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We clicked with:
Superb macro mode,
Real image stabiliser,
Great handling
Shots in the dark:
Face detection,
Purple fringing is bad
Price Comparison:
Ricoh Caplio R6
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It would be easy to overlook Ricoh in the camera market. Their film SLRs were almost unheard of, they don't make digital SLRs and even their digital compacts seem to be overshadowed by their photocopiers.
Unless you're in the know. One of the industry's secret weapons, Ricoh make high quality digital compacts for consumers and professionals alike. Having now released their Caplio R6, Ricoh want a lot more of your attention. I picked up an R6 to see what they've got.
The Package
The R6 is the successor to the well-received R5, following the same design principles while building on its strengths. It's a remarkably small package - Ricoh claim the Caplio R6 is the thinnest camera in its class.
They didn't skimp on the features though. Inside is a 7.24MP sensor, a 2.7inch LCD screen (slightly larger than on the R5), a real anti-shake CCD shift system, and a 7.1x zoom lens (equivalent to 28-200mm in 35mm terms).
Add to this a close-focussing macro mode (down to 1cm), 54Mb internal memory (holding 34 shots at full resolution) and ISO 1600 for low light conditions, and you've got a winning specification. Round off with face detection.
If there's anything Ricoh left out, you probably don't want it.
First Impressions
Once past the specifications, the Caplio R6 is remarkably straightforward. It carries a long-life lithium-ion rechargeable battery in the base - good for 330 shots say Ricoh, and they appear to be right. Next to that, add an SD card for extra storage, and away you go.
Power-up is fast and the controls, though small, are mostly laid out well enough even for the big-of-thumb. The zoom control is a nice push-pull rocker and the four-way controller is effective. There's even a handy grip to hold onto when your thumb is not on the buttons. The only awkward control is the slider for switching shooting modes, but otherwise the R6 sits well in the hand.
The biggest flaw with the design is the placement of the flash. Ricoh have moved the flash to the opposite corner from the lens, leaving it to be obscured under the fingers quite often. There's also a tripod mount but sadly this is off-centre from the lens.
The camera has no viewfinder, so you'll be shooting with the LCD display. The display offers a clear, sharp picture and a smooth update as you pan around. It holds up reasonably well in bright light too, though as usual you'll find yourself cupping a hand around it when the sun is strong.
One issue you'll notice quite quickly is that the LCD display has a tendency to flare if there is bright light in the frame. This appears as purple trails in a column above and below the light source; these trails don't appear in the final image, but if you have a bright sky in your picture the amount of flare can make composition hard to judge.
In Use
The camera holds up well in use though. The controls are fast and responsive and the shutter is snappy. A customisable quick access menu is available for features such as the white balance, ISO and exposure compensation functions. Pleasingly the menus persist on-screen between shots for rapid adjustment.
The ISO settings are uniquely flexible. The camera has two Auto ISO modes; one will select between ISO 64 and 200, and the other will select from ISO 64 up to a configurable higher ISO. You also have full control to manually select from ISO 64 to ISO 1600.
This is very typical of the R6, in as much as Ricoh have made a good effort to give the user full control while also providing safety nets for automatic operation.
Another similar feature is the slow-speed shutter lock, which prevents the use of very slow shutter speeds - unlike other cameras, the R6 allows this limit to be configured or disabled, so if you want to be creative the camera won't get in your way.
The camera has many other features with good implementations. There is a continuous shooting mode, enough for 16 frames in roughly two seconds; exposure and white balance bracketing modes, unusual for a compact; live-histogram display, which also responds to exposure compensation; and an array of focusing and metering modes.
Strangely there are no manual settings for shutter speed or aperture, though long exposures can be set through another option. But all in all, Ricoh have done well to build a camera with a useful feature set of standard camera functions.
Image Stabilisation
A gimmick on many cameras, the R6 also includes image stabilisation - unlike most compacts that try to pass off high ISOs as a stabiliser, the R6 has real image stabilisation through a moving image sensor. If you hold the shutter button half-way down, you can hear the motors doing the adjustments.
Stabilisation can be useful if you are shooting in low-light, or if you are operating at the long end of the zoom - it makes the 200mm equivalent maximum zoom a little more useable.
Getting in Close
Another good feature is the macro mode. Digital compacts are often good at macro but the R6 really excels. At wide angle it can focus down to 1cm from the lens, which allows for some amazing close-ups.
The lens delivers sharp focus and shallow depth of field at this range so some incredible detail shots are possible.
Face Detection
One of the lesser features of the camera is face detection. This is only available via one scene mode, so you lose some of the control of the camera to use it, and it does a very poor job.
In theory, the camera will detect faces in a scene and highlight up to four of them on the display. It will then pick the best focus to accommodate these faces. When it works, it is briefly impressive to watch the highlight track the face around the image. However, the camera struggles to find any faces at all.
When the R6 does find a face, it rarely finds others in the scene or loses them very easily. Sometimes, the camera loses track of the face after focusing.
Face detection is rarely a huge success, but the implementation in the R6 is so unreliable it seems pointless. The normal multi-point focusing copes with groups of faces just as well.
Image Quality
In line with the rest of the specification though, 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.
The images do have a nice look to them, with good tones, though the R6 has a tendency to overexpose. You may find yourself running at -0.7 exposure compensation quite a bit. The live histogram display makes it easy to adjust for this though. Less easy is the flash exposures, which are also quite harsh even in “soft flash” mode.
The R6 delivers nice colours - strong but not over-saturated - though it struggles on purples and violets, often tending towards blue. That said, the images bear up far better on the PC than on the camera's LCD panel, so be careful of making any judgements on the LCD alone.
The noise levels are very good though. Down at ISO 64 and 100, there is no noise to speak of. ISO 200 and 400 show a little noise but still at very acceptable levels.
At ISO 800, noise is comparable to ISO 400 but the picture shows some blurring - it appears noise reduction is applied at this point. ISO 1600 is again blurry but also shows quite pronounced noise - however, the pictures remain usable and noise levels are better than many other compacts.
In all though, the R6 produces pleasing images with good detail.
Conclusion
Overall, Ricoh's Caplio R6 is very impressive. Ricoh have made some very good choices in how it operates, so it can be full-auto when required, or it can give the photographer control when they want it. This level of control is backed up by an impressive feature set that by and large is well implemented - face detection aside. All this, and it's responsive and easy on battery life as well.
There are very few problems to report, though it's a shame the colour fringing is so severe. Also, the LCD flare in bright conditions works against the camera, making it hard to use at times. I'd also like the exposure to be a little better, though it's quick enough to set some compensation for this so you can work round it.
In all, Ricoh have squeezed a lot into a very small package. Credit must go to them for making a camera that performs so well and does so much. Slip an R6 in your pocket and you'll be ready for all occasions.
