The original Ricoh GR was my favorite camera. It didn't have IBIS, but as you've noted, it's compact (you could carry it in your pants pocket!), and you can operate it with one hand. It has the best haptics, and gave me the best shooting experience, of any camera I've owned. Through the Ricoh GR, I developed an appreciation for the 28mm field of view, which is by far my favorite FOV for wide-angle photography.
Here's a link to my Ricoh GR album on Flickr:
https://flickr.com/photos/edrawady/albums/72157636324676163
Alas, my brand-new Ricoh GR also came with a significant piece of dust/debris on its sensor, and although the manufacturer replaced it, the replacement also soon showed dust spots on the sensor. There was discussion at DPReview over the GR's tendency to acquire dust on its sensor. For me, this was a fatal, show-stopping flaw, because there was no way to clean the sensor without resorting to a challenging, risky, disassembly of the camera, a procedure that was not authorized by the manufacturer. So I sold my GR (with full disclosure that there was dust on its sensor), and I've been reluctant to purchase another one.
If Ricoh ever produces a weather-sealed GR, then I'll seriously consider buying one.
~Ed
Old Ricoh fan with a serious soft spot for them. But from the very first GRD which was a survivor in the compact camera type probaby because it was not built down to a price and Ricoh had some serious firmware inside for serious users. At least in the later versions. I did keep my GRD and GRDIV but by the time of the GR the compact size had just become too 'less compact' for my taste and things like the really close focus capability had been sacrificed on the altar of aps-c. Furthermore the late acquired IBIS of the GRDIV also went for a while on the GR series before it was re-intoduced.
In any case after a while I wondered just how many fixed 28mm price lensed cameras I might need. The GRIII is a tad more compact than the GR was but still does not have an evf. The GRDIIIx does have another focal length and that is good.
However at the launch of the GR were I was a first cab off the rank in Australia, and I was a serious item on the Ricoh forum of dpreview, there was much talk about multiple bodies each with a different lens (then). But Ricoh's own converts had effectively rejected the very innovative GXR modular camera concept that I had endorsed with a lot of my camera-spend money. Great, but a new GXR body (camera back) with a built in evf would have been nice. It never came and Ricoh bought Pentax assets instead (and dumped the promising GXR line).
I resolved the problem personally by trying out a Panasonic GM1 (no evf either at the time) which had a body size very similar to the Ricoh GR but had the advantage of being able to choose your own lens from a very attractive smorgasbord of lens choices. Plumped for a 12/2.0 and 42.5/1.2 (24mm and 85mm in Ricoh FF fov eq terms) plus of course the quite useful little kit zoom that came with the body. The result fairly soon enough was my NZ South Island trip where I have showcase quite a few images from that trip (M4/3 forum here) all taken exclusively with the GM1 body and nine years on the GM1 and its GM5 siblings are still very capable and I have quite a few other lenses to play with.
The very first thing I learned about any GRD/GR is that you don't ever pocket that very pocketable camera body. I escaped all dust on sesnor issues until one day short of hands I did slip my GR into my pocket - errgh! a large dust bunny sure enough and you cannot just whip off the lens to deal with it. Nor can you make the seals so tight that they create vacuum inside the body - dust also can come from other places besides through the lens. Ricoh does try and limit the lens extension movement but cannot take away the collapsing lens altogether.
But I do get nostalgic moments when I see an newly marketed GR and wonder "what if" they are one of those camera types that certainly gets one's juices flowing. I did invest quite a lot of my money between GRD, GRDIV, GR, GX100, R4, R8, CX1 and a swag of GXR bodies and modules. No issues with my Ricoh pedigree.
But I just slapped a Pansonic 20/1.7 pancake on a GM1 camera body and called it close enough and I already had the bits ....
. the lens does not retract of course.
What if? .... They had kept going on the extraordinarily good idea that was the modular GXR - on the cusp of greatness and better spent their Pentax money investment instead on making the GXR system into 'supercam".
Then main issue of course is that Ricoh has a number of mount systems in its 'library' but only the Pentax Q mount is made for mirrorless bodies and the Q system seems to have been a dead end. They spent a small fortune on developing a FF dslr body (which was excellent) at the time when both Nikon and Canon were despertely looking for a way out of the dslr type.
But the GRIII and GRIIIx is tightly lauded by those that own one or both. Unfortunately I took another path and am too seriously invested in M4/3 to do any more than "I wonder if ....".
