Category: Electronics

Posted on

The Photography World is Buzzing About the Ricoh GR IV

After six years with the same sensor, Ricoh has finally announced the GR IV – and the photography community couldn’t be more excited about this pocket-sized powerhouse getting an upgrade.

What Makes the GR Series Special

If you’ve never heard of the Ricoh GR series, here’s what you need to know: these cameras pack an APS-C sensor (the same size found in many professional cameras) into a body smaller than most smartphones. The result? Professional-quality photos from a camera that actually fits in your pocket.

Unlike phone cameras that rely heavily on computational photography to enhance images, the GR series produces what many photographers call “real photos” – images with natural contrast, authentic colors, and that classic film-quality. 

I’ve used both the GR III and slightly more zoomed in GR IIIx for family portraits and street photography, and there’s something magical about the images it produces. When I compare photos from my GR to those from even the latest iPhones, the difference is immediately apparent. The GR captures authentic skin tones and natural light in ways that phone cameras, despite all their AI processing, simply can’t match.

Why the GR IV Matters

The GR III, launched in 2019, has been beloved by photographers but limited by its aging 24MP sensor, especially in low-light situations. The GR IV addresses these pain points with significant upgrades:

26MP sensor upgrade: A small jump in resolution. This will give a more flexibility for cropping – particularly useful for a fixed-lens camera.

Improved low-light performance: After six years of sensor technology advances, expect much better high-ISO performance for those dimly lit restaurants and evening street scenes. This is what I’m most excited about. The GR III is super noisy at even 6000 ISO, as one would expect from an old sensor. 

5-axis image stabilization: The GR III had 3-axis stabilization, but the additional axes should mean sharper handheld shots, especially in challenging conditions.

53GB internal storage: No more worrying about forgetting your SD card. You can shoot immediately out of the box.

Enhanced connectivity: Better WiFi and a new companion app should make transferring and sharing photos easier. 

The Reality of GR Photography

Here’s what every potential GR owner needs to understand: this isn’t a camera for every situation. You won’t be shooting sports or wildlife with it. The fixed 28mm equivalent lens (or 40mm on the x line) means you need to move your feet to compose shots.

But for street photography, travel, daily documentation, and casual portraits, the GR series is unmatched in its combination of image quality and portability. There’s something liberating about having a truly capable camera that you can slip into any pocket.

What This Means for Current GR Users

Ricoh is discontinuing the GR III in July 2025, but the GR IIIx will continue production “for the time being.” For those of us who prefer the 40mm focal length of the IIIx, this lmeans waiting for a GR IVx – which, based on Ricoh’s release pattern, probably won’t arrive until 2027 or 2028.

The Bottom Line

The GR IV represents exactly what the photography community has been waiting for: a meaningful upgrade to one of the most beloved compact camera series. In an era where phone cameras dominate casual photography, the GR series continues to prove that there’s still a place for dedicated cameras that prioritize image quality over convenience features.

For photographers who value authentic image quality, appreciate the craft of photography, and want professional results in an incredibly compact package, the GR IV can’t come soon enough.

The Ricoh GR IV is scheduled for release in Fall 2025. See Ricoh’s press release:
https://ricohgr.eu/blogs/news/22-05-2025-development-anouncement-of-ricoh-gr-iv

Posted on

Lutron Caseta Light Switches

I recently finished a Lutron Caseta light switch setup. When people ask about smart light switches, I always steer them toward Caseta. Why? As opposed to Philips Hue or other bulb solutions, Caseta has the smarts in the switch, not the bulb. This makes more sense for many reasons. First, if the tech smarts fail for some reason, the light switch is still a real light switch. Second, you can choose any bulb you’d like, with particular warmth and quality you choose. And third, in my experience Caseta is more dependable and bulletproof than other solutions.

Smart lights aren’t a necessity and many folks won’t find any utility in them. I enjoy being able to hook them up to smart speakers such as HomePod. This makes it easier to turn on and off lights if you’re running around and have your hands full. It’s also easier to set up automations for when you’re out of town. They even can be set up with sensors to automatically turn on. All of these are minor improvements though, so this is still a nice-to-have, not a critical part of your technology.

There are other switch based solutions, but Lutron is a big name that has been doing this for a while. I wholeheartedly recommend them. (Not an ad)

Posted on

Testing HDMI Cables

I recently helped set up a new house with cables including long HDMI cables that would not be easily replaceable after drywall went up. We wanted the latest HDMI 2.1 cables, which are capable of at least 40Gbps bandwidth. To do this for long cable runs, we needed expensive optical cables. Since these cables needed to work, we had to test them. To do so, we purchased a receiver that we planned to buy later anyway, the Denon AVR-X6700H.

Denon AVR-x6700h HDMI Cable Diagnostic

If you press the back button (below and left of the circle) and up cursor button (part of the circle) on this receiver, an “installer” secret menu item appears, a diagnostics mode. This can test cables and show the throughput achieved by the cable.

We’re glad that we ran those tests. Two of the cables we purchased failed the full HDMI 2.1 spec by not achieving 40Gbps:

There are a couple of tells for which cables fail in this list. First, the failing cables are 50-60% the cost of the passing cables. Second, the failing cables have the word “con” in their name.

We were able to switch out the failing cables before the drywall arrived. If you’re looking to test cables and you need a receiver, the new Denon lineup does an impressive job.

Posted on

Fax a PDF from a Mac

Faxing seems to be an ancient technology that just won’t die.  It is still embraced, often even preferred or required, by many businesses.  Most people don’t want to have to own a fax machine any more but do have to fax from time to time.  There is a modern day solution.  You can easily fax any PDF from a Mac.  And since you can convert anything in a browser to a PDF easily on a Mac, it allows you to fax almost anything you could print out.

Apple makes a USB fax modem but sadly, they’ve not maintained it so it doesn’t work on the latest Macs any more.  Fortunately, US Robotics makes a great US Robotics USB Fax Modem that is compatible with a Mac.

Once plugged into a Mac, you’ll notice you have gained a new option via the Print PDF menu.

If you’re like me and have dropped your expensive home phone service for a cheaper Voice over IP phone line, then you may have a little more work to do to actually get a fax to go through.  In the case of the popular Ooma Telo Free Home Phone Service, you have to tell the line that you are about to fax so it can optimize the connection.  This is done by prepending a *99,, to the phone number you are faxing to.