Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Announced on the 19th of February 2008, the Ricoh R8 is Ricoh's latest pocket zoom digital camera - and features a wide angle 7.1x optical zoom, image stabilisation, a 2.7" screen, VGA video recording, and a 10 megapixel sensor. The camera has moved more upmarket with a new, more professional design, and improved rubberised grip, whilst still remaining almost ultra compact in size. The Ricoh R8 is available from around £239 which makes it average value for money at the moment, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the price drop over time. The camera is enclosed in a metal body and is available in black, silver, or reviewed here: two tone silver and black. The camera is the compact for the amount of optical zoom and measures approx. 102.0 mm(W)x 58.3 mm(H) x 26.1 mm (excluding protrusions), and weighs approx. 168g. excluding battery and memory card."

7.1x optical zoom with image stabilization and a small form factor seems to be a killer combination and it is set at a reasonable price point - $400. The downside, of course, is the noise factor in the images at the slightly high ISO levels. I have not given this camera a shot yet but some of the photographs in this review worry me with respect to noise, The other downside, IMHO, is the slight lack of manual features. If this camera had some of the manual features like the G9 then I'd be running out to buy one now.

"Ricoh is a camera manufacturer that tends to swim against the stream, not only in terms of product range but also in the way it schedules its product announcements. While all the big boys announced their new toys just before or right at PMA in Las Vegas, Ricoh decided to wait a couple of weeks longer and let the world know about the new addition to its compact camera range at a rather understated press event. The R8 comes as an upgrade to the R7, itself launched a mere six months ago. The new model constitutes only a fairly minor upgrade. The key changes are the new, slightly boxier design, the inevitable increase in megapixels (from eight to ten) and a larger 2.7" screen which now has an impressive resolution of 460,000 pixels. The 28-200mm equiv. zoom and 3rd generation Smooth Imaging Engine have been carried over from the predecessor. In addition the R8 comes with a number of interesting features which are rarely seen on the big manufacturers' cameras. The feature list includes a movable AF/AE target area, 1:1 image ratio option and levels and white balance adjustment in review mode, amongst others."

The R8 starts out by getting some rave reviews. But then a few of its major pain points start to reveal themselves. The biggest pain appears to be its performance in low light conditions. A combination of a poor flash and slow auto-focus seems to create problems. Plus, it is slow to recognize faces. Movie mode is another weak point, it is very basic, the output is heavily compressed and image stabilization is not available when filming. Hmm, so why should one buy this camera? I am not entirely sure. At this point, given the large number of competitors and each with a whole array of models, I am pretty much looking for perfection in a camera these days (yeah, yeah, I know that no such thing exists). :-)