Ricoh’s Caplio GX8 is a slim and compact 8.2-Megapixel digital camera that commands one of the world’s fastest shutter response time, super-close macro mode and a fast start-up time of 1.3 seconds. The wholly-black camera is quicker, lighter and even easier to use than its wide-angle lens predecessor, the Caplio GX, but only offers a 3x optical zoom lens. Nevertheless, it can easily slip into a jacket pocket, is a snap to use and produces excellent quality images. You’ll struggle to find a camera in this price bracket that offers so much functionality or that produces such good images.
The Caplio GX8 manages to capture colours great and its automatic white balance offers the correct result in most cases. The quality of the lens is excellent for a camera in this price bracket and the wide angle capabilities will be greatly appreciated by creative photographers. Distortion stayed within reasonable limits in our tests, and purple fringing and corner shading only appeared in rather extreme settings - wide angle with maximum aperture.