Ricoh Caplio R6 Review

Review Date: May 10th 2007
Author: Mark Goldstein

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Conclusion

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	4.5
Ease-of-Use	4.5
Image Quality	4
Value for Money	4.5

Just 6 months on from the R5 model, the new Ricoh R6 arrives, at first glance with few new standout features. The must-have feature for all compact digicams in 2007, Face Recognition, is supposedly the headline addition to the R6, but as with most of these systems, you'll get better results by focusing the camera yourself. A more effective change is the redesigned user interface, which offers a much better zoom lever and advanced customisation options which really allow you to configure the camera to suit your own needs. Ricoh have also fixed most of the annoyances that the older R5 had, notably the protruding flash unit, flimsy battery compartment cover and tiny power button. Only the strange camera strap eyelet fails to hit the design mark. Ricoh have importantly improved the image quality of the R6, with cleaner images at ISO 400 than on the previous model, and chromatic aberrations and purple fringing which isn't too obvious. There is some softness in the corners when using the wide-angle focal lengths, but this is forgivable given the versatile range that the 7x lens offers. The Vibration Correction system is very effective, and in conjunction with the useable ISO range of 64-400, this makes the Ricoh R6 well-suited to most photographic situations. The main attractions of the R6 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 speedy performance that easily beats the competition. The Ricoh R6 is a marked improvement on the slightly older R5, and remains a rather unique proposition. If you can live without any creative exposure modes, an optical viewfinder and more advanced features like RAW images, the Ricoh R6 makes a great pocket alternative to a DSLR system.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Ricoh Caplio R6 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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