Ricoh RDC-2

Every company remotely connected with electronic imaging seems to be launching a digital camera. Most vaguely resemble their 35mm counterparts, although the market doesn't yet include everyday 35mm users. Ricoh believed that the feature set of digital cameras would be better marketed as a computer peripheral - hence the Ricoh RDC-2, whose physical form most camera users will find rather alien.

The Ricoh's small size belies the powerful features inside. The CCD is at the high end of those used in sub-£1,000 digital cameras. At 768 « 576 pixels, the RDC-2 is surpassed for resolution only by Canon's Powershot 600 (reviewed issue 26, p191). It has a built-in selector for telephoto and wide angle, equivalent to 55mm and 35mm lenses respectively, with a macro focus up to 1cm.

The basic unit ships with 2Mb of on-board memory and a PC socket for installing an ATA-compatible PC Card with up to 40Mb flash memory. There are three compression schemes: Fine, Normal and Economy. The Fine setting compresses at four bits per pixel, Normal at two bits, and Economy at one, creating files ranging from 48Kb to 192Kb per image. You can fit up to 38 shots in the basic memory in Economy mode.

For external communications, the Ricoh has a miniature proprietary serial port (for which a PC cable is supplied), and an AV output. The latter is the American NTSC standard, but NTSC playback is supported by many high-end TVs.

A built-in microphone records ten seconds of audio with each frame, seven minutes 46 seconds of continuous audio, or a mixture. Sound is sampled at a rate of 8kHz in 8-bit mono - it isn't CD-quality, but it is clear.

A sub-credit card-sized infrared remote control (£34) transforms the Ricoh into an audio-visual presentation tool - providing, of course, that you have an NTSC TV. A clip-on combined LCD screen and mini speaker costs £170 or £128 with the camera. The LCD monitor eats batteries, and is best used with an AC adaptor.

The LCD monitor shows you exactly what the camera CCD is seeing, which in tandem with the RDC-2's excellent close-up macro capabilities, is useful. If you want to take a lot of close-ups, this is definitely the best digital camera. Focusing is clear and resolution extremely sharp, right up to a few centimetres. Distant shots are as good as the macros and on a par with the Canon Powershot 600.

It's hard to distinguish between the three different quality settings, as the file sizes differ in contrast rather than pixel resolution.

Even when zoomed, the top two settings are virtually impossible to tell apart, but the lowest setting is more washed out. You also get twice as many images in Normal as Fine.

The bundled PhotoStudio software from ArcSoft is a fully-featured image editing and retouching software, and it takes Photoshop-compatible plug-ins. The built-in filters and effects are extensive. As bundled software, PhotoStudio is undeniably impressive.

If you're planning an extended photo shoot, the Ricoh's Type II PC Card slot will confine you to expensive flash RAM. You can get Ricoh's own flash memory (£430 for 10Mb), but bear in mind that a 170Mb Type III hard drive costs less than £300.

If you need to take extensive shots before downloading, the Canon Powershot with its Type III slot would be a better choice. Otherwise, the Ricoh has all the features you might need for corporate photography.

Author: James Morris