A friend of mine just got himself a Ricoh GR Digital. What a beaut the camera is. In fact he was kind enough to lend it to me so I could shoot it side by side with a playing card. As you can see, it is small. Very small indeed.

During the early days of film, 5 to 10 years BD (Before Digital) Ricoh came up with a series of very compact, very intuitive yet ultra reliable film cameras called the GR series.

The GR series became the choice for back-up and point-and-shoot by professional photographers, journalists and advanced enthusiasts who prefer total control over automation. Its outstanding performance, both in terms of razor sharp images and its "take-it-all" magnesium-alloy body, made it the secret darling in the photographic world.

Now, against the current popular zoom trend, Ricoh has resolutely stuck the GR Digital with a fixed lens. Its F2.4 fixed focal length lens is equivalent to a 28mm in film body cameras. It also has wheels in front and back for aperture and speed. Which clearly defines the niche it is trying to capture with this camera.

What is amazing about GRd is that if you put a viewfinder (for the 21mm lens converter) on top , it is reminiscent of Leica Screw Mount rangefinders with wide-angle finder from the 40s to the 60s.

In fact, the first time I held it, it felt like an analogue camera. Only when I flipped it on its back and saw the 2.5 inches wide screen that its digital nature became apparent.

This is also true with the soon-to-be introduced Panasonic DMC-L1 (in collaboration with Olympus and Leica). It has an aperture ring infront of the lens and shutter speed dial on top of the body. Just like a traditional, film camera of the by-gone era.

The most amusing thing about the digital race that's happening in photography is that the more the digital technology embraces us, the more we hold on to good old traditional ways of taking pictures.

It's like the more we are overwhelmed and confused by the ever changing wonders of the digital revolution, the more we look at the past to seek our bearing.

So don't go to Ebay and start selling those old bricks yet.

As the new cameras feel more and more like strangers, that old camera at the bottom drawer may turn out to be your last familiar friend. Click.