User reviews for Ricoh Caplio R3: Digital Photography Review

Opinion: I spent $300.00 bought this camera in Marchl 2006. Now you can buy it under $250.00. It was not easy to buy Ricoh camera in the United States. I only find it in New York City camera store, and mail order it. Nowhere else in all US continent I saw it sells Ricoh camera. I had Nikon Coolpix 8400, Nikon Coolpix 5400, Olympus C-4000, Fuji FinePix A303, and Fuji FinePix E500 before I bought this one. I bought Fuji Finepix v10 after I bought this.

I love travel, and love taking many photos during my vacation. This is the one I used most often after I bought all of the above cameras. I took thousands of pictures with it, and I still plan to use it as my major vacation camera.

I was looking for a camera that is small (~6 oz), has large LCD (2.5"), need date print on photos, has wide angle zoom (28mm-200mm), responds fast, and has a long battery life. This camera has all. In addition, it uses SD memory, which is very small and cheap now. The same type of memory can be used on many other electronic devices, such as GPS, MP3 player, etc... After I bought it, I've found it's not only small, but has a leather case come with it, so I can wear it on the belt as if it is a cell phone (it is almost as small as a cell phone). Even though Fuji Finepix 303 and v10 are also very small, they don't come with lether case, so I have to carry it or put it on my pocket, make it less convenient than waring it as a cell phone. When I saw a beautiful scene, I can quickly pull Ricoh R3 out and many good photos I took them this way. I can put it back right away and don't feel I was carrying a camera. (I would have missed may good photos if they are not that easy to carry). That one unique feature helped me and makes me very happy. I also find it's telephoto (up to 200mm) sometimes is also useful to take remote pictures. Antishake feature is not very phenominon. May times in a low light I don't see it improve my picture quality, compare with many other cameras that don't have antishake feature. The battery can last more than 400 photos with a single charge, if you don't flash or constantly change zoom. My favorite resolution is 2M with 1600 x 1200 (normally ~320 K size, easy to e-mail, and also can show full screen view in computer), but this camera doesn't have it. I can only use 3M with 2048 x 1536, but each picture takes 600 K to 720 K in size. Another resolution is 1 M 1028 x 960, which I don't use it much. Fuji and Nickon camera all has my favorate 1600 x 1200 resolution.

Under enough light, especially outdoors, the picture quality was very good. The movie mode also can take good sound movies, but the resolution was not high. Good enough for my travel purpose. I used it and not buying a digital camcorder any more (I don't use it much now).

If date inprint is important to you, then consider buying Nikon, Sony, Kodak, HP, Samsung and Ricohn (These brands all models have date inprint feature). I did a lot of research and found Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic, Leica, Casio, Canon, Minota (any model) don't have date inprint feature. Olympus has best software I experienced because I can use it to adjust brightness, contrast, color, etc with the software come with Olypics camera. I still use them very frequently (with the software come with Olympus C4100) Nikon, Fuji, Ricohn and Canon software I don't see them have this feature (can adjust brightness, contrast, and color).

Many sales person always claim their cameras have date inprint feature when you ask them, but it's not true. Every digital camera once you pull your mouse on the picture (on Windows XP), they will show you what date is taken (given the fact that you set the date before you take pictures), but the date won't show in normal print out for the above model I specified, no matter how expensive a model you buy. It's brand based.

Problems: If I use portrait mode to take indoor people photos, the result will be much better than using normal mode. Using normal mode under this condition R3 seldom focus right. If you are not using portrait mode, it is highly recommend to use flash. It comes out much better than if you don't use flash.

Many Sony models, also Fuji Finepix 303, Fuji Finepix v10 I have experienced, can give better quality with indoor low light photos. These camera in general, don't have wide angel feature (<= 28 mm). That's why I still haven't bought any Sony camera. Sony only has wide angle camera with high end models (not P&S), which is not easy to carry when travling outside.

I also tested using manual focus indoor, the result was not as good as I expected. Besides, the manual mode was not like other cameras, clearly indicate the distance. It was not clear to me how to use R3 to adjust the distance with MF mode.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report

Opinion: Very easy to use. Lovely big LCD display.
Many extra modes and functions to play with once the basics have been mastered. And ULTRA small to slip into a pocket or handbag. Am VERY VERY pleased with the prints I have had done from my camera.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report

Opinion: Great zoom
Large view screen
Quick startup
Great outside pictures

Problems: Lousy lens cover, frequently jams over the lens
View screen very hard to see in daylight
Very grainy pictures for inside shots.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report

Opinion: This is a great little pocket camera. Lots of people whine about the image noise at high ISO, but what did they expect from a little teeny sensor? It is no worse than any other camera in the same category, and to be honest, its actually better than I had any reason to expect.

The camera operates as a simple P&S for many people and gives "good enough" quality, but if you are capable of doing post, then under expose a bit, leave the sharpening at low/soft and fix things in post.

The big selling point is having such an enormous zoom range, and having 28mm equiv on the wide end is GREAT!

I got one LNIB for $225, which was a deal I couldn't refuse.

Problems: Its kind of noisy, with the motors for zooming and focusing being louder than expected, but still okay.

Wish it had RAW.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report

Opinion: Nice truly pocketable camera, ideal for travel. Camera, charger and a bunch of 1 gig SD cards makes a nice small package.
Construction seems a little flimsy (particularly the battery door) but no problems so far.
Very fast to turn on and shoot, no more lost shots waiting for camera to "warm up".
The 28mm equivalent wide angle is absolutely essential for a serious traveller for many shots.
Image quality out of box needs some help, I've set mine to biggest jpeg, Softest sharpening, Lowest Contrast, -0.3 stops underexposure. Also set it to 3:2 ratio as most images will be 4"x6" printed. That allows over 500 images on a 1 gig card.
Battery life of at least 300 shots, never saw flat warning as we re-charge each night.
All shots always look much better when PSP X Smart Photo Fix is applied with some judicious fine-tuning.
Used from ISO 64 to 800 without hesitation in order to get shots we needed, Neat Image or similar cleans them up well.
Rear LCD worked OK in full sunlight, it could be brighter but that will need the next evolution in LCD technology.
Overall, a great little camera, I would buy another one right now without waiting for any improvements that may come with the R4.

Months later.... the R3 is still an extremely useful camera for my wife and I. The only added comments are about the flash. Our R3 really was bad with flash, but a warranty fix for the worn shutter button and 'recalibration' of the flash fixed the flash so that it works exactly as the manual specifies. The flash range is very limited so read the book and understand that. Flash needs Auto ISO to be reliable within its limited range.

For more Ricoh info see my web pages.....
h ttp://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/ricoh/01-intro.html
(remove the space in 'h ttp' to make the link work)

Problems: Tends to blow highlights a bit, hence the 0.3 stop underexposure setting. Soft helps keep the jpeg clean, and Colour = Neutral helps avoid highlight overload.

After a few thousand shots the "chrome" shutter button is showing definite wear signs where the finger touches it, not a problem as we have 11 months of warranty left to fix that.

Slight barrel distortion at widest but not enough to warrant fixing every shot.

Image noise seems a bit higher than other cameras I've tried but it cleans up well to make a nice 4"x6" print. But careful side-by-side tests with the later R4 camera with both at ISO 64 show that the R3 is less noisy than the later camera.

Added later..... In low light AF can be unreliable, use Manual Focus to fix that. Be aware that the menu choice of "Infinity" is actually about 30 metres so at max tele the distance will be out of Focus.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report

Opinion: I bought 2 - one for my travel bag and one for my wife. Like the wide zoom range, small physical size. Not using as my primary camera, just the one that is always available when I travel as sometimes I don't take the SLR kit on business trips.

Problems: UPDATE: Since getting both cameras back from repair of the lens guard about 1 month ago, I have put them through many, many on/off cycles - and so far there have been no further problems. Maybe this was a manufacturing issue that is now resolved.

Both cameras have had problems with the lens guard (as Ricoh's US repair depot referred to the lens cover). After only a little use, each camera developed the same problem: when turning the camera on, the lens cover elements separated and stopped working as a unit leaving one or two segments dangling in front of the lens. First camera repaired under warranty - second one being shipped now. If it happens again, I'm inclined to have the repair tech just remove the pieces and resort to something else as a lens cover (if this is possible). Despite this rant, I'm otherwise happy with the camera - it just might not be robust enough for my wife's use.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report

Opinion: A versatile, well-featured camera.

Problems: None, though I am consciously careful of the interleaved lens cover.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report

Opinion: positive: this little camera offers excellent value for money. lense-range is super. mall size is fantastic

negative: compared to previous models only the plastic lens covers are a little too light and tend to get jammed. replacement battery, charger, acessories are expensive

Problems: also the chromeplate of main button came off, ricoh repair service have no outlet in Austria and repair requires 2-3 weeks (estimate) for replacing a part which takes ca. 1 minute.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report

Opinion: Great Camera; very small; amazing zoom............in my opinion umbitable !!! I owned a Panasonic FZ5 and also a Nikon coolpix S4...............the RICOH is much better than this two cameras. Is the perfect companion for a DSLR

Problems: The only con I find is that movie mode is only XVGA; hope that in future we can have a firmware that updates movie sizes to VGA

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report