Ricoh Caplio R5 Review

Review Date: September 22nd 2006

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Conclusion

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	3.5
Features	4
Ease-of-Use	4
Image Quality	4
Value for Money	4

Ricoh have introduced some significant improvements to the Caplio R5, principally a great continuous shooting mode which allows unlimited shooting at 2.5fps, and the ability to take consecutive flash shots without having to wait for the flash to recharge. In addition there's even longer batter life (around 350 shots), a much improved movie mode and higher resolution LCD screen, bringing the Ricoh R5 in line with other cameras in this class. However, Ricoh have also made some curious design decisions that make the R5 worse in some respects, namely the much smaller power and zoom buttons which make the camera more awkward to use, the flash unit which protrudes from the front of the camera, and the flimsy battery compartment cover. The new image processing system promises low noise and an expanded ISO range, but whilst the R5 does offer ISO 1600, you really won't want to use, or for that matter ISO 800. In fact, the R5's images are still as noisy as the R4's - the move to 7 megapixels seems to have offset any processing gains that Ricoh's engineers have made. There is one image quality improvement, which comes in the form of much less obvious chromatic aberrations and purple fringing. The main attractions of the R5 remain the same as its predecessors, namely a point and shoot camera that can easily fit in your pocket, with a massive 7x wide-angle optical zoom lens and genuinely useful anti-shake system. So the Ricoh R5 is a significant improvement in some respects on the slightly older R4 model, but frustratingly a backwards step in others.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Ricoh Caplio R5 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.

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