Ricoh RDC-i700

Opinion: The best camera in this moment for me.

Opinion: Having an RDC 5000 for a year I found the 'flat slab' RDC-i700 difficult to come to terms with. The strongest point for me is the ability to use a strong flash as against the normal mode. The weakest point is the flimsy cover over the USB connector which gets in the way of the carrying strap. Image quality very good. Black is not rendered very well in some cases. I found the same problem with the RDC5000. The PC software is not as simple to use as the RDC5000 & there is no video tape of features, as with the RDC5000. There is a lack of tested interface cards & Ricoh's extremely poor & slow follow up to user queries does not help. The supplied carrying case with the spare battery pouch is bad design & cheap. The screen features are very good & intuitive. It took me a while to realise there is a different menu for each dial setting, but once there all is well. The biggest weakness for me is the poor zoom. For the money a better zoom would be expected. The device is NOT really a camera but more a digital organiser with a camera. If Ricoh can get 'their corporate finger out' & develop/test the interface cards & software then you have a good buy for your money. If you just want to take pictures the RDC7 or RDC5000 are better options.

Opinion: Disappointed in quality of Pic compared to DC4800.

Opinion: Just bought this camera in Nov 2001. The images are very sharp, especially in the macro mode. One thing this camera doesn't have is a full-manual control or aperture control. However, it does come with an intervalo timer and the shutter speed can go down to 8 secs. Featurewise, this is a great camera with a lot of bells and whistles !

One thing I like about it is the huge 3.5" touch-screen LCD....really lets you see the pimples up close ! However, Ricoh should have designed the lens in such a way whereby the user can add a wide-angle converter or a teleconverter to it.....having a 35 mm lens is not wide enough.

The user interface used in the camera is very intuitive. Despite the fact that they give out 3 instruction manuals, there is no need to read the camera operations as the MENU buttons and pictograms are self-explanatory.

This camera is definitely useful for law-enforcement agencies who need to send an image back to the office asap....provided they can get the wireless cardphone.

Furthermore, the expansion options on this camera is incredible.....you can use both Compact Flash or PCMCIA Cards to store your images. REALLY USEFUL WHEN YOU SAVE THE IMAGES IN RAW MODE !!!