Ricoh Caplio R7 Review |

I’ve been following Ricoh’s digital camera development with interest for a number of years. The first digital camera I ever owned was a Ricoh RDC-5000 in 1999. It was one of the first 2.3 megapixel cameras to hit the market and was the most compact and powerful digital camera on the market at the time. Of course, by today’s standards it resembles a single-lens brick and could gobble up a set of four AA batteries in about 20 minutes, but even then it had some innovative features we take for granted today, such as: B. a metal body, an automatic lens cover, USB connection and 4 cm macro focusing. Ricoh has continually innovated and improved over the years, and its products have rarely strayed far from the pinnacle of digital camera design. Models like the Caplio R3, the R5 and the excellent R6 that launched earlier this year have all received high marks in reviews, although they never seem to get the market share they deserve. This must be due to bad advertising, because in terms of quality and performance, Ricoh’s cameras can compete with the best of the competition.

The Ricoh Caplio R7 is the latest in the range and was launched in August this year. It is an 8.15-megapixel compact camera with a 2.7-inch monitor with a resolution of 230,000 pixels, mechanical image stabilization with a moving sensor and a flush retractable 7.1x f/3 optical zoom lens, 3 to f/5.2 with a zoom range of 28-200mm. Despite this spec, the camera is exactly the same size and weight as the Caplio R6, measuring 99.6 x 55 x 23.3mm and weighing 161g including the card and battery. At least from the front, the body design is also the same as the R6, which is not a bad thing as it is very attractive. There are a few tweaks on the rear, however, with a new larger rubberized thumb grip and a slightly different control layout to accommodate a few new features.

There are relatively few cameras on the market that can match the R7’s specs, but one that immediately springs to mind is the Panasonic Lumix TZ3, which offers a 10x zoom lens and 28mm wide-angle but only 7.1 megapixels, is larger and heavier and has a smaller monitor. It also costs around £235, while the Ricoh R7 currently sells for around £220. Otherwise, it’s pretty much in a league of its own. There are other cameras with longer zoom ranges, but none that combine longer zoom with 28mm wide angle, image stabilization and an almost ultra-compact form factor.

As with previous Ricoh Caplio models, first impressions are very positive. The body is all metal, with excellent build quality and good fit and finish of the controls and hatch. It’s not a flashy looking camera, but it has a distinctive style that’s instantly recognizable. For some reason, possibly the relative size of the lens mount, the R7 looks slightly larger than it actually is at first glance. Sitting it on my desk alongside a bunch of Pentax and Casio ultra-compacts reveals that the R7 is surprisingly small, only a few millimeters from the Optio M40. It is slightly thicker at 23.3 mm, but still fits unobtrusively in any pocket or handbag.

In addition to the new sensor, the R7 has a few other new features. The first is the new Smooth Imaging Engine III, the camera’s image processor, the output of which we’ll discuss in a moment. Externally, the main new feature is the ADJ control, a small joystick-like four-way controller that’s separate from the main D-Pad. This allows for quick on-screen adjustment of up to four user-selectable parameters, with exposure compensation, ISO setting and white balance as default settings, although image quality, focus and metering modes, sharpness, contrast or bracketing can be substituted via the main menu. It’s an extremely effective system and much simpler than the multi-function menus favored by other manufacturers.

Some new features are also available in playback mode. Contrast and hue can be adjusted after capture, and a deskew feature automatically corrects images of text pages, whiteboards, or other rectangular objects to make the pages parallel.

Aside from these additions, the R7 retains all the features of the R6, including eleven scene modes with face detection in portrait mode, two custom shooting modes and a 30fps VGA movie mode, although like the R6 the zoom lens can’t be used when filming. It also features the same moving-sensor image stabilization system developed by Ricoh.

The overall performance of the R7 hasn’t changed much from its predecessor either. It starts up in just over two seconds, which is pretty snappy, and shuts down in under two seconds. The AF system is very fast even in good light, focusing in a fraction regardless of range and zoom setting. It slows down noticeably in weak light, but works very reliably in low-light focusing and, with the bright AF auxiliary light, focuses without any problems even in the dark at a distance of several meters. As with the R6, the firing speed is extremely impressive. In single-shot mode it can capture over one frame per second, and in burst mode it can shoot two frames per second at full resolution and keep doing this until the memory card is full. The R7 is powered by a 1000mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which is larger than the R6. I couldn’t find any specific statement about battery life, but I took over 150 photos and the charge indicator was still full.

The only negative about the R7’s performance that might put some people off is how noisy it is. I’m not talking about image noise here, I’m talking about the actual mechanical noise when the camera is operating. Powering on, zooming and focusing are all accompanied by a loud whirring sound as the motors and cogs spin in the camera. It’s a lot louder than any comparable compact camera and makes the camera sound a bit clunky and primitive when nothing could be further from the truth.

With the higher resolution sensor and new processing engine, image quality is also improved over the already impressive R6. The 256-segment metering gives very accurate exposures, although I found that where it reached the limits of its dynamic range, it tended to burn out highlights to preserve shadow detail. Color reproduction is also a bit more saturated than usual by default, but a quick adjustment in the menu resulted in a more natural tone. The level of detail is overall very good, if not better than I’d expect from an 8-megapixel camera, but again the standout feature is the lens, which offers superb corner-to-corner sharpness and detail throughout the focal length range, with virtually no barrel distortion at all in wide-angle and just the tiniest hint of chromatic aberration in the corners of the frame. Noise reduction at higher ISO settings is excellent too, with usable images up to 800 ISO.

“‘Verdict”‘

Once again Ricoh proves that its cameras are among the best on the market in terms of technology and value for money. The Caplio R7 is an exceptionally versatile pocket-sized compact camera with an unrivaled list of features. It’s stylish, well-made, has incredibly fast performance and great image quality at a price that beats its few rivals. If it doesn’t sell like hotcakes this Christmas, Ricoh will have to fire its ad agency.

“On the next few pages we show a series of test shots. On this page, the full-size image at the minimum and maximum ISO settings has been scaled down to allow you to see the full image, and a series of full-resolution crops have been made from original images at a range of ISO settings to enhance overall image quality to show. ”

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This ISO 64 shot is slightly overexposed but the overall image quality is very good with no noise whatsoever.

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Exposure is more accurate this time, and at 100 ISO there’s still no noise.

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The noise level is still very low at 200 ISO, with only a little luminance noise in the mid-tones.

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400 ISO and it looks like a very impressive performance from the R7, with little fine-grained noise at this setting.

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Even at 800 ISO the image is printable, with good color balance and very little annoying noise.

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Image quality drops at a maximum of 1600 ISO, with lots of color noise and a shift in overall color balance.

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This is the full frame image at 1600 ISO.

“On the next two pages you will find a series of general test shots. In some cases, the full-size image has been scaled down for bandwidth reasons and a crop of the original full-resolution image has been placed underneath to show the overall image quality. Some other images can be clicked to view the full-size original image.”

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Here is my usual detail test shot of Exeter Cathedral’s west window for you to compare with other cameras. See below for a full resolution snippet, or click to see the full image.

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