh, but there are three factors that make this seemingly unlikely camera a popular request. First, a surprisingly large number of Fujifilm photographers also own a Ricoh GR camera. Why? Because Fujifilm and Ricoh are both popular options for street, travel, and documentary photography, and Fujifilm doesn’t offer a great alternative to the GR (the X70 has long been discontinued, and the XF10 was a little underwhelming). Second, Ricoh GR photographers are more open to using straight-out-of-camera JPEGs due to the camera’s film heritage and the film-like experience of shooting JPEGs. Third, Ricoh has included many useful and creative JPEG options on the GR cameras—it’s easier to create recipes that you’d actually want to use than with some other brands.
I don’t know the percentage of Fujifilm photographers who also use a Ricoh GR, but it has to be a fairly significant number based on the requests that I’ve received. Many of the messages are to the effect of, “I love using your recipes on my X-Pro2, and I’d really like to do something similar on my Ricoh GR III.” While this project is for a different camera brand, I’m hoping that it is largely for the benefit of the Fujifilm community. I believe that many in this audience will find it a useful resource.
Ricoh Recipes are different than my Fujifilm Recipes, not only in how they look but in how they’re organized. Choose either GR/GR II or GR III. Within each camera category are four recipe Collections. Within each Collection are five recipes. In other words, there are 40 recipes, 20 for the GR/GR II and 20 for the GR III.
A Ricoh Recipes App (similar to the Fuji X Weekly App) is in the works for both iOS and Android, and should be available before the end of the month. With any luck, it could be available as early as the middle of September. On the app, for Ricoh Recipe Patrons, will be eight bonus recipes (one for each Collection). Be sure to check out Ritchie’s Ricoh Recipes Blog. Follow me on Instagram, too! Please be patient with the website (and app), as it is all still very much a work-in-progress, and far from finished.
I’ve been trying really hard to prevent this new project from interfering with Fuji X Weekly. I have a whole bunch of upcoming things for this website, which I think you’ll appreciate. There are many film simulation recipes in the works. If you don’t own a Ricoh GR camera, don’t worry, there’s a lot of great things happening for Fujifilm, so stay tuned. If you do own a Ricoh GR camera, I hope that you enjoy trying these new recipes for your camera!
This is awesome I hope the Ricoh users will enjoy the same fun shooting experience we’ve been having using the Fujifilm recipes on here.
I appreciate your enthusiasm and kindness!
Wow, this is wonderful and unexpected! I don’t know how you still find time to sleep! 😀
Lol! Sometimes I wonder that myself!
Hi Ritchie, this is awesome. Do you plan something like this for Nikon Z cameras?
I appreciate your kindness! I have thought about it. Do you think I should?
I’ll have to dig in here. I don’t have a Ricoh GR, I have a Ricoh-Pentax KP, and probably a lot of the settings seem like they’ll be applicable.
It’s definitely not intended to work on the KP, but if there is some crossover that is a very happy accident. Let me know!
On a KP, the only things that seem different between a KP and a GR iii seem to be Effect and Shading. Also the scale on WB adjustments–KP only goes to +/- 7, but the same B/G/A/M, with the same categories. So I have the same Hue/Saturation, the three Contrast options, the same Highlight/Shadow/Noise options, as well as Clarity.
Effect I can somewhat replace with the “Custom Image,” but it uses some different categories (my Kodak Slide has to use “vibrant” instead of “vivid” so I’m not sure if it’s exactly the same). Cross Processing works really differently. There’s mostly only just one B&W category, but at least it has all the color filter simulations (including a nifty IR-style one). Most notably, there’s no Positive Film, so that axes a lot of these recipes off the bat.
I guess there’s another difference. Digital Filters (which I’d need to use for high-contrast BW or Vintage) are mutually exclusive with Clarity. I either have to skip the filter or leave Clarity at 0.
There does seem to be a lot of overlap (I mean, same company and similar era of camera), and a lot of what I’ve played with has looked pretty good. I think KodaKolor is my favorite so far.
Thanks so much for this input! It’s incredibly helpful! Much appreciated!
Oh man congrats! I’ve been loving all the recipes you’ve been putting out and this is no different! Though I do have a question, if I’m already a patron for the Fuji simulations, would I need another subscription for the Ricoh?
Unfortunately, the Fuji X Weekly App and the Ricoh Recipes app are completely disconnected, and everything is completely anonymous. I appreciate your kindness and support!
Awesome Sauce!
Thank you so much and I’m looking forward to your app as well,In conjunction with Fuji X series is what I appreciate the most,no longer an either or situation for me!
Cheers
I appreciate your kindness and enthusiasm! It’s great encouragement to me!
I really appreciate this! I have a x100v now but I think it’s just too expensive for me. I was looking for recipes for the Ricoh, and of course you have an app for this. I might sell my x100v and just get the ricoh griiiX.
The Ricoh GR’s are great because they’re so compact, you can shove one in a pocket and carry everywhere. I don’t like the experience as much as Fujifilm, but, as the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with you when you need a camera.