I've always loved watching content about street photography, but I never had the chance to try it myself. I live in the countryside and tend to avoid big cities. But when I bought plane tickets to Tokyo, I thought it would be the perfect time to get my first compact camera. I hesitated a lot between the X100VI and the Ricoh GR III, and I finally chose the Ricoh GR IIIx HDF for its compact size and discretion.

For the first few days, I tried to take only artistic photos. I was happy with them, but when I looked at them later, I realized I wouldn’t have any real memories of Tokyo. So, after three days, I started trying to take more “reportage-style” photos while still keeping an artistic touch. Of course, I also took real souvenir photos, but they’re not interesting enough to share here.

Almost all the photos were taken with the HDF (mist) mode, which I love. I never needed an ND filter, so thankfully, I made the right choice. There’s no post-processing except for cropping. However, I used Reggie’s Portra recipe for Ricoh, which is very versatile. I love the look, except maybe for the reds, which sometimes turn too orange.

What I learned from these 10 days:

A neck strap is a must-have! I would have missed so many shots if I had kept the Ricoh in my sling bag, as I originally planned. A wrist strap would have made my fingers too tired as well.

I made the right choice with this Ricoh. I can’t imagine carrying a camera over 300g around my neck for 12 hours. The fact that it fits in my pocket is also a game-changer (for example when it rains or in restaurants)

The snapshot function is way more useful than I expected—I used it for half of my photos. That said, I’d still prefer having good autofocus. Can’t wait for the GR IV!

I thought I didn’t like big cities, but this trip made me realize that it’s actually the people in big cities in my country (France) that I don’t like. Same for public transportation.

I've already planned to return to Japan next year to visit other big cities as well as the countryside!

My first days with a Ricoh