Snap shot: Despite photography's scope for creative flair, camera makers generally shy away from doing things different. Ricoh, however, has bucked the trend with its new GXR digital camera. The GXR is intended to compete with the so-called micro four-thirds cameras from Olympus and Panasonic as cameras that mix small size with interchangeable lenses. The shock value is in how Ricoh shrinks its camera. Instead of changing lenses, the GXR employs a slide-in mount system to switch lens, sensor and image-processing engine all in one unit. Ricoh claims the radical concept amounts to the smallest interchangeable-lens camera in existence. The greater benefit is the potential for photographers to tailor their cameras to match their needs. Ricoh is starting its new system with a pair of units. The A12 consists of a 50-mm F2.5 macro lens with a 12.3-megapixel CMOS sensor. It can do HD video with a resolution of 1230 × 720 P, has a burst speed of 4 frames per second and weighs 263 grams. The other unit is the S10 with a 24-72-mm F 2.5-4.4 VC lens and 10-megapixel CCD sensor. It can shoot VGA video at a resolution of 630 × 480 P, has a burst speed of 5 frames per second.

Assembled, the GXR looks like a normal compact camera. Stripped of its lens unit it appears unchanged, except for the gaping squarish gap that dominates the front left and center of the camera's face, awaiting a unit. Thus reduced, the body, including its 3-inch LCD screen, weighs just 160 grams. Augmenting the deal is an optional optical viewfinder, a feature in keeping with its micro four-thirds rivals. Ricoh also offers wide- and tele-conversion lenses to use with the S10 unit. The GXR will cost ¥49,800 as a body only with the macro A12 unit to set buyers back a hefty ¥74,800 when the pair come on the market next month. No word yet on the pricing for the S10, which will go on sale at the same time as the others.

Ricoh is taking the ability of digital cameras to marry flexibility in lenses with variations in ISO and other photographic attributes to a logical end that is most surprising in being so unusual. It makes the innovation of the micro four-thirds system seem positively mundane by comparison. www.ricoh.co.jp/release/