Realme Teams Up with Ricoh: The GT 8 Pro Kicks Off a New Era in Smartphone Photography
Realme has been making waves in the smartphone world, but now it’s aiming even higher — teaming up with legendary camera brand Ricoh. Just a month after announcing their partnership, the two have already dropped their first joint creation: the Realme GT 8 Pro. And according to both companies, this is only the start of a four-year journey into the future of smartphone photography.
A Legendary Camera Brand Meets a Rising Tech Star
If you know anything about street photography, you’ve probably heard of the Ricoh GR. It’s a cult favorite among photographers like Daido Moriyama, famous for its compact design and cinematic tones. The GR series started as a film camera line, then went digital — and now, for the first time ever, it’s making the leap onto a smartphone.
Realme clearly wants the GT 8 Pro to be the ultimate street photography phone, and the camera setup speaks for itself. The main sensor is a 50MP 1/1.56” unit with an f/1.8 7P lens and five layers of anti-reflective coating.
But the real charm lies in the Ricoh GR Mode. It gives you access to five film-style looks — Positive Film, Negative Film, High-Contrast B&W, Standard, and Monotone — all inspired by the GR cameras. You can tweak the tones however you like and even add a GR-style watermark to make your shots feel authentic.
Oh, and for street shooters, there are built-in options to shoot at 28mm and 40mm focal lengths — the exact classics used in GR cameras.
Zoom, Portraits, and Landscapes — It’s Got It All
Realme didn’t stop at one good camera. The 200MP telephoto lens also comes with a 1/1.56” sensor and 65mm focal length, offering 3x optical, 6x lossless, and 12x digital zoom. It’s perfect for both portraits and capturing faraway scenes — whether that’s your friend across the street or players on the other side of a stadium.
And for landscape lovers, there’s a big upgrade too. The ultra-wide camera now uses a 50MP sensor with a 116° f/2.0 lens, replacing the older 8MP 112° f/2.2 one from the GT7 Pro. The result? Sharper, wider, and more vibrant outdoor shots.
Pro Video Power Under the Hood
The GT 8 Pro isn’t just about still photography — it’s built for serious video work too. Both the main and telephoto cameras support 4K at 120fps with Dolby Vision, plus 10-bit Log video for those who want to color-grade like pros. You can even shoot 8K at 30fps if you’re feeling cinematic.
All this is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which handles advanced image processing like multi-frame fusion for tricky lighting and low-light enhancement for night shots. Realme and Ricoh say they’ve co-developed a custom camera system from top to bottom — from the optics and interface to the color rendering.
Just the Beginning
The Realme GT 8 Pro isn’t just another flagship — it’s the start of something bigger. Realme and Ricoh have signed on for at least four years of collaboration, and it sounds like this could just be the first in a whole line of GR-inspired smartphones.
The phone is already available in China, and it’s heading to global markets next week. We’ve had an early look, tried out its swappable camera bump designs, and snapped a few shots in GR Mode — and so far, it looks promising.
Stay tuned for the full review soon. But one thing’s clear already: with Ricoh’s GR magic and Realme’s smartphone smarts, the GT 8 Pro could be a street photographer’s new best friend.