The Nisi Master kit for the Ricoh GRIII

I'd read about Nisi filter kits for the Ricoh GR cameras a few years back, but had been put off by stories of the filter holder dropping off when the lens was retracted (which is quite often in my experience) - the other day I discovered that Nisi offer a filter holder that uses the same fitting as the lens ring cap so is not impacted when the lens retracts, so I purchased the Master kit (that this holder includes) - the ring that fits onto the camera has a 49mm filter thread so theoretically any 49mm filter can be used, but I wanted to try the ND Grad that comes in the kit. The full kit consists of a Ricoh GR3 Filter Holder, Adaptor Ricoh GR3, 3 Stop Medium GND (0.9), 3 Stop Soft GND (0.9), ND8 (0.9) 3 Stop, ND64 (1. 6 Stop. HD Polariser and a Pouch.

On a fairly greyish day I popped out for a leg stretch to try out the ND grad....










I found the filter kit easy to use and if you're prepared to keep the filter holder on the camera (you'll probably need to use a small camera bag - I used the Billingham Hadley Small Pro) it's a useful addition. I'm not fully confident in the mounting for the holder (this is a Ricoh issue IMO, as the same is true for the interchangeable lens ring) so you need to be a little cautious when turning the filter holder form portrait to landscape.

Hope that's of use to someone

Really useful, thank you, John. As for the images, as usual with your ability to 'see' not just 'look', first rate. Lovely work there, brooding, dark but, as always, the mono really works for me.

Thanks for this. very interesting and nice shots. Any idea if this will fit the original Ricoh GR APS-C please?

Thanks Kevin, there was little point trying to capture the scene naturally - it was quite gloomy (even with the odd shaft of sunlight) so I went to town over-emphasising the filter effect and under-exposing quite a bit

I'm fairly certain that this kit only officially fits the GRIII (there is a separate version for the GRIIIX) but I have seen references to it being suitable for the GRII but nothing before that. Sorry I can't be definitive

Out of idle curiosity (I don't have a GR of any sort) I looked at the Nisi website. It says "The NiSi Compact Cameras System Master Kit is compatible with Ricoh GR3 and not with the GR2 and GR.". That sounds pretty definitive.

Now, although I don't have a GR, I do have a couple of Q series cameras. So... could the filter holder be fitted to a Q lens (40.5mm thread) via an adapter?

Steve

There are some loose descriptions of the Nisi kit being compatible with the GRII, but not on any official Nisi site so I would tend to agree - If the lens ring mounting is the same then they should be compatible but I've got a feeling there is a slight difference!

On the question of using the filter kit on a 40.5mm filter end then I assume a step up (or is it step down) ring of 49mm would be what you need

p.s. If you search on the other forum there is a post "Nisi P1 square filter system for Use on a Pentax Q" that might help!

I have both the GR and the GR3X. I have just tried to swap lens rings but they are not interchangeable.

Thank you for checking.

Well, seeing a used GR3 kit at a decent price on the usual auction site, I took the plunge. A step up ring arrived a couple of days ago, the filter kit arrived this afternoon. A very quick check with the Q-S1 confirmed that the filter holder fits OK on Q lenses via the step up ring. There's definitely vignetting at the short end of the 02 lens but that seems to go when you zoom in a bit. And all seems to be well with the 01 zoom. Weather and life makes a full assessment a bit tricky at the moment. But first thoughts are that this is something I wish I'd had years ago...

Steve

Glad it seems to work on the little Pentax Steve, look forward to seeing some images once you get the opportunity

I'll probably buy the Natural Night filter once I have some funds in the Paypal account, after the ND Grads and polariser I think it will be a handy addition to the kit