Ricoh Caplio R5

      Photo Review 8
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      In summary

      An ultra-compact 7-megapixel digicam with a 7x optical zoom lens and CCD-shift anti-shake technology.Ricoh’s Caplio R5 is an update to the popular R4 model and offers a higher-resolution sensor, CCD-shift anti-shake technology and a new “Smooth Imaging Engine II processor and peripheral circuitry, which deliver better performance at high sensitivities. Available in silver, black and red, it also boasts a new Auto Resize Zoom that magnifies by cropping, reducing image sizes to minimise quality loss. . . [more]

      Full review

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      Ricoh’s Caplio R5 is an update to the popular R4 model and offers a higher-resolution sensor, CCD-shift anti-shake technology and a new ‘Smooth Imaging Engine II’ processor and peripheral circuitry, which deliver better performance at high sensitivities. Available in silver, black and red, it also boasts a new Auto Resize Zoom that magnifies by cropping, reducing image sizes to minimise quality loss.

      The 7.1x optical zoom lens tucks away into the curved camera body, thanks to a proprietary ‘double-retracting’ system. With a thickness of 26mm, the Caplio R5 barely qualifies as a slimline model, although it’s certainly more pocketable than most compact digicams. It’s also reasonably well built. Ease of use is compromised by very small control buttons and a menu system that requires lots of toggling. Ricoh has provided an ADJ. button to give quick access to the exposure compensation, white balance and ISO settings (which are found on page three of the menu) Users can also assign up to two additional functions via the set-up menu.

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      The back view shows how small the control buttons are.

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      The top panel is relatively uncluttered.

      Novel shooting features include a Skew Correction Mode, which lets you straighten skewed images of objects like buildings, display panels or name cards, and an AF target shift function that allows you to lock the focus without moving the camera for macro shooting. Pressing the Display button calls up a tiny brightness histogram and the Scene menu has a setting for copying text.

      Three burst modes are provided: single shot, stream and memory reversal. The latter two capture 16 shots and combine them into a 3072 ø— 2304 pixel image file. In memory reversal mode, the camera records for about two seconds ahead and saves the last 16 images. Ricoh claims the Caplio R5 is fast. However, in our timing tests we consistently found it took just on two seconds to focus and capture a shot and the camera buzzed during that time. In bright lighting, this delay was reduced to less than half a second, with an average shutter lag of 0.15 seconds. In the standard burst mode, shots were recorded at 0.35 second intervals, while the S and M modes performed to specifications. It took two seconds to power-up the R5 and extend the lens – and a similar time to shut down.

      Shots taken with the test camera were sharp and well-exposed, with little evidence of colour fringing. Sharpness declined towards the edges of shots and blown-out highlights were common in bright conditions. Imatest showed resolution to be slightly below expectations but provided no evidence of over-processing. Colour accuracy was reasonably good, although some blues and reds were slightly over-saturated. However, overall saturation was modest. Lateral chromatic aberration was found in all test shots, but not to a degree that would seriously impact on image quality.

      Low-light and flash exposures at night were clean and noise-free up to ISO 200 but noise was visible by ISO 800 and very noticeable at ISO 1600. The flash was too weak to illuminate an average-sized room at ISO settings of 400 and below and could only produce acceptable coverage at ISO 1600, where noise made the shot virtually unusable. The built-in image stabiliser appeared to work well but digital zoom shots were rather soft. The battery was still going strong at the end of our tests, which involved roughly 200 still shots and three minutes of VGA video.

      IMATEST GRAPHS

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      TEST IMAGES

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      Long exposures at ISO 1600 contain visible image noise.

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      Close-up capabilities are impressive.

       

      Specifications

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      Image sensor: 5.76 x 4.29mm primary colour CCD with 7.41 million pixels (7.24 megapixels effective)
      Lens: 4.6-33mm, f3.3-4.8 zoom lens (28-200mm for 35mm format) with seven fixed Step Zoom steps: 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 105mm, 135mm, and 200mm
      Zoom ratio: 7.1x optical up to 3.6x digital
      Image formats: Stills ““ JPEG (Exif 2.21); Movies ““ AVI (Open DML Motion JPEG Format Compliant)
      Image sizes: 3072 ø— 2304, 3072 ø— 2048, 2592 ø— 1944, 2048 ø— 1536, 1280 ø— 960, 640 ø— 480 (VGA, QVGA, QQVGA at 30/15 fps)
      Shutter speed range: 8, 4, 2, 1 to 1/2000 seconds
      Exposure Compensation: +/-2.0EV in 1/3EV Steps
      Focus system/range: Hybrid AF; range 30cm to infinity; macro to 1cm
      Exposure metering/control: TTL-CCD Metering with 256-segment multi, centre-weighted and spot metering
      White balance: Auto, Outdoors, Cloudy, Incandescent (x2), Fluorescent, Manual.
      Flash modes/range (ISO auto): Auto, flash on, flash off, red-eye reduction, slow synchro; range 0.2 to 2.4 m (wide); 0.14 to 1.8 m (tele)
      ISO range: Auto, ISO 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
      Sequence shooting: 2.8 frames/second to memory capacity
      Storage Media: 26MB internal memory plus SD/MMC expansion slot
      Viewfinder: n.a.
      LCD monitor: 2.5-inch Transparent Amorphous Silicon TFT LCD (approx. 230,000 pixels)
      Power supply: DB-60 rechargeable battery (CIPA capacity 380 shots)
      Dimensions (wxhxd): 96.0 x 55.0 x 26.0 mm (excluding projections)
      Weight: Approx. 140g (without battery, SD memory card, and hand strap)

       

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      Rating

       

      $599

      Rating (out of 10):

      • Build: 8.5
      • Ease of use: 7.5
      • Image quality: 8
      • OVERALL: 8

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