Ricoh Caplio GX100 review

There will be fewer arguments about Ricoh's decision to include raw capture. Raw files have been called 'digital negatives', preserving more colour and detail than normal JPEG pictures. They're slower to save, however, and take up much more space than JPEGs -- you'll fit just one full-resolution raw photo in the GX100's 28MB of internal memory.

Performance
Speed -- or lack of it -- is probably the Ricoh's greatest failing. Start-up takes 2 seconds, and a shutter delay of another second is typical. More annoyingly, in single-shot mode, you have to wait for the file to save before shooting again -- around two seconds for a high-quality JPEG and up to five for raw. Switch to burst mode and shooting speed maxes out at 1.7 frames per second.

The good news is that images are generally worth the wait. The wide-angle lens suffers from distortion, but only a faint smear of purple fringing. Colours are strong and accurate, although perhaps not as faultlessly natural as you'll see from some of the better Canon cameras. The multi-zone autofocus system is pretty dumb -- switch to spot focus if you want to be sure of sharp shots.

The Ricoh manages its powerful 10-megapixel chip well, delivering good levels of detail, even in complex subjects such as grass and distant trees. Noise is well controlled: ISO 400 shots are smoothly assured; ISO 800 has a sprinkling of digital grain; and only at ISO 1,600 does colour fade and detail degrade.

The Caplio has a tiny, manual pop-up flash that looks far too small to be effective. Don't be fooled -- this is one of the most powerful units we've seen on a compact, effortlessly filling a room with light or simply blasting away daytime shadows. It's far too strong for close-ups, though -- even the Soft flash is stronger than most compacts.

The GX100's lithium battery is rated for a generous 380 shots per charge, but if you do get caught short, simply slip in a brace of AA cells instead -- a thoughtful bonus.

Conclusion
Ricoh's rewards for ploughing its own photographic furrow are inevitably mixed. On the plus side, the superb lens is one of the most flexible around -- giving great wide-angle performance, true macro close-ups and easy manual exposure. The flash unit is wonderful and the interface, once you get used to it, will make it hard to go back to traditional, time-consuming menus.

In some respects, however, the GX100 does feel outdated. The autofocus system lacks sophistication and speed, image stabilisation is primitive and the price reflects last year's benchmarks rather than today's bargains.

Ultimately, what saves the GX100 from being merely an interesting irrelevance in the era of sub-£400 digital SLRs is its solid 10-megapixel image quality, its convenience and size, and that fascinating wide-angle lens.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Nick Hide