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Smaller, Faster, Better!

A Review of the Ricoh Caplio R3, with comparisons to Canon Powershot S60

by Tom Jhou,  last updated May 28, 2006

Ricoh doesn't market their cameras in the US, so you may never have heard of this camera. And even if you have, most of the web reviews came out in fall 2005, before Ricoh's firmware updates fixed several early bugs. Hence, it's difficult to get good updated info about this camera, which is why I posted this page. Another good place to look, which also has info about newer Ricoh models, is Guy Parson's page at:

http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/photo/r3-01.html

This camera's main attractions are its combination of unusually small size, unusually big zoom lens (7x), and wide-angle field of view. To cover this range with most pocket-sized cameras, you'd have to buy two cameras, one for the wide angle, the other for telephoto!

The R3 also has image stabilization, good battery life, 1cm macro mode, excellent color and detail rendition, and generally fast operation, all very distinctive features in their own right. While the R3 has been criticized for its image noise, levels are actually comparable to other small digicams, something that is difficult to figure out from other online reviews (and the initial reason for posting this page).

The R3 is smaller than any other camera that has the R3's wide angle (28mm) view or its telephoto (200mm) view. In fact, is lighter than its competitors by huge margins:

The R3's specifications are very similar to the Minolta A200, but the Minolta is massive by comparison. And nothing on the above chart has the R3's 1cm macro mode, which lets you get really close, as in this dandelion photo (click on photo to get full size):

What's the catch?

OK, so what's the catch? Like all cameras, this one has a few quirks, mostly related to exposure metering and color tone. It's fairly easy to work around these shortcomings. And despite all the complaints about image noise, I found the R3's noise to be comparable to my Canon S60, whose image quality is among the best on the market (but its ergonomics are among the worst). While the R3 does lag behind the Canon in image quality, it lags only slightly:

At the lowest possible ISO (50 for the Canon, 64 for the Ricoh), images are astonishingly similar. The Canon does have lower noise on the white wall, and is slightly sharper, but you have to really stare to see the differences, and at normal viewing sizes they would be invisible. And at ISO 400, where both cameras get very noisy, the Ricoh is actually cleaner. By the way, the Canon ISO 400 shot looks yellow because I forgot to set a custom white balance. Sorry. Also, the R3 shot at ISO 400 was taken with "soft" in-camera sharpening setting, which makes both noise and details less distinct. Hence, I sharpened the R3's ISO 400 image in Photoshop to match the Canon as closely as I could. Even though the sharpening increases the Ricoh's noise, the Ricoh still looks cleaner.

If you don't trust indoor tests, here is an outdoor test at low ISO:

Again, the Canon has slightly lower shadow noise, and slightly better chromatic aberration and color balance. Once again, you have to stare closely to see most of these differences. One difference that does jump out at me is that the Ricoh's default color balance is slightly blue (it often does that on cloudy days). You can fix this by selecting the "cloudy" white balance, or tweak the image afterwards in Photoshop (as in the bottom left panel). I rarely do anything else to the images, although if I'm printing enlargements I may use NeatImage and CAfree to remove noise and chromatic aberration (lower-right panel). Almost all the R3's imperfections can be processed away, but in practice, I rarely bother. Keep in mind that 100% crops like these, when viewed on a 17" monitor, are equivalent to a massive 32"x24" print!

For me, the Canon's slightly better image quality was not enough to overcome its smaller zoom, larger weight/size, lack of image stabilization, much slower operation, and higher price.

Lens and focus:

The 7x zoom lens is this camera's crown jewel, and I'm very impressed with it - it is surprisingly sharp at all focal lengths, with low purple fringing and chromatic aberration. The lens' main flaws are a tendency for soft corners at 200mm, and some red-green fringing at 28mm, but once again, these aren't noticeable except at high magnifications, and can be fixed in Photoshop if needed.

In good lighting, focus is fast (< 1/4 second) at 28mm, but somewhat slower at 200mm, though no worse than competing cameras. However, in low light, it is more likely to miss. Combined with the low flash power, this camera is not the best indoor camera, although it's not terrible either. One thing to watch out for is the Ricoh is one of those rare cameras that will let you take a shot even before the autofocus gives you its confirmation "beep". This design philosophy makes it possible to get shots where other cameras wouldn't get anything at all, but it also increases the probability of misfocused shots, because the camera just guesses the focus when you force an early shot this way.

I have lots of 28mm samples at the bottom of this page, but I only posted one 200mm shot there, so here is a second one, of a pigeon in my back yard (click on photo for full size):

Speed

Speedwise, the Caplio runs cirlces around my Canon S60. The Caplio starts up in only 1 second (three times faster than the S60, and faster even than Canon's newest S80). The zoom motor can go from 28mm to 200mm in only 1 second. Focus typically takes 1/4 second at 28mm, and 0.5-1 second at 200mm. The only thing that is not speedy is the metering, which I'll talk about below, under “quirks”.

Overall the camera feels reasonably sturdy, except for the thin lens-protecting blades that can get jostled out of position if they are touched. When that happens, it takes some time and care to coax the blades back into position:

Vibration Correction:

It works. I routinely get sharp photos at 28mm, 1/8 second (see the nightshot of the diner at the bottom of this page). I even have a few clear shots at 200mm, 1/8 sec, which is astounding, but also atypical. On average, the R3 gives me about 1.5 - 2 stops of improved handholdability, comparable to Canon's older generation of stabilized SLR lenses, but not as good as the newest models which give 3 stops gain.

Audio recorder feature.

The sound is not CD quality, and the microphone is not the best, but I have used it to record lectures with usable results. A 512MB SD card holds 16-17 hours of audio, and a fully charged battery will record about 4 hours if the display is turned off.

Excellent battery Life

When I first got the camera, I got over 500 photos before needing to recharge the battery. Since then, the battery life has declined slightly, but is still in the 300-400 range. I can typically go several weeks without needing a recharge. An exact Ricoh replacement battery is hard to find in the US, but the battery is the same one in the Panasonic LX1, FX8, and FX9.

So-so movie mode

The 320x240, 30fps movie mode is one of the few things that is truly bad about this camera. Resolution is below the now-common 640x480 standard, and noise/artifacts are unusually high. I thought this would really bother me, but in reality, I rarely take movies as they gobble up memory card space. Here is a sample movie, taken inside the Baltimore aquarium:

https://jshare.johnshopkins.edu/tchou7/Ricoh%20Caplio%20R3%20review_files/movie.avi

Some quirks:

Ricoh didn’t fully polish off all the fine details of this camera before releasing it to the market. The camera has many quirks that don’t affect final image quality, but that just seem weird:

Quirk #1: Long vertical streaks emanate from any bright object in the LCD:

Thankfully, the streaks don't show up in the photos, but they make a terrible first impression.

Quirk #2: Slow Metering: For an otherwise fast camera, metering is strangely slow, taking a full second to fully adjust between a bright and dark scene. So if you photograph a sunlit object, then immediately photograph something in the shade, the second photo will be horribly underexposed. If you do a lot of fast shooting, I recommend using "center" weighted metering, which is much faster.

Quirk #3: Infinity focus preset is actually hyperfocal The “infinity” focus mode menu option is supposed to fix the focus at infinity, but it actually seems to focus at around 10 feet. While this is good at wide angle (because it gets more things in focus), at 200mm any far object will be severely out of focus.

Quirk #4: can't do anything while last photo is reviewing After you take a shot, the LCD by default only shows it for 1/2 second. That seemed too short, so I selected a 2-second review in the menu (you can also choose 1 or 3 seconds). This revealed a strange quirk. On most cameras, half-pressing the shutter will cancel the review, allowing you to frame your next shot, but Ricoh makes you wait until the review is done before the camera becomes operational again. So I've reluctantly set the review duration back to 1/2 second, otherwise the previews severely curtail shooting.

Where to buy:

Ricoh does not actively sell or market to the US market, but there are several e-bay dealers. I got mine for $338 plus $16 shipping from an e-bayer with >99% positive feedback. Reputable stores outside of ebay tend to charge more, e.g. $430 at YesAsia.com, or $530 from Henry's, a Canadian camera store. As with most electronics, prices go down the longer you wait, so by the time you read this, the R3 will probably be much cheaper.

If you buy this camera from an online store, make sure to check ratings sites like resellerratings.com or bizrate.com before buying, as there are a number of fraudulent stores out there, particularly the notorious Brooklyn-based stores.

Summary:

This is almost the perfect travel camera. It's so small, yet so flexible, that I find myself taking a lot more photos because of it, which is the whole point of having a camera in the first place. Ergonomics are quite good, with most controls accessible with only a couple of button-presses. Images have good detail and strikingly good color, except on cloudy days when the color tends to be a little bluish (this is easily fixed in Photoshop). Although noise at ISO 400 and 800 is high, it is no worse than other camera brands, and cleans up very well with NeatImage. I have sometimes been let down by this camera's low-light focusing, and so in low light I have gotten in the habit of taking 2-3 shots to increase the odds of getting a good one. Nonetheless, I'm much happier with this camera than my old Canon S60, even though the latter camera (along with its successor the S80) has gotten rave reviews from most professional reviewers.

Other reviews:

There is a nice "real-world" review of the R3 at the following link, which is one of only two reviews I know of to mention Ricoh's firmware updates:
http://blog.twowolves.co.uk/2005/12/11/180/


The most popular (according to Google) full-length review of this camera is the following, though I disagree with its conclusions. It has not been updated to reflect the newer firmware:
http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews_ricoh_caplio_r3.php

Samples:

All photos are hand-held, even the nightshot. Exposure compensation is –0.3 or –0.7 for the sunlit shots.

JPEG compression is either "normal" or "fine" - the larger files (around 2MB) were taken with the "fine" JPEG setting, while the smaller files (~ 1MB) were taken with the "normal" JPEG setting. Obviously, there are more compression artifacts in the smaller files. The in-camera sharpness varied between "soft", "normal", and "sharp", as indicated below each image.

Alley behind my apartment iso64, 28mm sharpness=normal	Same scene from Canon S60 Looks better in 100% crops, mostly due to better in-camera processing.	Gargoyle store, Seattle WA. 28mm iso 64 sharpness=high
Flying pigeons, Baltimore, MD. iso64, 28mm sharpness=normal	Towson Diner. 28mm, iso 200, 1/8 second, handheld! sharpness=soft	Sunset and water. Note minor flaring opposite sun. 28mm iso 64 sharpness=high
28mm iso 64 sharpness=soft	Clocktower, full zoom. iso 64, 200mm sharpness=soft	Pagoda at Patterson Park, Baltimore. 28mm, iso64 sharpness=normal
ISO 800 test. 84mm sharpness=normal	ISO 800, filtered with NeatImage.

You may use these photos for personal (non-commercial) reasons, as long as the source is attributed. Thank you.

Other cameras Here are other cameras I tried before settling on the R3:

Canon S60 review at Epinions. It's heavier and slower than the R3, with less zoom, no image stabilization, and a merely average macro mode. But it's more ruggedly built and has better metering.

Sony DSC-40 review at Epinions. The Sony is small and light, takes AA batteries, has good VGA movies, and a wider-than-average 32mm lens. But its low light performance is horrendous.

Panasonic LZ2 review at Epinions. I had high hopes for the Panasonic, but it was disappointing, due to its overly aggressive noise reduction, and tendency to produce greenish skies.