The Ricoh GR III leans heavily into still photos shooting. If I was shooting a lot of video, it wouldn’t be my first choice of camera. But it does have some basic video capabilities.
So if you’re shooting video with the Ricoh GR III, even only occasionally, here’s a rundown of what they are and how to use them.
I’ve been shooting with the Ricoh GR III since it was released in 2018. You can see some of the photos I’ve taken with it in these posts:
– Ricoh GR III Sample Images (a general collection of photos taken under various conditions)
– Ricoh GR III High ISO Sample Images (focusing on photos taken at high ISOs in low lighting)
– Ricoh GR III ISO Range Sample Images (sequence of images taken throughout the ISO range for comparing image quality at different ISOs)
– How to Shoot Macro Close-up Photos with the Ricoh GR III (specifically on using the GR III’s macro feature)
Resolutions, framerates & bitrates
The only video resolution available on the GR III is 1080p. Sometimes called Full HD, the screen size of 1080p measures 1920 pixels across and 1080 pixels tall.
There’s only a limited number of framerates available:
- 60 fps
- 30 fps
- 24 fps1
To change the framerate, go to:
Movie Settings > [5] Movie Capture Settings > FramerateThe default setting is 60 fps.
The encoding bitrate at 60fps is around 44 Mbps, which is not particularly high. It uses variable encoding, so it can deviate a little depending on the scene.
Video format
The GR II uses the MPEG4 AVC/H.264 (MOV) file format.
Recording limit
There’s a recording duration limit of 25 minutes. That creates a file that’s a little under 4GB in size. So it’s compatible with SDHC cards.2 Once the video reaches that, it’ll stop recording. You can start again right away (so long as the camera isn’t overheating — see below).
Overheating protection
Saving high-resolution video can cause the camera to get quite warm. The GR III has built-in protection against overheating. If it gets too hot, it’ll stop recording. You’ll need to wait for it to cool down before resuming.
NTSC / PAL
Only NTSC is available on the GR III. That’s reflected in the available framerates (60 and 30). (24fps is traditionally known as a film framerate and doesn’t fall within the NTSC / PAL specifications.)
Sound
There’s a built-in stereo microphone. There are small holes for the sound on each side of the top portion of the lens (on the camera body, next to the lens).
There’s no input port for an external microphone, and I’m not aware of any compatibility with USB-connector external microphones.
How to shoot video with the Ricoh GR III
The first time I tried shooting video with the GR III, it took me a while to figure out how to do it. And this was after I’d owned and used the GR III for quite some time (but had only been shooting still images).
It’s not complicated, but it’s also not quite the same as with other cameras (a recurring theme with Ricoh cameras). There’s no red record button on top or a video mode dial switch. Instead, there’s a button to switch the camera into video-shooting mode. And it’s not necessarily where’d you think to look. It’s on the side of the camera and doubles as the wifi button. In the manual, it’s called the Movie/Wireless Button.
So what you do is press that button that has a video camera icon on it. That puts the camera into video mode. Now, when you press the shutter button, it will work as a record start/stop button.
To go back to still image shooting, just press that button on the side of the camera again.
It’s also possible to assign a different button to switch between photo and movie modes. You could, for example, use the Fn button.
To do that, go to:
Customize Settings > [2[ Customize Controls > Fn Button SettingYou can find more information about customizing buttons on the GR III here as well as a master list of the default settings here.
HDMI
The Ricoh GR III does not have an HDMI-out port. It does have a USB-C port, and that supports the DisplayPort protocol. Which means you can get a live video feed out of the camera. So you can connect the GR III directly to a TV, computer monitor (with HDMI input), or even use the GR III as a webcam in combination with an HDMI capture device.
If you’re looking to output to a device that uses HDMI, the manual says to use a “USB (Type-C)-to-HDMI adapter. Some adapters cannot be used with this camera.” But it doesn’t explain which adapters do and don’t work.
But I’ve found and been using a simple combination that works well for me. I’ve written more about it separately.
Things worth knowing
The camera can get quite hot when recording video. If it gets too hot, a safety mechanism will kick in and shut down the camera.
Notes & References:
- More precisely, they’re 23.976, 29.97, and 59.94 frames per second. It’s a quirk of video framerates/refresh rates that’s well beyond the scope of this post, but you can find more about it here. [↩︎]
- SDHC cards use the FAT32 filesystem. The largest file size that FAT32 supports is 4GB. It’s the reason that some other cameras break their videos up into segments (or chapters). [↩︎]
