Sales Charts Show the Ricoh GR IV Is Picking Up Where the GR III Left Off
The highly anticipated Ricoh GR IV premium compact camera finally arrived on store shelves in Japan last month and it made what Japanese retailer Map Camera calls a “spectacular debut,” landing squarely in first place on the retailer’s September sales charts.
Top-selling camera lists from Japanese photo retailers provide one of the best metrics for measuring a camera’s retail success. While Map Camera’s sales data, reported by Digicame-Info, offers a relatively small sample size and only includes data from its Japanese retail operations, the data typically reflects broader consumer behavior patterns, and is well worth looking at when trying to better understand what photographers are most excited about. In September, shutterbugs were enthralled by the Ricoh GR IV.
It’s not surprising that the GR IV is a smash hit, as not only are all versions of the Ricoh GR III still very popular at various retailers, even many years after their launch, but the GR IV is fantastic. In PetaPixel‘s Ricoh GR IV Review, Chris Niccolls called it a “successor worth waiting for.”
“Ricoh knows that the GR cameras are its hallmark product and have done a great job at tackling the issues that customers have voiced about the current product line,” Niccolls writes. “Almost every aspect of the GR IV is improved, with meaningful image quality bumps, and faster focusing and operation all around.”
The camera easily earned the PetaPixel‘s Editors’ Choice Award and comes highly recommended, even with its higher $1,500 price point.
The higher price did little to scare off prospective customers in Japan, either. Map Camera says its initial preorders sold out almost immediately in late August, and the company cannot accept new ones until Ricoh can make more GR IV cameras. The retailer is already worried it will follow similar patterns with the GR III, meaning that demand far outstrips supply, potentially even for years. American photographers can still purchase the GR IV, including from B&H. It is not currently in stock at B&H, however, and orders are fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Ricoh GR IV comes equipped with an updated 28mm equivalent f/2.8 GR lens, and there is currently no GR IVx with a longer lens. So, the Ricoh GR IIIx, with its longer built-in lens, remains popular and landed at fourth place on Map Camera’s best-selling new cameras list.
The rest of the list is quite interesting, running the gamut from relatively affordable interchangeable lens cameras like the Fujifilm X-M5 and X-E5 models in second and third positions, to the Hasselblad X2D II 100C medium-format camera in eighth place. As PetaPixel has previously reported, the X2D II 100C is having unprecedented commercial success in Japan following its recent launch.
The Canon EOS R6 Mark II landed in fifth, while Sony’s a7C II and a7 IV followed in sixth and seventh. Canon made the list again with the EOS R5 Mark II in ninth, while Nikon’s Zf rounded out the top 10.
Map Camera also shares the 10 best-selling used cameras of September in its complete rundown, and lo and behold, Ricoh makes that list, too. The GR III was the third best-selling used camera last month, while the GR IIIx was fifth.
Image credits: Ricoh Imaging. Elements of the header photo were licensed via Depositphotos.
