Unfortunately, neither are touchscreens, which is a shame as this can really speed up setting the autofocus point, or for swiping through playback images.
Ricoh GR vs Nikon Coolpix A: creativity
Nikon has kept it pretty simple when it comes to the ability to change settings on the A. While you can change the Picture Styles to shoot in monochrome (or sepia, cyanotype etc), other "creative" type effects are not available.
Meanwhile, Ricoh has added quite a few fun filters to its offering, making it more akin to the Fuji X100S. Available here, amongst others, are black and white, cross process, bleach bypass and positive film. The Ricoh allows you to shoot in both raw format and JPEG while using these filters, which is good news if you want a clean image to work with down the line.
Ricoh GR vs Nikon Coolpix A: battery life
It may seem like a trivial point - and we're yet to fully test this - but the GR claims around 60 more shots per battery charge than the Coolpix A.
We were reasonably impressed by the Coolpix A's battery life in our real-world tests, and we'll be keen to see how the GR compares. We've been disappointed by the large sensored (full frame) Sony RX1 battery life before, especially as the camera's ability to last a decent length of time is very important for the street/every-day photographer.
Handily for any GR-IV users, the GR uses the same battery.
Ricoh GR vs Nikon Coolpix A: dimensions and weight
Ricoh is billing the GR as the world's smallest and lightest compact camera with an APS-C sized sensor - not that there are too many of those around for it to compete with.
The published measurements indicate that the GR is slightly smaller than the A, measuring in at 117 x 61 x 34.7mm, compared with 111 x 64.3 x 40.3mm. It's also around 50g lighter than the Coolpix A.
Any users of the GR IV will no doubt be impressed by the relative lack in increasing size, despite the massive increase in sensor size.
Ricoh GR vs Nikon Coolpix A: price
One of the key selling points of the Ricoh GR is that it's significantly cheaper than the Coolpix A. While that's true for recommended retail price (£999 vs £599), in the few weeks since the A's launch, its street price has already dropped to around £800. Whether it will drop further remains to be seen, but with new competition on the market it would seem likely.
Ricoh GR vs Nikon Coolpix A: conclusion
While on paper there seems relatively little to distinguish the Nikon Coolpix A and the Ricoh GR, it seems at this stage that the Ricoh outshines the Nikon in several respects.
Although it's difficult to draw strong conclusions until we've had a GR for a full review, it seems that the added bonus of an inbuilt ND filter, higher resolution screen, creative filters, smaller size and weight and of course lower price, make it the better buy.
However, it all rests on how the GR performs both in our labs tests and in real world conditions - we'll be particularly keen to measure the GR's writing times and see how it handles vignetting. Watch this space for a full review soon.
