Ricoh Caplio R7 user reviews

irritateddata 23 May 2010

Good: very little, when it did work it was okayish

Bad: poor image quality, flimsy construction, faulty internals.

Comment: I don't understand the experts' rave reviews. Are they sure it was a Caplio R7 they tested. It's the worst compact camera I have ever owned. The lens seized up within a few weeks. I had to switch off and on several times to release it. A few months later the focusing went completely. The battery/card slide was always sliding open. Reading others' reviews I'm not alone in saying that the R7 is an utter waste of your money, avoid at all costs even at bargain prices. Ricoh should be ashamed of themselves.

academy13 30 July 2009

Good: Occasionally it allows you to take photos

Bad: It has a fundamental flaw which renders the camera useless

Comment: I wanted a small capable camera to carry when I couldnt tote my Nikon SLR around. After reading several review site I chose the Ricoh over the Panasonic Lumix. That was a mistake as it was soon clear that the camera has very poor low light capability and the flash bleaches out subjects. That however is the good news as it means the camera is at least taking pictures. The bad news is that the camera simply dies- leaving the lens fully extended and the screen blank. I was able to get this repaired under warranty after the first failure, and after taking only a further 180 shots it has failed again- this time outside the warranty period and going by the experience of the long long list of disgruntled purchasers I am not expecting to be using this camera again. Does CNET ever reconsider or update its opinion in the light of real time experience of a product.

Darby Lovelette 12 November 2008

Good: It was fun while it lasted, but then...

Bad: ...the lens froze, Ricoh is impossible to contact

Comment: I loved this camera while it worked, but now the lens is completely frozen. It won't retract, move or focus. Camera won't shut off as a result. Apparently, this is a common occurrence, as I've seen numerous postings with the same issue on Fixya.com.

I'm in the US and have tried emailing Ricoh at two different US email addresses as well as submitting a request for support here: http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/support/inquiry.html. Both email addresses are apparently no longer valid/working and I received no response from Ricoh with the online support request. As a last resort, I tried the 800 number on the warranty card. The phone tree has no option for the Caplio R7 (it does for other digitals), and you have to submit a credit card number for a $19 payment before they will connect the call.

I'd recommend looking elsewhere for a ultra compact with zoom. Avoid the hassle and headache of Ricoh.

sliders919 13 September 2008

Good: Big Optical Zoom

Bad: LCD Screen, Washed out colours, Reliability, Wide Angle Distortion

Comment: I searched for ages to find an alternative/replacement for my Canon S2. This promised so much and offered comparative zoom levels.

What can I say - the LCD screen is so poor you cant tell whether the picture is good or not till you put it on your computer. Not a major issue you think.........but when the image taken is nothing like the LCD portrays how do you know you captured that special moment and dont need to take another picture? I was also finding that I took several pictures because the LCD made them look so bad but in reality they were OK.

The actual image quality again is promised as being great but this camera really cannot cope with High UV levels. Just returned from Scotland and all my pictures look washed out - the Auto Setting hasn't done a great job. The deep blue sea look like the sea at my home town - Murky. White sands look grey and where my canon gave vivid "Wow....." pictures these dont even come close and say "mediochre". It also really struggled with shots where there was any water with the LCD just blacking out and the sensors not being able to cope with light levels. Never ever had that problem with my S2 during my round the world trip.

Reliability is questionable. All too often I have to turn this camera off an on again because something has gone wrong with the lens mechanism on first turn on and everything is blurred.

I dont know the technical term for this issue but on the wideangle zoom setting the pictures look rounded at the edges. I could understand this if I was using a high angle additional lens but not as standard.

Overall the pictures are not fantastic and despite promising so much the camera delivers so little. With all the features I want so much to like it. But with the quality of pictures I just cant. Back to my canon and I'll put up with its size. The last time I had this image quality was on a Nikon 3200. Not that it took bad pictures but it was only 3.2 mp. This is 8.

slscs 17 March 2008

Good: 7X Zoom, Sharp Image, support SDHC card

Bad: Jagged screen