Ricoh Caplio GX8
Review Date: October 13th 2005
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Features
The Ricoh Caplio GX8 has an 8.5 megapixel, 1/1.8 inch CCD that delivers 8.24 effective megapixels. There are 7 image quality/size settings available which are recorded as JPEGs. The TIFF format is also supported. The camera's 3x optical zoom lens is equivalent to a 28-85mm lens on a 35mm format camera. There is also a 4x digital zoom should you feel the need to use it. The camera has 26 MB internal memory and supports SD Memory and Multi Media memory cards up to 1GB in size.
The Ricoh Caplio GX8 offers an Auto exposure mode and 6 different scene modes (Portrait, Sports, Landscape, Night Scene, Text and High Sensitivity). In addition Aperture Priority and Manual shooting modes are also available. The maximum aperture is f2.5 (wide) – f4.3 (tele), and the shutter speed range is 30 secs. – 1/2000 sec. During long exposures a noise elimination function is automatically applied. There are 6 ISO speeds ranging from 64 to 1600 and an Auto option. There are 5 different White Balance presets to choose from (Daylight, Overcast, Tungsten Light, Fluorescent Light, One Push), plus an Auto setting. White Balance bracketing is also available, which automatically shoots three images, one with a red tone, one at standard white, and one with a blue tone. The camera offers exposure compensation in ± 2 in 1/3 EV stops and auto-bracketing in 1/2 EV stop. The Ricoh Caplio GX8 offers 3 different auto-exposure metering options - Multi (256 segments), Center Weight and Spot.
The Ricoh Caplio GX8 has a normal shooting mode (still), self-timer (2 seconds), self-timer (10 seconds), interval timer (5 sec. - 3 hours (5 sec. steps)) and 3 different continuous shooting modes (Continuous, S-Continuous, M-Continuous). In S-continuous mode, a press of the shutter button fires 16 shots in approximately 2 seconds and stores them in a single file. M-continuous mode memorizes the last 16 shots in an approximately 2-second file. There are 3 different colour modes on offer - normal, vivid and neutral. The Macro setting allows you to focus on subjects that are as close as 1cm! As well as normal auto-focus, the camera offers Manual Focus, Fixed Focus (Snap) and infinity modes, and it also has an AF Assist Light. The built-in flash offers 5 different modes; Auto, Red-eye Reduction, On, Slow Synchro, Off.
To compose your images, you can use the LCD monitor or the real-image optical zoom viewfinder. The Ricoh Caplio GX8 has a 1.8 inch low temperature polysilicon TFT LCD which has 130,000 pixels. The Ricoh Caplio GX8 can record movies with sound at 2 different settings - 320 x 240 pixels or 160 x 120 pixels at 30 frames per second. Video is recorded in the AVI format and you can use the digital zoom. The length of the video is only limited by the size of the memory card that you are using. As well as recording movies, the Ricoh Caplio GX8 also doubles up as a voice recorder, recording in the WAV format, and you can add sound clips to your images. A histogram is available in both shooting and playback modes.
The camera's dimensions are 113.6 (W) x 58 (D) x 29 (H) mm, and it weighs 205g without the battery and storage card fitted. The camera is powered by either the supplied rechargeable lithium-ion battery, 2 AA batteries or the optional AC adapter. Approximately 400 shots can be taken using the lithium-ion battery, or 80 shots with the AA batteries. The Ricoh Caplio GX8 attaches directly to any PictBridge-compatible printer with a USB cable. There is a plastic tripod mount in the centre of the bottom of the camera. The Ricoh Caplio GX8 has a USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed USB) interface and an Audio/Video Out port.
Finally, the standard box kit contains a USB cable, wrist strap, 2 AA batteries, A/V cable, user guide and a CD-ROM with Caplio software for Windows and Macintosh. Note that Ricoh have chosen not to supply a memory card. The Ricoh Caplio GX8 does have 26Mb internal memory, but you can only store 8 images at the highest quality setting. You will therefore need to invest in some memory cards to store your images on.
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PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Ricoh Caplio GX8 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.