Japanese electronics company Ricoh will collaborate with smartphone maker Realme on the camera in future mobile devices, starting with the anticipated Realme GT 8 Pro.
The partnership has been four years in the making, a point emphasized in a post made by Realme to social network X, indicating it will be more than a collection of filters and some co-branding efforts.
Here are six things you need to know about this interesting partnership.
An unusual collaboration
The smartphone world is no stranger to camera collaborations, with Leica working with both Huawei and Xiaomi, Hasselblad with OnePlus and Oppo, and Sony with Ericsson being prime examples of brands successfully working together.
Ricoh perhaps isn’t as well-known for its cameras as some of the names on this list, likely due to the company also making a wide range of other electronic equipment, from photocopiers to projectors.
However, it has made both film and digital compact cameras for decades, and became even better known for them when it acquired camera maker Pentax in 2011. It subsequently launched the Ricoh Imaging Company in 2013.
What does Realme say about the partnership?
How will the partnership with Ricoh change Realme’s cameras? Realme has worked with the Ricoh GT research and development team on the camera.
Ricoh’s GT series is a popular range of digital cameras known for its image quality, small size, and ease of use, quickly winning the hearts of travelers and street photography fans. The Ricoh GR camera will play a big part in creating the Ricoh and Realme camera experience. According to the company, the GT 8 Pro will:
Offer an unprecedented imaging experience, achieving groundbreaking innovations in optical capabilities, color algorithms, imaging tones, and a tailor-made UI design that mimics the feel of a Ricoh GR camera.
What’s Ricoh’s part in the collaboration?
The good news is Ricoh is doing more than just lending its name to Realme for the GT 8 Pro and, we presume, future devices too. In its own press release on the collaboration, it gives a brief overview of the technical side of the partnership:
The development teams of Realme and Ricoh Imaging have conducted customizations and performance evaluations, including real-life shooting tests, for each of the elements — lens, image processing and user interface — to meet the standards established by the Ricoh GR engineer using the actual smartphone samples.
Ricoh has high expectations for the camera too, adding:
This collaboration aims to offer those who have enjoyed picture-taking solely using smartphones the opportunity to experience the authenticity of photography, to help them appreciate the appeal and value of photography as both a hobby and a means of artistic expression, and to further encourage them to develop a deeper interest in cameras themselves. By allowing more people to experience some of shooting functions and imaging performance suited to street photography that have been cultivated by Ricoh Imaging in its “Ricoh GR” series, both companies hope to promote the joy of street photography and the culture of discovering subjects in everyday life from diverse perspectives.
It’s all about street photography?
It’s clear from the wording in the press releases, and the use of the Ricoh GR series of cameras, that street photography will be a major part of the Realme GT 8 Pro’s camera experience.
Ricoh Imaging Company’s general manager Kazunobu Saiki explained the collaboration isn’t only about product innovation, but “inspiring a new generation to enjoy street photography and discover the beauty of everyday life.”
Realme’s vice president Chase Xu also hints at a more raw camera experience too, saying it’ll be the antidote to cameras that all take the same type of photos, and allow people to “show their own style, instead of copying the same look.”
When will the first Realme/Ricoh phone launch?
The first phone to demonstrate the partnership with Ricoh will be the Realme GT 8 Pro, which is set to launch on October 14, according to the company.
It’s not just the camera that will make the GT 8 Pro stand out, because the very unusual camera module design looks set to split opinion too.
A leaked image, which matched a teaser image from the brand, was published on the Digital Chat Station Weibo account. It shows a square module with a pair of circular lenses above a square lens. A pair of “ears” either side of the module make it look a bit like a robot’s face, and it’s very odd indeed.
Realme has teased the phone will have a 200MP telephoto camera and a screen with a 2K resolution. It’s also highly likely the GT 8 Pro will use the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor.
Interesting timing
It’s an interesting time for both smartphone cameras and for Realme as a brand. Realme and Ricoh’s announcement comes soon after OnePlus confirmed it will not continue working with Hasselblad, but will launch its own imaging brand called DetailMax for the OnePlus 15.
Oppo, which works with OnePlus on research and development, will continue its partnership with Hasselblad. We’re keen to see how OnePlus’s camera develops without Hasselblad’s involvement, a team-up which never quite reached the heights demonstrated by Leica with both Huawei and Xiaomi.
The Realme brand is intertwined with OnePlus and Oppo, due to once sharing the same parent company, BBK Electronics. All three operate independently today. Realme began by selling its devices in China before briefly expanding globally. After a break of a few years, it has recently returned to certain regions outside China.
Unfortunately, Realme does not sell its smartphones in the U.S., but a U.K. and European launch for the GT 8 Pro is possible.
