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Ricoh Caplio R4
by Catamarca
I bought this camera model a few years ago, mainly due to the 7.1x optical zoom. At the time there were hardly any point and shoot cameras at this price range (I paid about £200) with over about 3x optical zoom, so the Caplio really stood out. It was the only one of these that was still as small as a conventional model, ie it didn't have ... a bulge at the back to accommodate the zoom.
The zoom lived up to its promise, so it is a great camera for getting photos of architectural detail. This has been very useful on holidays to India and Morocco, where there was plenty of ornate detail.
The Caplio was also billed as having a very good Macro setting, and, although this wasn't something I'd originally given much thought to, I've since taken many lovely photos of plants and flowers with this feature.
Other features are fairly standard: different settings for indoors, cloudy day, etc, etc. Very easy to use. Like most cameras of this price level, taking photos at night is hit and miss. I've found that by using a tripod and the timer setting that I could get very good pictures out of it, however.
Quality-wise, I have found the pictures seemed slightly less sharp than other brand cameras belonging to friends and family. I haven't been too bothered by this, though, as the difference is slight and the added zoom more than makes up for it.
The camera is robust, as I found after dropping it hard on a stone quay. It survived that with only the slightest dent, and has gone on to work perfectly well in the years since.
The Caplio R4 came in silver and black originally, but more colours appeared and mine is 'Mystic Blue', which is a nice, fairly original dark blue colour. This also makes the camera a bit different to all the others out there.
Overall? I love the wide lens and the zoom and macro features, and am pleased to have bought a Ricoh. However, other manufacturers are finally making cameras with greater zoom, and I'd look into those as well when buying my next camera.
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Ricoh CX1
by jools_uk
I love this camera. I had the Ricoh Caplio R2 for a few years - only 5MP but it was a great camera and served me well. I knew as soon as I saw the spec that this camera would be its replacement - apart from anything else I wanted compact camera with 28mm equivalent wide angle (if you find it difficult to get back far enough to fit all ... the people in your group shots then you need a 28mm wide lens too!) which immediately narrows the field. Anyway, so far the CX1 hasn't disappointed me at all... I'm not sure if it's quite so fast from 'on' to 'snap' as the R2 but it's certainly no slouch. And the LCD screen is so big and bright, even in very bright sunny conditions, it's very easy to use. I'm not much of a photographer, I spend most of my time in point-and-shoot mode, but I do like to take close-up pics of flowers and plants, so having a macro function that goes down to 1cm is a must-have feature for me, which this camera has (unusual for a compact I think). The DR mode is good for filling in dark spots in back-lit shots, so great for someone like me who isn't too good at composing a pic (and doesn't bother exposure bracketing and merging in photoshop later). I haven't found many downsides so far... the zoom is a little clunky, quite difficult to make small adjustments (a flick of the switch usually seems to jump further than I want so I find myself jumping in and out until I get the zoom level I want). I also had a problem about a month in where one side of the lens cover got stuck. I thought it would be a repair job for sure, but managed to free it with a pin and so far it hasn't stuck again. But the mechanism of the lens cover feels pretty fragile, so I've since shelled out for the official Ricoh case (not cheap) to make sure it's protected.
Some of the shots I've taken with this are as good as anything I can do with my much bigger 'serious' camera - the difference is that this is small enough to keep with me most of the time, so I'm getting images that just wouldn't have happened because I wouldn't have bothered taking a big camera with me.
There are cheaper cameras available and cameras with more features, but this does everything I want and seems to do it well.
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Ricoh R10
by davomrmac
The Ricoh R10 is a nice compact camera, offering you something a little different from the mainstream models from more well known brands.
Firstly, let me cover what is the same. Well it has a 10 megapixel sensor, which is about the average standard for 2009. A nice 3.0-inch screen, very vivid colours and sharp. The battery is ... tiny and charges quickly (about 90 minutes) in the supplied charger. In the same compartment as the battery you can slot an SD card (none supplied with the camera, although it does have 54MB of internal memory). The power button is on the top and it is tiny and quite fiddly. Then the shutter button has the rocker control around it for zooming in and out. The back is really nicely laid out. A dedicated 'play' button for looking at your photos, four way rocker joystick control for navigating menus and going into macro and flash modes. Then there are buttons for menu, function, timer/trash and display modes. Back to the top again and the rotating dial, where you normally have access to manual, auto modes etc... is slightly different. It offers auto mode, easy mode, video and scenes, then two options labeled MY1 and MY2 (covered in what's different below).
The MY1 and MY2 settings on this top dial are one of the things that sets the R10 apart from other compact cameras. It allows you to make lots of adjustments, such as image size, black & white mode and then save these to one of the two presets. Then rotating the dial selects all of the settings you made, very easily and very quickly. Other nice features are the 1:1 mode that gives you square format (like polaroid) pics out of the camera with no cropping needed. There is an integrated lens cover, so when you turn it off the lens in protected. The zoom is a massive 7.1x optical, so really nice and powerful giving you the equivalent of a 28-200mm lens. The 3.0-inch screen is really high resolution, 460,000 pixels, it is really bright and has great viewing angles. It also auto-rotates, so you turn the camera 90 degrees and some of the functions rotate, or you view pictures and get them correctly displayed. The Electronic Level is also nice, it shows a line that changes colour when you have the camera held level, nice for scene shots that you want straight.
The only thing that would have made this 100% is an optical viewfinder, but alas there is none. That said, I have taken almost 300 photos on a single charge and not been disappointed with any. At just under £200 it is a little expensive, but the photos have that feel and pro-edge to them. It looks like they were taken with a camera that is a little special... so it gets my vote.
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