Ricoh unveils GR IV Monochrome, a compact camera made for black-and-white photography

In an age of AI-enhanced cameras that can crop, colorize and clean up almost anything after the fact, Ricoh took the opposite route: it built a compact camera that refuses color entirely. The GR IV Monochrome is the first model in Ricoh’s high-end GR compact digital camera series designed specifically for black-and-white photography, and the company has positioned it as a direct extension of the GR line’s long-running focus on image quality, quick response and portability. It is based on the GR IV Ricoh released in September 2025, and it is set for a spring 2026 launch.

The camera centers on a dedicated monochrome APS-C CMOS sensor with about 25.74 megapixels, paired with a fixed 18.3mm lens, equivalent to 28mm in full-frame terms, with an aperture range of F2.8 to F16. Ricoh says removing the color filter and interpolation process allows the camera to better realize the lens’s capabilities and produce richer tonal gradation and more refined rendering. The GR IV Monochrome also includes sensor-shift shake reduction, a built-in red filter for stronger contrast effects, and a monochrome image-control system specialized for black-and-white photography.

Ricoh anchored the launch in the history of a compact camera family that goes back nearly 30 years to the GR1 film camera, released in 1996, and exactly 20 years to the GR DIGITAL, which arrived on October 21, 2005. The company officially announced development of the GR IV Monochrome in January 2026 after first flagging it in October 2025. It lists the price at $2,199.95 and says the launch will include regional language support in English, Spanish and French. In the United States, that price puts it squarely in premium territory for a pocketable fixed-lens camera.

That pricing also explains why the GR IV Monochrome has been framed as an ultra-niche tool rather than a mass-market model. DPReview described it as a smaller audience product and noted that it carries a 46% premium over the standard GR IV list price. PetaPixel argued that the appeal is not versatility but commitment, especially for street and travel photographers who want a black-and-white-only workflow in a camera they can keep with them at all times. The GR IV Monochrome sits alongside monochrome-focused models such as Leica’s Q3 Monochrom, but at a far lower price than Leica’s full-frame version. For photographers who value discipline over convenience, Ricoh has made austerity the point.