Ricoh Caplio R3
Ricoh’s camera is really different from other competitors’ cameras and this is the reason why it is so interesting. The R3 has a 7x wide angle zoom (28 mm!) and a sensor with image stabilization. All of this fits in a 26 mm thick body and at an incredibly low price. It’s so low that we even ask ourselves what could be wrong? Inevitably there are the disadvantages…
Image Stabilization
It isn’t in image stabilization that Ricoh saved money. With our tests the R3 was the most efficient of the 10 tested. Most of the pictures taken without support and at 1/5s shutter speed were sharp. This is the reason why we were able to work indoors without a flash at 100 ISO and it was the only one capable of doing this. With the Nikon and Panasonic we were at 200 ISO and above. This doesn’t mean lower noise levels than the others as it all depends on the efficiency of the processor. Moreover, this is exactly where the problem is. The R3 isn’t one of the most efficient in this area…
The noise level at 100 ISO is higher than the NIKON at 200 ISO or the Fujifilm at 400 ISO. So in the end all pictures have noise. Also, colors could be slightly improved. We noticed that pictures tended to be underexposed and indoors dominant colors reduced the natural aspect of pictures. For example, the test portrait without flash (see below) came out rather orange.
The sensor, a little smaller than the others, probably contributed to the slightly lower precision of pictures as seen on the test at the lowest sensitivity.
Verdict
The concept is brilliant, but it has to be improved. We would like less noise, a better video mode, brighter images, and more accurate colors. There is a R4 on its way, but it is a clone of the R3 with a slightly bigger sensor (6 Mpixels instead of 5, images will probably be a little bit more accurate), a video mode still in 320 x 240 and a much higher price at approximately 400 €. Ricoh’s press release doesn’t mention improvements in noise levels.
