Introduction

Ease of Use

As the Ricoh GXR body is common to all of the available camera units, virtually all of the comments that we made in our original GXR review apply equally to the new P10 camera unit. Rather than repeat them here, you should read the Ricoh GXR review first and then our specific comments about the P10 unit below.

With the P10 camera unit fitted, the Ricoh GXR weighs 367g and measures 113.9 x 70.2 x 49.8mm (although still not including the the battery or memory card), making it the smallest and lightest GXR combination currently on the market. When the lens is fully extended, the camera measures over 10cm in depth, but thankfully it retracts back to 6cms when it is turned off. The 28-300mm range is very versatile, covering everything from wide-angle landscapes to close-up action photos. The maximum apertures are respectable enough at f/3.5 at wide-angle and f/5.6 at telephoto. Helpfully the zoom mechanism becomes quicker as you progress through the range, a neat feature that really cuts down on waiting for the camera to do your bidding. The effective sensor-shift Vibration Correction function is an almost compulsory addition given the telephoto focal range on offer.

Front	Rear

The P10 incorporates a 10 megapixel 1/2.3-inch back-illuminated CMOS image sensor and a 28-300mm 10.7x zoom lens. This combination is strikingly similar to the Ricoh CX3 compact camera, which has exactly the same size sensor and type and the same zoom range. Even the maximum aperture range - f/3.5-5.6 - is identical! Disregarding any differences in image quality, it seems to us that the P10 is once again almost exactly replicating one of Ricoh's existing compacts in the GXR format, albeit in a larger size and perhaps more importantly with a much bigger price-tag when bought with the GXR body, as the CX3 retails for £299.

As with the S10 unit, I would have preferred to see the P10 use an APS-C sensor rather than the much smaller 1/2.3-inch sensor - if I'm going to use a larger camera than Ricoh's existing compacts, then I'd prefer a bigger sensor with all the image quality benefits that it hopefully provides. Replicating the core specifications, if not exactly the same components, of their existing compacts in the GXR system does provide a quick way to expand the number of units, but inevitably creates a lot of obvious overlap. As Ricoh release more units, this kind of dilemma may become less prevalent, but there's no disputing that this is an inherent limitation of their new system that DSLRs don't suffer from in quite the same way.

Front	Front

The Dynamic Range double shot mode is one of the Ricoh GXR P10's star attractions, taking advantage of the CMOS sensor to record images with much greater dynamic range than most compacts. When the Ricoh GXR P10 is in the DR scene mode it takes two images with different exposures, and then records a single image that combines the properly exposed parts of each one. There are four DR strengths - Very Weak, Weak, Medium and Strong - plus an Auto setting if you're unsure which is the best setting. You can also choose to take a DR and Normal image at the same time (both are saved to the memory card), useful for quickly comparing the effect. You can also select a Priority Range for each DR strength, with Off, Highlights and Shadows your choices - this allows the more advanced user to tip the balance in favour of the shadow or highlight areas.

In practice the Dynamic Range mode works really well, resulting in images that have noticeably more dynamic range that those shot in the Normal mode, and far surpassing most other compact cameras. If you want to shoot images that retain detail in both the highlight and shadow areas, then the Ricoh GXR P10 is a great choice. You can see the results of using the the different modes for yourself on the Image Quality page, with a side-by side comparison of the Normal and four different DR modes. There is one main drawback though; the DR images have noticeably less saturated colours than the Normal version, which more accurately matches the scene.

P10 Camera Unit	P10 Camera Unit

The GXR P10 is the first Ricoh GXR camera unit to offer HD video recording, the must-have feature of 2010. There are three movie sizes available - 1280x720, 640x480 and 320x240 pixels - all at 30 frames per second and all saved in the AVI file format, which unfortunately does result in some rather large file sizes. Sound recording is mono only, and there are no advanced features like Windcut or Pause / Restart as seen on other cameras, so Ricoh still have some work to do in this area.

If you don't like composing your photos by holding the camera at arms length and looking at the LCD screen, there's also another way of framing your shots. You can additionally buy the completely removable optical viewfinder, the new VF-2, which we'd particularly recommend for the P10 camera unit. This slots into the hot-shoe on top of the camera, allowing you to hold the camera up to your eye and instantly giving the GXR the feel of a single-lens reflex camera. Vitally it also helps reduce camera shake at the longer telephoto settings that the P10 offers, as holding the camera up to your eye is much more steady than holding the camera at arm's length.

P10 Camera Unit	P10 Camera Unit

The start-up time from turning the Ricoh GXR P10 on to being ready to take a photo is responsive at around 1.5 seconds. Focusing with the 28-300mm camera unit is very quick in good light, taking less than 0.5 seconds, and the camera happily achieves focus most of the time indoors or in low-light situations. It takes about 0.5 second to store a JPEG image, allowing you to keep shooting as they are being recorded onto the memory card, and there is virtually no LCD blackout between each image.

Shooting in RAW mode is also very quick, with the GXR only taking around 1 second to store a RAW image. In the fastest Continuous mode the camera shoots at an amazing 5 frames per second for RAW images, or 4fps if noise reduction is turned on, taking a further 5 seconds to record the images before you can take another picture. This compares very well even to entry-level DSLRs. For JPEGs, in single shot mode image are recorded instantaneously, and in Continuous mode the P10 shoots at the same 5fps rate as RAW files but for an unlimited number of images.

Now that we've discussed the new features that the P10 brings to the Ricoh GXR system, let's take a look at its image quality.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 10 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of 3.5Mb.

The Ricoh GXR P10 produced images of very good quality during the review period. The Ricoh GXR P10's main drawback in terms of image quality is noise, with ISO 400 showing some noise, blurring of detail and slight colour desaturation. The noise and loss of detail get progressively worse as you go from ISO 400 to 1600, although only the fastest setting of 3200 is not really worth using unless there's no other option.

The Ricoh GXR P10 handled chromatic aberrations very well with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 10 megapixel images were just a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting of Normal and either require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should increase the built-in sharpening level. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds allowing you to capture enough light for most situations.

The Dynamic Range mode works really well, resulting in images that have noticeably more dynamic range that those shot in the Normal mode. If you want to shoot images that retain detail in both the highlight and shadow areas, then the Ricoh GXR P10 unit is a great choice. There is one main drawback though; the DR images have noticeably less saturated colours than the Normal version, which more accurately matches the scene.

Macro performance is a stand-out highlight, allowing you to focus as close as 1cm away from the subject, although there is a lot of lens distortion and shadowing at such a close distance. The GXR P10's small built-in pop-up flash worked well indoors at full power, with no red-eye and good overall exposure, and the ability to fine-tune the power output is very welcome. The sensor-shift image stabilisation system is effective at reducing unwanted camera shake when hand-holding the camera.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Ricoh GXR P10 camera unit. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting for both JPEG and RAW files.

P10 28-300mm Camera Unit
JPEG	RAW
ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Rioch P10 camera unit has a very versatile focal range that's equivalent to 28-300mm in 35mm terms.

28mm	300mm

Dynamic Range

When the Ricoh GXR P10 is in DR mode (Dynamic Range double shot) it takes two images with different exposures, and then records a single image that combines the properly exposed parts of each one. You can also choose to take a DR and Normal image at the same time (both are saved to the memory card). Here is an example which was shot with Normal and then the four DR modes (Very Weak, Weak, Medium and Strong).

Normal	Dynamic Range - Very Weak
Dynamic Range - Weak	Dynamic Range - Medium
Dynamic Range - Strong

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening setting of Normal. You can change the in-camera sharpening level to one of the preset levels if you don't like the default look.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

File Quality

The Ricoh GXR P10 has 2 different image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

10M Fine (3.43Mb) (100% Crop)	10M Normal (2.05Mb) (100% Crop)
10M RAW (14.6Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Ricoh GXR P10 handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review, with very limited purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the example below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Ricoh GXR P10 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is just 1cm away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Ricoh GXR P10 are Auto, Red-eye-Reduction, Flash On, Slow Synchro, Manual Flash, and Flash Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m with the 24-72mm camera unit.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (28mm)
Flash Off - Wide Angle (300mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (300mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On or the Red-eye-Reduction settings caused any red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red-eye Reduction	Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Ricoh GXR P10's maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds, which is excellent news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 2 seconds at ISO 100. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Anti Shake

The Ricoh GXR P10 has sensor-shift image stabilisation which allows you to take hand-held shots at slower shutter speeds than would otherwise be possible. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/16th / 28mm
1/10th / 300mm

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Ricoh GXR P10 camera, which were all taken using the 10 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The Ricoh GXR P10 camera unit enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some Ricoh RAW (DNG) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Isometric View

Isometric View

P10 Camera Unit

P10 Camera Unit / Lens Extended

P10 Camera Unit / Isometric View

P10 Camera Unit / Isometric View

P10 Camera Unit / Flash Raised

P10 Camera Unit

P10 Camera Unit

P10 Camera Unit

P10 Camera Unit

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

Rear of the Camera / Direct Menu

Rear of the Camera / ADJ. Menu

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

VF-2 External Viewfinder

VF-2 External Viewfinder

Conclusion

With the same lens and image sensor specifications as the cheaper Ricoh CX3 compact camera, you'd be forgiven for missing the point of the new and more expensive Ricoh GXR and P10 camera unit combination. Thankfully the very welcome addition of RAW shooting, and at a DSLR-beating 5 frames per second in Continuous mode, means that the P10 and the excellent GXR body are still worthy of your attention.

The Ricoh GXR and the P10 camera unit make more sense to us than the S10 and A12 units that initially launched with the body. Despite the smaller back-illuminated sensor that results in still very good but not outstanding image quality, particularly at higher ISOs, the incredibly versatile 10.7x lens is more appealing than the 24-72mm that the S12 offers. Throw in a 1cm macro mode, 720p HD movies, a Vibration Correction function and the effective dynamic range double shot mode, and it's it's clear to us that if you had to choose one GXR module, the P10 would be it.

Also making more sense is the slightly more realistic pricing that Ricoh are selling the P10 for. OK, £499 / $499 is still a lot of money for what is essentially a 10 megapixel compact, however modular it is, but on the other hand we can't think of too many compacts that offer such an intuitive, customisable and photographer-friendly experience as the P10. And it's a lot, lot cheaper than the combined pricing of the A12 and S10 units with the GXR body when they launched last December.

So while the P10 camera unit may not make the Ricoh GXR system appeal to a wider audience, those who have bought into Ricoh's vision will find the combination of a very good 10 megapixel compact sensor, versatile 28-300mm lens, high-res 3 inch screen, HD movies, full manual control customisation, and the icing on the cake, RAW shooting at 5fps, very difficult to ignore.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	5
Features	4.5
Ease-of-use	4.5
Image quality	4
Value for money	4

Specifications

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