Recently Olympus and Panasonic were in the news mostly because of their high end micro four-third cameras. Today we give you a first look at the upcoming Ricoh GXR, which takes the idea of interchangeable lenses a little further.

“GXR is a new camera system that consists of a body and camera units. Each camera unit contains a lens (focal lengths differ between units), an image sensor of optimum type and size for the unit, and an image processing engine. By changing units, the photographer can handle a diverse range of scenes in a way that satisfies sophisticated requirements for photo expression. The slide mechanism adopted for attaching and removing camera units enables changes to be made quickly and securely.”

Whether or not the system will be interesting upon release, depends on how quickly Ricoh is able to fill the needs of photographers with a line-up of lense systems. But the idea is certainly interesting and different from the approach of other brands on the market.

Some more images and a video of the Ricoh GXR follow after the jump.

A follow up to last years GX100, Ricoh’s GX200 offers a combination of portability and manual controls. Key features include 3x zoom, sensor based image stabilization and a 2.7 inch monitor. Additional lenses are available as well. 
Tested Reviews harirrs a comprehensive rundown of the camera and its full capabilities.