User reviews for Ricoh Caplio GX8: Digital Photography Review

Opinion: Ricoh Caplio GX. No slot for the original GX so I am putting this here.
My first digital camera. The feature set seemed fantastic and the performance on
focus and shutter lag was better than anything else at the time. My favourite
features of the camera are:
Great macro.
Wide angle lens.
Full manual control (almost).
External flash facility.
Automated shooting (eg take a shot every 30 seconds).
Allows use of polariser.
Instantaneous shutter when used in some modes. This has captured shots for me
that everyone else missed!
All in a pocket camera!

Problems: Not usable at ISO above 400. Noise can be an issue for this camera.
Flash for macro is unreliable (so I just use external).
Internal flash takes too long to cycle.
I would upgrade to the GX 100 but I am hoping Ricoh will bring out a model with an
auto lens cover again.

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Opinion: Ich besitze die GX8 seit Dez. 2005 und bin davon ganz begeistert. Es dauerte anfangs einige Zeit, bis ich mit den vielen Einstellmöglichkeiten zurecht kam. Vor allem störte mich das Bilderrauschen bei schwachen Lichtverhältnissen im höheren ISO Bereich (ab ISO 200). Durch die Möglichkeiten des externen Blitzes ließen sich diese Probleme bestens bereinigen. Die guten Erfahrungen mit dieser Kamera haben mich bisher abgehalten, eine Spiegelreflexkamera zu kaufen. Andere Firmen (Olympus, Canon) haben inzwischen bei einigen Modellen genau jene Features eingebaut, die die GX 8 bereits vor etwa zwei Jahren aufwies.

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Opinion: Altogether - a great camera.

Construction - feels great in the hand, but the plastic tripod thread should have been metal.

Features - no other pocket camera in existence offers a 28mm wide angle lens, a built-in optical viewfinder and a flash hot-shoe. The GX8 is one of a kind. 1 cm macro, interval shooting, manual controls, hyperfocal focus option (Snap mode) round up a very capable camera.

Image quality - very good image quality, though there is some corner softness and CA. Nothing to worry about in real life shots. Those who prefer smeared images are likely to complain about noise, but I prefer to do my own noise-reduction thank you very much.

Ease of use - Ricoh cameras are very easy to use (much of it due to clearly labeled menus and programmable ADJ button) and the GX8 with its front dial is one of the best among them. The only two usability issues can be found in the quick post-view button which doesn't show a histogram (so you have to spin the mode dial to the regular post-view), and in the 2" timer which resets after every shot. I solved the latter by using a cable release.

Value for money - the GX8 was last available for about $400 including a 22mm adapter lens, a case, a lens hood and of course Li-Ion pack and charger (the camera also supports AA batteries). Other camera with such a wide lens and a hot-shoe cost a lot more.

My first month shots with the GX8 can be found here:

http ://boren.sent.com/Ricoh/GX8-4-2007 (remove the space)

Problems: There's some dust on the sensor. Particles are mostly visible when shooting using narrow aperture values and even backgrounds, but they're quite easy to remove in Paint Shop Pro.

What else? I would be happy if the Sharpness=Soft setting would mean Sharpness=Off, but the camera does apply some level of sharpening even in this setting.

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Opinion: I have been using my GX8 for over a year now, and to be honest have had lots of fun with it and still do. The 1600 ISO setting is largely useless for "normal" photography but absolutely brilliant for weird effects, especially night shots. Have noticed no real deficiencies in image quality (for pixel peepers only) Normally focus is spot on, manual functions give plenty to play with in general. I personally like the lack of image processing: this really is RAW. Tough camera.

Problems: When are Ricoh going to give us a really useful update? Why can't we have B/W? The grey scale is already there in text mode anyway, just processed out...ever had an RR30? Manual aperture settings don't make enough difference to depth-of-field. Video resolution poor.

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Opinion: I have been using the GX8 for 11 months now and I am impressed with the quality and features this little box has to offer. Apart from being very fast to boot and get a good photo in an instant, the manual options for such a small camera are fantastic. Battery life is excellent. My GX8 came with battery and charger. Spare batteries are available for around $20 off ebay. USB2.0 is nice and fast for transfer to computer.
GX8 works fine with Windows XP.
The camera is very light and fairly discrete.
You can purchase additional lenses which attach easily. The DW4 lens is a good option to go for great wide angle.
Firmware is easily upgradable.
I would recomend this camera to anyone backpacking that wants more than a point a click solution. The manual settings are easy to understand and get going without reading the manual.
The 1cm macro is amazing, you can get really good bug eye shots with little effort.
Time lapse is easily achieved using the automatic interval feature.
I have no regrets purchasing this camera.

Problems: The flash bounces off the addon lens creating shadow on the subject. You can use the shoe flash to get around this.

Software it comes with sucks.
Just download Picasa2 from Google it works great.

Tripod is required in low light to stop blurring.

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Opinion: I am extremely disappointed with the quality of small CCD and I will never trust 1/1.8 with resolution over 6M. sometimes you can not torlerate noise even on ISO100. I bought Fujifilm 9500 with 9M pixs and I have sold it because the noise at low light or dark area. Now this machine has the same problem. However others are fine.

Problems: Really bad quality of pics

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Opinion: I'm using this camera for some time, it is not my first one but the previous was quite as a toy for todays standards (Mustek GsmartII 1,3mpix)... so here is my opinion:

Advantages:
- very fast start (the most important one for me)
- good grip and handy
- solid allu construction (not the creacky plastic) & old stylish look (yeah--black cameras rulez)
- programable ADJ button -nice&usefull
- nice operation time (@2x2400Nimh no-names)
- good autofocus - one sharp lightsource is enough to set focus during night shots.
- thread around the lenses for sun cover/telescope mounting or sth else - I have to order that...

Disadvantages:
- big noise when trying to compensate lack of light with ISO sensibility (200 is O.k. but upper values seems to be almost useless). By the way: I'm still looking for countryside that I could find night sky dark enough to shot @1600ASA/30sec/f.2,4 with no city lights at the background - for testing purposes ofcoz (I'm keen on astronomy too)
- week range of flashlight -but there is a hotshoe for extra one...

Problems: safety ring around lenses - that enables acces to thread for extra covers/wide lenses - seems to be self-unscrewing sometimes. I am afraid to lose it - but I am not able to screw it harder with fingers...

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Opinion: I bought this camera via internet and my decision to buy it was completely based on the specifications and features. It's probably the first compact 8mp camera in the market with SD card storage.

Now after few weeks of intense use i could say that i'm still have controversial feelings towards this device.

It's definetely very comfortable to use, full manual control, easy to handle, natural colors. It's design looks a bit old stylish and people get surprised that it is a 8mp camera, and this is an advantage for me, cause i dont like to draw attention with high end toys.

Problems: During summer trip i've made over 400 pictures and some of them are below my expectations. There are my main problems:
1) images are too dark (levels diagram in PS reflects that. But i haven't try to print them yet, it might be that its ok for printing);
2) images sometimes looks like out of focus (kind of hit-and-miss autofocus. and this is not a hand shake because in some cases i used tripod);
3) noticible noise level in dark areas even in low iso (but images at night with long exposure look quite good; there is quite effective noise reduction system in the camera);
4) image distortion at the borders (buildings in a street look like collpasing... but this is minor, this is what i'm expected from wide angle lenses...);
5) software provided with camera is something hard to describe... Ugly user interface. Unfortunately it is the only way to convert camera uncompressed TIFF into BMP for work in PS. PS do not reads camera TIFF;
6) no rechargable battery in a box (but one for Pentax is compatible, so this is resolved).

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Opinion: It's my first digital camera, so I thought long and hard before buying the GX8.
It's a great camera. I enjoy the tough, black metal body and finger grip. I locked the ASA on 100 and the image quality has been excellent - even with (small) 1MB files.
I copied 50mb of pics onto my PC in a few seconds thanks to the USB 2.0. connection
The much advertised fast start-up and low shutter lag is for real and makes picture taking more spontaneous. Nice shutter control with clear half-way mark for focus and AE lock.
I enjoy the wide-angle and find that I take nearly all pics at 28mm.
Two Gripes:
I feel Ricoh could have supplied a rechargable battery and a charger. The camera really chews up alkalines, I specifically bought the camera for its AA battery compatability, so this option is useful only for emergencies.
I find the zoom control sensitive and finding a mid-point can require some fiddling.
So long to my 35mm Nikons! We had great fun for many years but things have moved on.

Problems: none

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