Est. 1936 · Tokyo, Japan · 6 lenses
Ricoh's origins trace to February 1936, when Riken Kankoshi Co., Ltd. was spun off from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Rikagaku Kenkyūsho — abbreviated RIKEN, which gave Ricoh its name) to manufacture sensitized paper for blueprints and engineering drawings. Camera-related work began the following year, and after renaming to Riken Optical Co., Ltd. in 1938 the company started developing its own cameras and lenses. Through the mid-twentieth century, Ricoh produced a long line of affordable consumer cameras — most notably the Ricohflex III TLR (1950), whose mass-market price helped spark Japan's postwar camera boom and was for several years Japan's best-selling camera. The K-mount Ricoh XR-7 and XR-P SLRs of the 1980s used the Pentax K bayonet under license and shipped with Rikenon-branded lenses (the XR Rikenon 50 mm f/2 'Pancake' is a small cult classic for its sharpness-to-cost ratio).
Ricoh's photographic-optical identity transformed with the GR series. The original Ricoh GR1 (1996) paired a high-performance 28 mm f/2.8 lens (a seven-element retrofocus design) with a compact titanium body, targeting serious photographers who wanted optical quality without bulk. The GR lens formula — a wide-angle design optimized for edge-to-edge sharpness, low distortion, and close-focus performance — became the defining characteristic of the line. The film-era GR1 was followed by the GR1s (1998), the wider-angle GR21 (1998, with a 21 mm f/3.5 super-wide), and the final film GR1v (2001).
The digital GR Digital (2005), with an 8.1-megapixel 1/1.8″ CCD behind a 5.9 mm f/2.4 GR lens (28 mm equivalent), translated the GR philosophy into the small-sensor digital era; subsequent GR Digital II / III / IV (2007–2011) refined the small-sensor design. Ricoh also experimented with the unusual GXR system (2009), in which the sensor and lens were packaged together in a single interchangeable cartridge that slid into a shared body — a one-off architecture that did not survive into a successor product.
Ricoh acquired Pentax from Hoya in October 2011, consolidating its imaging division as Ricoh Imaging Company, Ltd. The APS-C GR (2013) — a 16.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor behind an 18.3 mm f/2.8 GR lens (28 mm equivalent) — was a clean reset of the line at the larger sensor format, and the subsequent GR II (2015), GR III (2018), GR IIIx (2021, with a 26.1 mm f/2.8 / 40 mm-equivalent variant), and GR IV (2025) continued the formula. The GR IV carries a redesigned 18.3 mm f/2.8 lens and a new 25.74-megapixel sensor, delivering resolving power that rivals many interchangeable lenses.
Notable designs: GR 28mm f/2.8, GR III 18.3mm f/2.8, GR IIIx 26.1mm f/2.8, GR IV 18.3mm f/2.8