Ricoh PX Preview

Preview based on a pre-production PX running firmware 1.2

Ricoh’s history of making waterproof cameras dates back to before it was a mainstream product segment. When only a couple of models were available, Ricoh regularly offered industrial-grade waterproofing and shock-proofing, with its products being certified to various military and national standards.

Now, of course, few manufacturers would feel its lineup were complete if it did not include a moderately drop-proof, lightly submersible camera, so it’s interesting to see Ricoh’s response to this. The PX’s specifications put it squarely in this everyday, do-everything compact category – with its waterproofing down to 3m (10ft) and impact resistance for drops up to 1.5m. Its 5x zoom lens, offering 28-140mm equivalent focal lengths, is also pretty standard for the class, as is its 2.7″ 230,000 dot display.

What’s not so familiar, in this class, is its understated appearance. While this particular example might be lime green, it doesn’t shout about its resilient credentials. Instead it’s an innocuous-looking, aluminium clad compact camera. The only real giveaway is that its lens doesn’t extend when it’s switched on. Instead it has a periscope-style lens with an image-stabilized sensor sitting at one end of it. The result is a camera that doesn’t suddenly look out-of-place when you return from your adventurous holiday.

Specification highlights:Image stabilized 16MP 1/2.3″ CCD28-140mm equivalent internal zoom lensWaterproof to 3m, Shockproof to 1.5m720p HD videoISO 100-3200 Subject-tracking AF

We’ve had a pre-production PX in the office in preparation for our waterproof grouptest that will be published later in the summer. We have generally rather liked its interface, which grants you to assign your five most frequently used shooting modes to the ‘Premium’ button (the up direction on the four-way controller). These include some of our favorite post-processing effects, such as Toy Camera, Miniature mode and Cross Processing.

Despite its predominantly point-and-shoot nature, there is a reasonable degree of user control available if you wish to take it, with parameters such as the upper limit of Auto ISO being user definable (which is not always the case, even in large-sensor cameras), and even a series of options for many of the scene modes (you can choose the hue applied to your ‘cross-processed’ images, and choose the size and position of the in-focus range of the Miniature mode).

We’ve only spent a short amount of time with the PX, so are not yet going to make any assessment of the camera’s image quality, but we have had time to create a quick samples gallery. You’ll be able to see more of the PX and its peers, as part of the forthcoming 2011 Waterproof grouptest.

Samples gallery

There are 20 images in the samples gallery. Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter / magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction with this review), we do so in good faith, please do not abuse it.

Unless otherwise noted images taken with no particular settings at full resolution. Because our review images are now hosted on the ‘galleries’ section of dpreview.com, you can enjoy all of the new galleries functionality when browsing these samples.

If you are new to digital photography you may wish to read the DigitalPhotography Glossary before diving into this article (it may help you comprehend some of the terms used).

source : www.dpreview.com

Ricoh PX Preview

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