Ricoh CX3

Opinion: My Canon Powershot A620 broke after 6 years (I have always been very satisfied with the image quality) and thought I should be able to get a decent camera providing the same image quality (if not better) for a fair amount of money.

I have been reading a lot and liked the high-res display, the number of options and settings and the possibility to upgrade the firmware. As much as the image quality is concerned, most of the reviews were positive but the review of dpreviewers was rather bad - while I decided to ignore their review, thinking they might have different expectations than most consumers.

So I ordered it via Amazon and created some standard test pictures inside and outside, with different settings and the result was: extremely disappointing and frustrating! The image quality is really poor (in my opinion) and when you zoom in a bit, you can hardly recognize anything. The camera software seems to heavily manipulate the images, I do not like them at all (asides of the quality in general). For me, these pictures look like as if they had been taken with a cellphone camera or blackberry.

This 10,2 mp camera completely fails in comparison to a 7,1 mp camera that has been bought 6 years ago - I returned it to Amazon as I wouldn't have had any fun creating photos with it.

What surprises me is how different the reviews and opinions are...investigate yourself but don't just blindly trust the positive reviews. You may or may not be happy with the camera.

Opinion: Not had this long but very impressed with its images - unlike
dpreviewers! Colour is nicely restrained and images sharp at
max telephoto. Usual fantastic Ricoh customisability and fits
neatly into crumpler bag in pocket.
So far just great as a travel cam.

Opinion: Only had it a week so maybe a bit enthusiastic,
but this camera is feature rich.
Glad i didn't heed the dire DPreview on
this machine, maybe it was done by an World Cup
referee.

Opinion: Ricoh cameras are well known for their fantastic feature set and UI and this one
is no exception. The camera is a joy to use and offers a fantastic degree of
control for anyone who is interested in photography.
Don't just go and get a Canon or Nikon p&s camera without trying one of these
out. Don't listen to the awful drivel that DPreview printed in the group test about
this camera. It really stands head and shoulders above all of the others. Don't
take my word for it, find one and try it out for yourself and you'll be glad that you
did. A seriously good compact and one that deserves FAR more attention than it
currently gets.

Opinion: At first sceptic as competotors at same pricelevel have somewhat better spec on paper, however, once you hold the CX3 and take some pics, the cam impresses by the ease of use and intuitive settings. All pics you shoot are prolike quality by just point and shoot. amazing, i don't know anything about composing pics or so, but already made fantastic macro's, mini's, protraits, hi B/W, i dare to recommend this to anybody, btw i was a Sony owner...