Ricoh R8 Review
Review Date: March 13th 2008
Author: Mark Goldstein
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Conclusion
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Ratings
(out of 5) |
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| Design | 5 |
| Features | 4.5 |
| Ease-of-Use | 5 |
| Image Quality | 3.5 |
| Value for Money | 4.5 |
Ricoh have set out to make the new R8 a worthy addition to its professional range of compact digital cameras. Both the consumer Caplio branding and slightly awkward design of its predecessor have been dropped, replaced with a much more serious, well-thought out and simplified approach that really pays dividends. The Ricoh R8 is a lovingly-designed point and shoot camera that is as nice to use as it it to look at, instantly appealing to anyone who wants a fast, responsive and compact camera with an incredibly versatile 7x zoom lens and a wealth of innovative features.
So why, you may well ask, has the Ricoh R8 only earned our Recommended award, despite scoring 5 in two areas? There's one big problem with this camera - noisy images. We thought the R7 had finally cracked Ricoh's long-standing problems with noise at slow ISO speeds, delivering good results between 64-400. Sadly the R8, with its increased resolution of 10 megapixels, takes a clear backwards step, with noise and blurring of detail evident at the relatively slow speed of ISO 200. I'd hesitate to use ISO 400, never mind 800, making the Ricoh R8 a camera for sunny, outdoor days only, unless you're happy to live with the noise (black and white shooters may even like the effect) or clean it up afterwards with third-party software. Chromatic aberrations and purple fringing are a bit more obvious too, and there is still some softness in the corners when using the wide-angle focal lengths.
If only Ricoh had resisted the temptation to join in the megapixel race and stuck with the tried-and-trusted 8 megapixel sensor of the R7, they'd have been onto a real winner with the new R8 model. As things stand, however, the R8 is a camera that you will really enjoy using, but you may not like the photos that it takes...
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