Ricoh R8 Review
Review Date: March 13th 2008
Author: Mark Goldstein
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 10M Fine mode, which
gives an average image size of around 3-4Mb.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available on the Ricoh R8 which you can select
at any time if the camera is in the normal shooting mode.
Unfortunately the Ricoh R8 doesn't match the noise performance of
its 8 megapixel predecessor, the R7. There is no discernible noise at
the slowest settings of ISO 64 and 100, as you would expect,
but noise is already appearing at ISO 200, along with a change in the colour balance of the image. There is very noticeable noise at ISO 400,
and by ISO 800 most of the detail in the roof tiles has been lost. ISO 1600 is in my opinion completely unusable,
looking good on the spec sheet, but terrible in reality.
Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for
each ISO setting:
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 (Sharp, Normal or Soft)
if you don't like the default look.
File Quality
The Ricoh R8 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.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Ricoh R8 did suffer from
chromatic aberrations during the review, but it was generally
well controlled. Limited purple fringing was mainly present
around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations,
as shown in the examples below.
Macro
The Ricoh R8 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.
Flash
The flash settings on the Ricoh R8 are Auto
flash, Red-eye Flash, Flash On, Flash Synchro, Soft Flash and Flash
Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken
at a distance of 1.5m.
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Auto
Flash - Telephoto (200mm) |
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And here are some shots of yours truly.
As you can see, neither the Flash On setting or the Red-eye Flash option caused any amount of red-eye.
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Flash
On (100% Crop) |
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Flash
- Red-eye Flash (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Ricoh R8's maximum shutter
speed is 8 seconds, which is fairly good news if you're seriously
interested in night photography. The shot below was taken
using a shutter speed of 8 seconds, aperture of f/5
at ISO 64. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show
what the quality is like.
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Night
Shot (100% Crop) |
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Anti Shake
The Ricoh R8 has an anti-shake
mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower
shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this,
I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the lens
set to the same focal length and ISO speed.
The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the
second with it turned on. As you can see, with anti shake
turned on, the images are definitely sharper than with anti
shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a
difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot
or missing the opportunity altogether. Here is a 100% crop
of the image to show the results.
Overall Image Quality
The Ricoh R8's image quality
is only average. The Ricoh R8's main drawback in
terms of image quality is noise, with ISO 200 showing some
noise and blurring of detail. The noise and loss of detail gets progressively
worse as you go from ISO 400 to ISO 800 and finally the completely
unusable 1600 setting. Compared to the R8's predecessor, the Caplio R7, it seems that the increase in resolution from 8 to 10 megapixels has unfortunately resulted in noisier images at comparative ISO speeds. The Ricoh R8 handled chromatic
aberrations quite well with limited purple fringing effects
appearing in high contrast situations. The 10 megapixel images
were 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 set the in-camera sharpening to Sharp. The night photograph
was OK, with the maximum shutter speed of 8 seconds allowing
you to capture just enough light for most situations. Macro performance is
the 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. Anti-shake
is also a feature that sets this camera apart from its competitors
and one that works very well when hand-holding the camera
in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of
the zoom range. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with
no red-eye and good overall exposure.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Ricoh R8 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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