Product Reviews

Ricoh's R-series has been quietly stacking up favourable reviews in Computer Shopper, with an appealing mix of a wide-angle 7.1x zoom lens, compact design, fast performance and dependable image quality. This latest revision resolves some of the criticisms we levelled at previous models, ditches the Caplio brand name and ups the resolution to 10 megapixels.

The redesigned body is much smarter and sturdier than those of its predecessors. It looks like a serious photographic tool, with clean lines and a dash of brushed aluminium across the top. The lens makes less noise when focusing and zooming - although it's still far from quiet - and the zoom has two speeds of travel, which makes fine adjustments easier.

The 2.7in screen has a 460,000-pixel resolution, the most we have ever seen on a digital camera. Strangely, the onscreen icons and text look blocky, as if Ricoh didn't get round to redesigning them for the new screen. Image previews and reviews are as detailed as the eye can see. Other new features include the ability to adjust the white balance and mid-tone brightness (gamma) of stored photos and - oddly - to take square pictures.

The controls have improved, too, with a mode dial and mini-joystick that are faster to use than the switch and five-way pad on previous models. The menus are neat and efficient; there's quick access to ISO speed, white balance and exposure value (EV) compensation settings. The lack of manual exposure is disappointing at this price, though. Performance is impressive at 1.7 seconds between shots and a 1.4fps continuous mode. However, these are slower than the 7.1-megapixel R6's 1.4 seconds and 2.6fps speeds - a downside of having more pixels to manipulate.

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R8's 7.1x zoom can't match the 10x zooms of other compacts such as Panasonic's TZ range, Canon's SX100 IS and Sony's DSC-H3 although the 28mm wide-angle position is wider than Canon and Sony's lenses can manage. Bigger zooms increase the need for optical image stabilisation. Sadly, the R8's sensor-shift system isn't as effective as others, keeping only 35 per cent of shots sharp at a 100mm focal length and 1/30s shutter speed.

The R8's 10-megapixel resolution isn't surprising in 2008, but what is surprising is that the sensor diameter is just 1/2.3in. All other 10-megapixel compact cameras we've seen use 1/1.8in sensors, which have 60 per cent more surface area than the R8's sensor. Less surface area means less accurate measurements and more noise. Sure enough, noise was almost always a problem with the R8's output. The camera used heavy processing to keep visible noise at bay, but suppressed fine detail and gave photos a slightly artificial, painted appearance when viewed up close. Sharp lines looked spidery, dense textures such as foliage were messy and subtle skin textures were lost. These problems were visible in bright conditions at ISO 100 and painfully obvious in lower light and at higher ISO values. Heavy digital sharpening tried to exploit the sensor's potential for detail but exaggerated the spidery edges. These problems weren't visible when viewing photos shrunk-to-fit on a PC monitor or in 4x6in prints, but this defeats the object of having a high-resolution sensor. Colour accuracy was generally fine but the flash gave skin tones a blue tint. Manual ISO speeds were required for sensible shutter speeds in low light.

The R8 shares many qualities with Sony's H3: they both offer big zooms in small packages, perform well, have below-par image stabilisation and take photos that lack detail. Most of their differences lie in the H3's favour, with more reliable exposures, a bigger zoom, a manual exposure mode, longer battery life and lower price at around £160. However, the R8's wide-angle setting shouldn't be underestimated. It lags behind most other 10-megapixel cameras for detail, but it's a little better than the H3 in this respect. That's not enough for a recommendation, though, and you can get better image quality at this price.