Camera Reviews / Ricoh Cameras i Preview

6.04 Megapixels	7.14x zoom	1/2.5 inch size sensor

The Ricoh Caplio R4 is an update to the company's popular Caplio R3, a long-zoom model with image stabilization in a surprisingly compact package. When announced in September 2005, Ricoh called the Caplio R3 the smallest digicam in the world with a 5x or greater optical zoom lens. The Ricoh Caplio R4 retains this lens (and much the same camera body / feature set), but swaps in a new higher resolution image sensor. The Ricoh Caplio R3 / R4's lens spans a range from a useful 28mm wide angle to 200mm telephoto. Thickness is kept down courtesy of a new "double retracting lens system", which separately moves two lens elements into the optical path when the lens extends as the camera is powered up, and removes them again as the camera powers off.

Effective resolution has been boosted from five to six megapixels (the press release mentions a 3:2 aspect ratio mode is available too, although the spec sheet we received didn't indicate this). As with the R3, Ricoh has mounted the R4's sensor on a moving platter, where it can be moved for a CCD shift-type image stabilisation system, dubbed "Vibration Correction" in Ricoh parlance. Other features include a 2.5" LCD display (but no optical or electronic viewfinders), macro focusing to 1cm, and Ricoh's skew correction function which automatically corrects distorted shots of whiteboards and the like. Images are stored on SD / MMC cards or 26MB of built-in memory, and transferred via USB connection to a computer. The camera also supports PictBridge for direct printing, and offers a video output connection for reviewing images on your TV.