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Given a rating of 7 out of 10, still minor issues aside, Ricoh’s R7 is yet another solid device from a growing stable of top-notch cameras.
If you are in the market for a reliable, fast compact, that comes with the bonus of a limited-space defying zoom lens that is capable of getting you right up to the action without weighing you down, then the Ricoh Caplio R7 is well worth checking out.
Coupled with an excellent lens, very good white balance control and a wide usable sensitivity range, this makes the Ricoh Caplio GX100 closer to a 21st Century Leica than just another compact.
It’s not perfect, of course; the flash has a tendency to try too hard and randomly deliver full power flash when it should be acting as fill-in flash. But when it works, it works well.
The Ricoh Caplio R6 has improved on the Ricoh Caplio R5 in a number of ways, most noticable is the camera’s smaller, more stylish body, and larger screen, the improved zoom control is also a very welcome addition.
Image quality is very good, especially outdoors and the camera has rich colours and good exposure. The Ricoh Caplio R6 is the smallest digital camera to feature a wide-angle 7.1x optical zoom lens with image stabilisation.
The camera is very good value for money and I would recommend this camera. The Ricoh Caplio R6 is an extremely capable pocket camera that can produce excellent results.
The Ricoh Caplio R4 is a very compact 6 megapixel digital camera with a massive 7x optical zoom lens that is equivalent to 28-200mm on a 35mm camera. Most cameras of this size offer a 3x or at best a 4x optical zoom, but Ricoh have squeezed a 7x zoom wide-angle lens into a body that is only 26mm thick. To help compensate for the effects of handshake, Ricoh have included a Vibration Correction system that should ensure sharper photos at slower shutter speeds than normal.
Other highlights of the Ricoh Caplio R4 include a large 2.5 inch LCD screen, ISO range of 64-800, 1cm macro mode and the usual fast responsiveness that you always get from a Ricoh camera. There are few changes from the previous Ricoh Caplio R3 model, mainly a higher-resolution LCD screen and the addition of one extra megapixel.
Unfortunately the R4 still suffers from obvious chromatic aberrations and poor night shots, although once again the the amazing macro mode and the anti-shake system are definitely worth having. The main attractions of the R4 remain the same. A point and shoot camera that can easily fit in your pocket, yet has a massive 7x wide-angle optical zoom lens.
Ricoh have introduced some significant improvements to the Ricoh Caplio R5, principally a great continuous shooting mode which allows unlimited shooting at 2.5fps, and the ability to take consecutive flash shots without having to wait for the flash to recharge. In addition there’s even longer batter life (around 350 shots), a much improved movie mode and higher resolution LCD screen, bringing the Ricoh R5 in line with other cameras in this class.
However, Ricoh have also made some curious design decisions that make the R5 worse in some respects, namely the much smaller power and zoom buttons which make the camera more awkward to use, the flash unit which protrudes from the front of the camera, and the flimsy battery compartment cover. The new image processing system promises low noise and an expanded ISO range, but whilst the R5 does offer ISO 1600, you really won’t want to use, or for that matter ISO 800. In fact, the R5’s images are still as noisy as the R4’s - the move to 7 megapixels seems to have offset any processing gains that Ricoh’s engineers have made. There is one image quality improvement, which comes in the form of much less obvious chromatic aberrations and purple fringing.
The main attractions of the R5 remain the same as its predecessors, namely a point and shoot camera that can easily fit in your pocket, with a massive 7x wide-angle optical zoom lens and genuinely useful anti-shake system. So the Ricoh R5 is a significant improvement in some respects on the slightly older Ricoh Caplio R4 model, but frustratingly a backwards step in others.