How to repair Ricoh camera GR III - dust inside the lens 

Thank you for the video. It is in fact possible to clean the sensor without disconnecting the two ribbon cables that connect the sensor „assembly” with the camera body. You just unscrew the three silver screws that connect the big silver „chassis” to the camera body and then flip it to the side. Then you have full access to the sensor and don’t have to desolder the two wires. Just performed this with my own GR III - couple careful blasts of canned air removed all the dust :) just a word of warning - be careful with canned air as it can sometimes „spit” some moisture and make a mess on the sensor (happened to me, luckily careful q tip wipe and then another gentle air blast solved it). Now I can enjoy dust free photos again :) also to anyone attempting - get some decent PH000 screwdriver, as in the video - on my camera the last three silver screws connecting the silver sensor chassis were very stuck and I broke one cheap screwdriver… Luckily I remembered I have another „precision” screwdriver with different bits somewhere in the drawer. Managed to complete the disassembly, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to remove the last stuck screws…

And we're two minutes in and I already know I'd just wreck it

Yep worked for my GRIIIx thanks for this. As long as you have the right tools this is not that difficult. Take your time and make sure you note the screws as they are not all the same!

Best part of this video in my opinion, as it relates to my situation is the backplate shown at

Thanks! Been waiting for a video like this! 👍👍👍You saved my GR! 🤗

be careful unscrewing the screws at

What did you use to clean dust from the cmos sensor ? Just a blower or swab? Please post link of product you used. Also did you clean the optic lens ?

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Many thanks! I fixed the dust on my GR III sensor. 👍

Hi! it's Ricoh GR Digital IV is same way to repair?

Hey guys where is the bios chip located on the camera? My ricoh got bricked after a firmware update attempt when it powered off during the update. Now I hope to flash the bios to save the camera.

Great job! When the Sensor was finally exposed, are you able to share what was used to clean off the Dust?

Thanks! This just convinced me to avoid buying one

where can i buy these tools? i have dust on my sensor :c the dust remover moved dust on it and it just keeps moving the dust around on the sensor but doesnt actually clean it. if i knew this i'd never have truned on dust removal

im gonna try to repair a broken LCD gr iii. how is the LCD held in? with adhesive or just the copper tape shown?

My griii took a small drop and now The ibis is glitching. They ask for 700€ to repare it, replacing all The sensor and lens assembly. Can it just be a matter of a loose conector? Cant find how ibis works.

Excellent information not to buy that camera unless he was a friend of a technician capable of doing his job well like the one filming here. I never buy a camera that doesn't display the sensor.

Hi, thanks for the vidéo but do you repair yourself Ricoh camera? Would you clean my sensor?

I got my Ricoh iii used from an online seller. Unfortunately, dust got on the sensor. The camera was still under warranty. However, the sell didn’t want to perform the cleaning. Instead, a partial refund was offered. Thanks to this video and comments, I decided to take the refund and clean the sensor myself. The only thing that got me stuck was unscrewing the sensor housing from the lens frame. It turned out that I had to tighten the screw first to unscrew. Once the sensor was exposed, the dust was visible at the expected location. A gentle blow of air dislodged it. When everything was put back together, the camera was tested. To my surprise, I got a “Lens error” message with the lens extended but retracted in 10 seconds. I repeated the dissembling steps, carefully reconnected the ribbons and tested the lens right away. After several tries, the lens functioned as expected. I still don’t know exactly what went wrong. Maybe the connection of the wires, or maybe the positioning of the lens. Anyway, it’s doable to clean the sensor diy. But be careful to do everything right. Next time, I will separate the sensor from the lens frame without disconnecting the ribbons as suggested by another commenter above.

This has cautioned me into buying a griii. I won’t now.