Ricoh - Caplio RR10 review

Ricoh's Caplio RR10 has an unusual vertical/horizontal design. About the size and shape of a hand-held dictation machine, you slide it down on one of its ends into a supplied dock, which you keep connected permanently to your PC. The dock, known as the Ricoh Base, acts as a recharger for the built-in Lithium-ion battery, a link for downloading pictures and the same for uploading music files.

Music files? Yes, this is another multi-function camera, designed for people who want to listen to music on the move. However, a late-night bus or train is probably not the ideal place to brandish a £300 piece of technology and anyway, the 8MB Secure Digital memory card will only hold a couple of music tracks.

Used as a camera, the Caplio RR10 is well-designed, although a little limited in function. A large thumbwheel on its back panel selects function - including music playback, audio recording and a short sequence of video - and most other controls are operated from 4 buttons above and below the LCD display and a thumb-pad for controlling the zoom level.

There are a few shortcomings to the Caplio RR10's feature list. There's no optical viewfinder for a start; you have to use the LCD display for every shot, which won't be to everyone's taste. There's no tripod mount and no macro facility, either, though in its normal mode the camera focuses down to a very useful 40mm.

Image quality was fair, though the lack of a macro mode was obvious on the close-up flower picture. The landscape shot was better, with reasonably natural colours and decent clouds. Overall, the Caplio RR10 is a better attempt at a camera with multimedia pretensions than the FujiFilm FinePix 30i.

Ricoh - Caplio GX review

Ricoh is not one of the best-known digital camera makers, but it has released several effective and novel models and now has a considerable range, from fun compact cameras to high resolution semi-pro tools. The Caplio GX is towards the upper end of the range and sports a 5.1-megapixel CCD and 16MB of internal memory.

The black-cased camera is about the same size as a 35mm compact, light to hold and with a 46mm LCD screen set into its back. The 9-element, 28-85mm, wide-angle lens is accompanied by a 12x zoom (3x optical and 4x digital). With the high resolution of the CCD, this level of digital zoom is usable and provides good magnification. The camera's macro mode enables focusing down to an impressive 1cm.

Controls are easy to use, with a diamond of five buttons on its back and a supplementary finger wheel to speed option selection through the clear and well-designed menu display. For the more adventurous photographer, you can opt for manual exposure and aperture priority modes, and there's a flash hot-shoe on top, to supplement the camera's built-in flash.

One of the Caplio GX's main claims for attention is its quick response through what the manual calls Continuous Modes. When you switch to these, you're offered three different sub-modes for taking multiple pictures within a short period of time.

In continuous mode you can take up to nine discreet shots - depending on the selected resolution - which are captured sequentially for as long as you press the shutter release. In stream mode, one press of the shutter release takes 16 consecutive shots at intervals of 1/5 of a second and saves them as a single image.

Finally, in memory-reversal mode, when you release the shutter button shots are recorded from the previous three seconds of capture. All three methods work well and make the camera particularly useful for capturing sports events and other live-action.

There are a couple of less helpful features, too, though. For a start, there's no rechargeable battery and charger included, so you're reliant on changing a pair of alkaline AA cells every so often. There's no mains power supply, either, though an adapter is available as an optional extra. This has to be inserted into the camera's battery compartment, in place of its normal batteries - not a very neat solution.

Finally, since the Caplio GX comes with a meagre 16MB of internal memory, rather than a memory card, you have to use a USB cable to connect it to your PC or a direct-print printer. These days, with all the card readers built into desktop and notebook PCs, swapping a memory card is usually more convenient. An SD card slot is included, if you want to boost capacity beyond 16MB (which you will).

Ricoh - Caplio R1 review

We recently reviewed the Ricoh Caplio GX camera, a 5.1-megapixel device, roughly the size of a compact 35mm conventional camera. Ricoh's new R1 goes a lot smaller, about 10mm wider than a credit card and only 25mm thick. Its all-metal case gives it a luxury feel and positive responses from all controls make it good to handle.

The finger grip on the right-hand side doubles as a sliding power switch and six buttons plus a jog dial on the back control access to the camera through a clear and well-designed menu system. The R1's bright LCD monitor shows up even in strong daylight, though colours sometimes look more bleached out in the LCD than your final images appear.

Taking pictures with everything set to automatic is no problem, but you can also override the white balance manually, compensate up and down two stops on exposure and set the film sensitivity to ISO 64, 100, 200, 400 or 800. These functions are available via the new Adjust button - press it to cycle through them - as well as via traditional menu functions.

The R1 has a 4.8x Ricoh optical zoom lens, which can take you in close to delicate subjects, but if that's not enough, you can use the macro facility to take you as close as 10mm. You'll need a tripod for this kind of work, though. 3.6x digital zoom is also provided, giving a composite zoom of over 17x.

Somewhat oddly for a 4-megapixel camera, Ricoh only supplies 12MB of internal memory and no memory card. This means that at the camera's highest resolution of 2,304 by 1,728, you get just 12 pictures in Normal mode, six if you use the lower compression Fine mode. If you can make do with a lower resolution this rises to 29 shots, but then why buy a 4-megapixel camera? You really need to budget extra for an SD/MM card of around 32MB to give you a decent picture capacity.

As with the Caplio GX, there's no rechargeable battery or charger included, so you're reliant on changing a pair of alkaline AA cells every 200 shots or so. You can buy a Li-ion battery pack and charger as optional extras and their omission looks like a price-cutting exercise on Ricoh's part. The mains power supply, another optional extra, has to be inserted into the camera's battery compartment in place of its normal batteries, which is a fiddly solution.

Finally, since the Caplio R1 comes with only its internal memory, rather than a memory card, you have to use a USB cable to connect to your PC or to a Pict-Bridge printer for computer-free printing. Basic photo management software is included with the camera.

Ricoh - Caplio GR Digital review

If you take your digital photography seriously, but don't want to have to carry around a bulky SLR, your main choice is a high quality, 35mm compact equivalent. This semi-pro market is where Ricoh is aiming its Caplio GR Digital. It's a slim and fairly lightweight compact, which looks conventional enough but packs a number of convincing extras.

The most obvious of these is the large LCD display. We haven't seen many compact cameras with 63mm LCDs. The size makes it much easier to frame subjects, but also provides enough room for function icons around its edge and an optional histogram display showing colour balance.

The disadvantage of the big screen is that there's apparently no room for an optical viewfinder in the case, so you have to use the LCD. In fact, a viewfinder is an optional extra, and slides into the flash hotshoe on top of the GR Digital. There's no focus-lock indicator, though, so with it fitted, you have to rely on a beep to tell you you're focused.

The standard F2.4 lens system has six elements in five groups and produces exceptionally sharp images for a camera of its size. With 8-megapixel files, even compressed JPEGs are going to be big, but that's the price you pay for this level of detail. An uncompressed RAW frame is close to 25MB.

As well as a fully-automatic mode, where you just point and shoot, you can select manual, program, program shift AE and Aperture Priority modes. These cater for people who want more control over exposure and focus. The camera can focus from 30cm down to 1.5cm in macro mode and it uses a nine-point auto-focus to try to ensure sharp shots.

The viewfinder isn't the only optional extra; you can fit a hood and adapter to the front of the camera and a 0.75x wide-angle converter. Removing the ring cover and fitting these accessories can be fiddly and you have to have somewhere to store the little powder-bag they come in.

A Lithium-Ion battery pack, good for around 250 shots, is provided in the box with a charger, but the internal memory, a mere 26MB, isn't enough for an 8-megapixel camera. It gives you just 14 shots at the camera's default resolution of 3,264 x 2,448 pixels and only one if you shoot in RAW format. Would it really have bust the budget to have built in 64MB?

Ricoh - Caplio RR660 review

Not much bigger than a credit card, though obviously a lot thicker, Ricoh's new compact camera offers a lot in its small case. For a start it has a 6-megapixel sensor, so it can take detailed images and zoom in on them digitally by up to four times. Add to this a 3x optical zoom and you have a useful little camera.

It has no viewfinder, but the 60mm LCD monitor is big enough to frame even complex shots clearly and the screen is bright enough to use in summer sunlight. The screen does take up quite a bit of the camera's back panel, though, so controls are rather squeezed in down the right-hand side.

There's a zoom toggle switch taking you from wide-angle to telephoto - using both those terms loosely - with three small buttons below, then a four-way jog dial and finally a little 'OK' button right at the bottom. The buttons are better operated with a thumbnail than the pad of a thumb, unless your hands are very small.

On top of the camera is the shutter release and a circular thumbwheel which selects its six capture modes. The on-off button is sensibly centred in the middle of this wheel, so it's hard to press accidentally. The capture modes are all standard fare and consist of auto, program, portrait, landscape, sport and night. Additionally, though, there are two triple-shot modes, which increase the flexibility of the Caplio RR660's picture taking.

Burst mode takes three shots in quick succession and, although it's not fast enough to capture high-speed sporting action, it could be useful at parties and other live events. Auto bracket mode, as the name suggests, takes the same shot three times, bracketing the exposure within a set range.

Under a flap on the bottom of the camera are sockets for a pair of AA batteries - there's no rechargeable option - and an SD card slot for cards of up to 1GB. The latter is just as well, since 16MB of internal memory is hopeless for a 6-megapixel camera. Set the RR660 to fine quality mode and you get just three shots.

Picture quality is good, with sharp definition and little noise until you get down to very low light conditions. The auto-focus works well and the camera is small enough to slide easily into a pocket in its slip case, so you can carry it with you nearly as easily as a camera-phone. You get much better pictures with the Ricoh, of course.

Ricoh - Caplio R5 review

Although not a very common name in the digital camera market, Ricoh does have a history of making cameras and currently has quite a wide range of consumer products in this category.

The Caplio R5 is its latest offering, with a step up in features over its predecessor, the R4. It's a 7.24-megapixel device with a massive 7.1x optical zoom (28 to 200mm equivalent on a 35mm camera). Considering the fairly small dimensions of the camera, such a large optical zoom is impressive, and Ricoh advertises it as the highest available in its class.

Powering up quickly, the camera feels quite responsive in operation although, as with other cameras, some lighting conditions and image optimisation operations can increase processing times and shutter 'lag', reducing the responsive feel slightly. Controls on the camera are well laid out and it's easy to get accustomed to using it.

The zoom sounds a little clunky in operation and it can be difficult to keep the camera steady at maximum zoom due to its small size, but Ricoh has developed an anti-vibration feature that moves the CCD in an opposite direction to counteract the movement. This is a feature that gave us mixed results and had a side effect of increased 'shutter lag' (delay in taking the photo), but at least it can be turned off.

A nice feature of the lens is its ability to zoom out to quite a wide angle, which is good for group shots and for photographing subjects close-up. For really close-up shots, the macro mode offers an impressive 1cm distance capability.

For reviewing and composing photos, the 2.5-inch screen offers a high definition of 230,000 pixels, which provides crisp images. While 2.5-inch screens are becoming the norm in this category, many are lower resolution than that provided in the Ricoh Caplio R5.

For quick navigation between photos, the screen doesn't display the maximum quality at first, but shows the best quality only after a short delay. However, a better method of navigating quickly is to utilise the zoom when playing back pictures, which changes the review mode. There is no optical viewfinder, so the screen is the only means of framing photos.

No doubt due to a design decision to keep the size of the camera to a minimum, the Caplio R5 uses a small rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which is claimed to be enough for up to 380 shots on a single charge.

Of course, using the flash and spending some time reviewing pictures on the screen reduces this capability, so if the intention is to use the camera on long holidays, we'd recommend either packing the charger or purchasing a second battery.

The Caplio features some internal memory, but this isn't much use for anything other than trying the camera out, due to the large file size of the resulting photos. For any normal use, a Secure Digital (SD) card is required.

The new CCD features a high sensitivity of 1600 ISO, and this should translate to better images when not using the flash, but we found little practical difference compared to a current Canon digital camera with 800 ISO sensitivity.

Generally, images taken with the Ricoh Caplio demonstrated accurate colour reproduction and detail, but we noticed some fringing on borders between whites and adjacent darker colours. We also noticed slightly clunky performance as we zoomed in on subjects. This is not surprising considering the 26mm thickness of the camera, but buyers should be aware that a high numerical specification doesn't necessarily translate to excellent quality images.

As with many cameras now, the R5 doubles up as a video camcorder, and this is a practical solution for occasional amateur movies. Video resolutions are up to a reasonable 640 x 480 pixels at up to 30 frames per second.

Ricoh - Caplio R6 review

Ricoh's Caplio R6 is billed as 'The world's thinnest digital camera with a 28mm wide-angle, 7.1x optical zoom lens'. So if a thinner camera with a 29mm wide-angle, 7.1x optical zoom lens came along, it presumably wouldn't beat the Ricoh. Pedantry aside, though, this is a neat little compact camera with a surprisingly large lens.

The Caplio R6 has a 7.24-megapixel sensor and a 69mm, high-brightness LCD - still not bright enough in full sunlight - which is the only means of framing shots. The lens offers 28-200mm, f3.3-5.2, so better at both ends of the focal range than most cameras at this price.

Controls are reasonably conventional, with a four-way button ring and four independent buttons on the back panel, and power and shutter release buttons on top, with a toggle ring around the shutter button to adjust zoom level. There's a 5x digital zoom as well as the optical magnification.

The only slightly unconventional control is a three-position slide switch, just above the LCD display, which is labelled My, Scene and Auto (a small green camera icon). 'My' enables you to shoot with your own settings, 'Scene' offers a range of 12 different shot modes, such as sports, landscape, nightscape and video, while 'Auto' should detect the right mode for itself.

In macro mode the Caplio R6 can focus down to just 10mm and in general the shots we took were well-balanced, though with some slight mauve tinges on blue skies in open landscapes. Portrait shots were lively and clean, partly due to CCD-shift vibration correction, which was first introduced in the R5 and is carried through here. This should give you an extra couple of exposure stops.

The Caplio R6 boasts face recognition, claimed to be able to spot a face in a shot and adjust focus, exposure and white balance for it. In our trials the little, blue frame-corners which appear on the display seemed as keen to zero in on the magnets on the front of a kitchen fridge as on the face that was centre-frame. We did manage to steer it in the right direction by moving closer to the subject, but this suggests Ricoh's face recognition still needs some work.

Ricoh provides a Lithium-ion battery with the camera, which it claims will last for 330 shots between charges, and there's 54MB of internal image memory which is noticeably more than many of its competitors. You're probably going to need to add an SD card if you mean to shoot at the camera's maximum resolution, but you'll get about 19 shots even without one.