RICOH GR 21mm →RICOH GR21

A review and photo examples of the Ricoh GR 21mm Leica L39 screw mount.

Gallery
Review
Specification
Reference links

Gallery

The following cameras were used to take the example photographs:
- LEICA M8
- HEXAR-RF-LIMITED +FUJIFILM PROVIA400F

Review

Overview
Usability
Summary

1．Overview

The GR 21mm is one of the lenses released by RICOH for the Leica L39 screw mount, and was sold experimentally in the L39 mount as a preliminary step to the release of the GR 21mm film camera.

This lens has the same lens configuration as the film GR 21mm, but its apparent size is quite different.
The lens barrel of the film camera GR21 is very compact, and it does not look like it contains the same lens.
The lens of the L39 screw mount version is larger because it has a focus ring for manual focus, an aperture ring, and a Leica L/M rangefinder linkage function.

If the lens is complete, it comes with a square hood, a 21mm viewfinder, and a focus lever.
The lens has a large finger grip, so adding a focus lever has almost no effect on operability, so if it is sold alone, it is often missing, and if it is in a dead stock box, it is likely to be in the box unused.

2．Usability

The GR 21mm is a compact 21mm wide-angle rangefinder lens that is well-balanced on any camera.

When used with a 35mm full-frame camera, there is severe peripheral light falloff.

When used with the LEICA M8, the unique peripheral area is cut off, resulting in an image similar to that of a normal lens. The lens is highly refined, with high resolution in the center and little distortion. I used it about five years after it was released, so the lens was solid, the helicoid was smooth, and the aperture ring was easy to operate, with a click.

For a 21mm wide-angle lens, both film and digital, the bokeh is smooth in the fore and aft, and it is a lens that can obtain flawless images at any shooting distance. However, there is no stickiness in the highlights and the gradation is blown out quite quickly, so you need to be careful with the exposure.

I feel that if you have a camera equipped with the latest sensor in the 2020s, the dynamic range expansion would be a great help. However, the resolution of the sensor is high, so there is a concern that the roughness of the lens will be visible.

The lens is only F3.5 bright even when the aperture is wide open, but if you use ISO400 film, you can take decent night scenes. Although it is out of production as of 2024, ISO400 reversal film was sold in the 2000s, so I sometimes used this lens.

The GR 21mm will also be in the antique category in the 2020s, more than 20 years after its manufacture, and there are many units with problems with basic parts of the lens, such as cloudy lenses, balsam peeling, and loose lens barrels. A conscientious used camera shop should state this. Be careful in private transactions such as auctions where items are labeled as junk or no claims. I don’t know the actual transaction price, but the price on the store tag is aggressive and scary.

3．Summary

I liked the GR21 because it had a unique image quality among the L39 mount lenses.
I ended up selling it because it had the same function as the cheaper Voigtlander Color Skoper 21mm and the CONTAX G 21mm L mount modified lens. As mentioned above, it is an old lens, so I don’t plan on getting it again and using it.

Specification and Competitor

Comparing the GR 21mm and GR 28mm, the GR 21mm is slightly larger. This difference is the reason why the lens of the GR21 protrudes when used as a compact camera.

Items	GR 21mm	GR 28mm
Focal length(mm)	21	28
Max aperture	3.5	2.8
Min aperture	22	16
Leaf blade	10	←
Lens Construction	9elements in 6groups	7elements in 4groups
Min distance(m)	0.5	0.7
Lens length(mm)	25.5	23	Distance from L-mount surface
Max diameter(mm)	49.5	49.5	Excluding focus knob
Filter Size(mm)	40.5	40.5
Weight(g)	200	180	Taken from the reference link
Production numbers	1700 (Black: 700) (Silver: 1000)	3000 (Black: 1000) (Silver: 2000)
Release date	1999	1997
Price(Yen/No-tax)	115,000- I think it was, but no source.	98,000-