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The Ricoh Caplio R6 is an upgrade to the popular R5 model. It features a 7.2 megapixel sensor, 7.1x optical zoom lens, vibration correction and a 2.7 inch LCD screen.
The Ricoh Caplio R6 comes complete with race detection technology (Auto exposure and auto focus).
The R6 will retail for £229.99 when it is released later this month (March 2007).
Main features of the new Caplio R6:
1. 7.1x wide-angle zoom lens in the slimmest body in this class of camera, measuring in at a mere 20.6 mm at its thinnest point.
*By completely rethinking the design of the double retracting lens system – an original mechanism that makes it possible to equip the Caplio R6 with a 28-200mm optical zoom lens in a 20.6mm thin body – all parts could be miniaturised through Ricoh’s own technology at 0.01 mm levels.
*The lens setup was optimised by employing highly refractive glass lenses along with the double retracting lens system and by optimising the distribution of thickness in the lens assembly.
*A wide range of photographic options are supported from panoramic landscapes and wide-angle photography and indoor shooting under low light near the subject to impressive telephoto photography.
2. New face recognition mode that automatically identifies faces to photograph people easily and clearly.
* The face recognition mode for automatically recognising and identifying faces uses a Ricoh-original algorithm to differentiate overall facial characteristics from other images viewed in the scene, thereby automatically detecting faces. Focus, exposure, and white balance are automatically adjusted to fit the face even if the subject is not in the centre of the frame.
* If more than one person is in the frame, adjustments are automatically made that are optimum for the group as a whole.
3. Attention to high-quality design.
* On top of great portability, design features such as generous use of metal around the lens, a distinctive strap attachment, and curves on the top create an anticipation of high performance. The Caplio R6 sports an improved feel of robustness and texture.
4. Well-received vibration correction function as well as a variety of other innovations to prevent poor pictures from situations such as being out of focus or white saturation occurring.
* Improvements have been made to the correction algorithm for the Ricoh-original CCD-shift vibration correction method for picture taking at macro and telephoto.
* A new feature in quick review lets you enlarge the image 16 times at the touch of a button. That way, you can check that the shot was in focus right away.
* A new function has been added to prevent white saturation by highlighting and flashing in quick review and playback areas with high luminance values when photographing.
* An auto high sensitivity mode has been added to allow clear shots in dark places. Sensitivity can be raised up to ISO 1600 depending on the brightness of the subject. Coupled with the vibration correction function, this gives even better blur prevention.
5. High picture quality photography through high-performance CCD and image processing engine.
* The 7.24 megapixel CCD allows for high-resolution photography.
* High-level image processing is achieved and images with low noise are produced through
an original image processing engine that operates at speed. Thanks to that, even photography at ISO 1600 sensitivity is possible.
6. Diverse range of original functions.
* The dual size recording mode allows you to record two files at the same time with one shot: a normal sized image and a reduced size image. You can choose from 1 megapixel, VGA, HVGA, or QVGA for the reduced size. This is convenient for using photos on the Internet such as when attaching to e-mail or placing in blogs.
*Internal memory is boosted to 54 MB (26 MB with Caplio R5). This lets you take 34 shots at 7M size normal mode even without a memory card.
* Multiple individual files can be selected for deletion. Furthermore deleted files can even be recovered with the new File Recovery feature.
* You can skip 10 images forward or backward in playback. This lets you quickly search for the image you want when many images are stored on large-capacity memory.
* A Ricoh-original macro mode allows close-in shooting of objects at as close as 1 cm with wide macro and as close as 25 cm with telemacro. A Zoom Macro function is included to allow use of digital zooming from the optical zoom position where subjects can be captured at their largest.
* The Caplio R6 includes an Auto Resize function that automatically changes the image size when shooting at 7M size and zooming in excess of 200 mm optical. This enables high zoom photography of up to 34.1x* (equivalent to 960 mm) at high image quality without image correction processing. It is also equipped with general digital zoom.
7. Large, high-resolution LCD.
* The Caplio R6 has a bright, high-resolution, high viewing angle 2.7-inch LCD (Caplio R5 LCD is 2.5 inches).
8. Long-life rechargeable battery for approx. 330 shots under CIPA standards (standard accessory).
* The power-saving features of the internal circuit allow for a battery life equivalent to previous models, even with the smaller battery in the slimmer Caplio R6
9. Skew Correction function.
* Through an original algorithm that automatically detects trapezoids in images based on composition when shooting and corrects them to rectangles, images can be corrected to look as though they were shot from the front. The function is most effective in business environments where subjects such as blackboards, overhead projector images, time schedules, and signs cannot be shot from the front.
Accessories included:
Rechargeable Battery DB-70 / Battery Charger BJ-7 / USB Cable / AV Cable / Handstrap / Software CD-Rom / Instruction Manuals
Available: Mid-March 2007
Available Colours: Silver, Black and Red
RRP: £229.99 (inc. VAT)
Trusted Reviews has a review of the Ricoh Caplio R6 and writes, "Despite its compact design the lens performs extremely well, producing very little distortion at the wide angle end with good corner sharpness. In almost all exposure situations the metering system performed superbly, coping with high contrast, backlighting, bright colours and low light with equal precision. There was a small amount of purple fringing visible on some high-contrast shots with burned-out highlights, but very little compared to some other cameras, and none at all on most shots. High ISO noise control was also generally good, I would say slightly above average for its class. From 64-200 ISO there was very little noise even on long-exposure shots, 400-800 ISO were noisy but usable, while 1600 ISO was quite noisy and best avoided, as is usually the case. ... The Ricoh Caplio R6 is a fantastically versatile all-round camera, an improvement in almost every way on the already impressive R5, offering a winning combination of style, build quality, performance and image quality. It is loaded with more features than almost any other camera on the market, and certainly more than any other in its price range. I would happily buy a Caplio R6 myself."
ThinkCamera has a review of the Ricoh Caplio R6 and writes, "the R6 delivers pretty good images. The lens provides a fairly sharp picture, though it does have some softening towards the very edges, particularly at wide angle. The quality isn't bad considering the long zoom range though. Sadly it also suffers from chromatic aberrations (purple fringing) in areas of high contrast towards the edges of the picture - this can be very pronounced and makes the picture appear blurry. ... Overall, Ricoh's Caplio R6 is very impressive. ... There are very few problems to report, though it's a shame the colour fringing is so severe."
ePhotoZine has a review of the Ricoh Caplio R6 and writes, "There are some great features on the Caplio R6, starting off with the design which is stylish and modern. The zoom is great, really one of the fastest we've seen on a compact, and tied in to a 28mm wide angle setting, really gets the camera off to a flying start. ... Detail on landscape shots tends to be good but there are certainly real issues with noise being evident right from the off in ISO100 mode and any low-light shot will have have noise regardless of the ISO setting. It's the noise really, and the over-aggressive portrait mode that keep this camera from scoring top marks because the performance otherwise has much to offer and it's a genuinely nice camera to hold and use."
PhotographyBLOG has a review of the Ricoh Caplio R6 and writes, "The Ricoh Caplio R6's image quality is above average. The Ricoh Caplio R6's main drawback in terms of image quality is noise, with ISO 400 showing some noise and blurring of detail. The noise gets progressively worse as you go from ISO 400 to ISO 800 and finally the completely unusable 1600 setting. The Ricoh Caplio R6 handled chromatic aberrations quite well with limited purple fringing effects appearing in high contrast situations. The 7 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting of Normal and either require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should set the in-camera sharpening to Sharp."
DPExpert has a review of the Ricoh Caplio R6 and writes, "Ricoh prides itself on being the company that removed the curse of shutter lag from digital photography. Other models we have tested have been almost as fast as SLRs in their responses. The R6 is a perplexing throw-back to a past era. So here we have a camera that has a brilliant lens and can produce beautifully exposed images with fine detail and accurate colour that is infuriating to use if you are trying to photograph children or animals. Try before you buy."
DigiCamReview has reviewed the Ricoh Caplio R6 and writes - "The Ricoh Caplio R6 has improved on the Ricoh Caplio R5 in a number of ways, most noticable is the camera's smaller, more stylish body, and larger screen, the improved zoom control is also a very welcome addition. Image quality is very good, especially outdoors and the camera has rich colours and good exposure. The Ricoh Caplio R6 is the smallest digital camera to feature a wide-angle 7.1x optical zoom lens with image stabilisation. The camera is very good value for money and I would recommend this camera. The Ricoh Caplio R6 is an extremely capable pocket camera that can produce excellent results."
Posted by Darren in our Miscellaneous category on March 09, 2007