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June 05, 2008
[REVIEW—RICOH R8 compact camera]
Price: $550
Good compact, great lens
The low-down: This is a 10 megapixel camera with a lens focal length range of 28mm to 200mm, film equivalent. Body construction is reasonably rugged, with most functions accessible from dedicated buttons or through the useful joystick. Pushing the joystick straight in gives immediate access to exposure compensation, ISO, white balance and a histogram. Functions are selected and adjusted by moving the joystick on its x and y axes. Very simple, intuitive and well thought-out. The 6.7 cm LCD, the only viewfinder, is reasonably bright and useable on overcast days. There are two programmable My Settings on the mode wheel, plus movie and automatic, which is more like P than full auto, and that’s a good thing.
Like: The picture quality is generally good, with fine resolution and colour rendition. The lens is excellent, particularly sharp at the wide end of the zoom with no discernible barrel distortion, which is impressive for a 28mm focal length optic. The camera is very responsive with fast auto focus and no trace of shutter lag. Macro mode is excellent.
Dislike: We are bound to mention image noise, although it is reduced well enough in the camera. There is some loss of fine detail, but it will not show up in small prints or on a monitor. Still, fewer pixels would be better. Auto white balance performs inconsistently.
Verdict: We subjected the Ricoh R8 to the tourist test – taking it around town snapping the sorts of things that any traveller might photograph in a foreign city. The results are consistently good, helped in no small part by the outstanding, distortion-free lens. There are plenty of noise reduction artefacts visible at full image size, so this is not a camera for making A3 prints or for severe cropping of the picture. On the other hand enlargement up to 5 by 7 cm will be better than acceptable. Camera House are selling a 25th anniversary edition of the R8 for $550.
Posted by terry at June 5, 2008 12:19 AM
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