Ricoh Caplio R5 in Pink at Photokina

Ricoh were at Photokina 2006 - showing the Ricoh Caplio R5 in Pink. They were also showing a teaser for next years camera(s) - start speculating now? Here are some of my wild guesses: a Ricoh GRD with a Digital SLR sized sensor? a Ricoh Digital Rangefinder?

Ricoh Caplio R5 Review On-Line!

I've just published our review of the new 7 megapixel Ricoh Caplio R5 on DigiCamReview. The R5 is features a wide-angle 7.1x optical zoom lens, ISO upto 1600, a 2.5" screen, newly designed controls and curvier body, and image stabilisation in an (ultra) compact metal body. The camera will be available in Silver, Red, or Black for £249 including VAT:

"The Ricoh Caplio R5 is a new 7 megapixel update to the Ricoh Caplio R4 - it has a 7.1x optical zoom lens - this is impressive considering the camera is roughly the same size as cameras with only a 3x optical zoom lens. The camera's wide-angle 7.1x optical zoom lens starts at 28mm and zooms to 200mm equivalent, and has a built in lens-cover. The camera also features a "Vibration Correction" CCD sensor, much like Konica Minolta's Anti-shake technology - image stabilisation is becoming more and more common as an effective way to reduce camera shake and blur in low-light or with long zoom lenses."

Read our Ricoh Caplio R5 Review
View Ricoh Caplio R5 Sample Photos

More Ricoh Caplio R5 Reviews: Photography BLOG, Pocket-Lint, Digital Lifestyles, Think Camera

Ricoh Caplio R5 ISO Noise Test Photos

I've posted full size images in the Ricoh Caplio R5 Sample Photo Gallery at DigiCamReview - I've also added some additional sample photos, one of them testing the camera's high speed continuous shooting mode. The continuous shooting mode shoots at roughly 2.5fps for upto 19 shots at the highest resolution and photo quality!

Ricoh Caplio R5 Review

Photography BLOG have reviewed the new 7 megapixel Ricoh Caplio R5 - an update to the unique Ricoh Caplio R4 reviewed here, the new R5 features a wide-angle 7.1x optical zoom lens, ISO upto 1600, a 2.5" screen, newly designed controls and curvier body, and image stabilisation in an (ultra) compact metal body. The camera is available in Silver, Red, or Black for £249 including VAT:

"Ricoh have introduced some significant improvements to the Caplio R5, principally a great continuous shooting mode which allows unlimited shooting at 2.5fps, and the ability to take consecutive flash shots without having to wait for the flash to recharge. In addition there's even longer batter life (around 350 shots), a much improved movie mode and higher resolution LCD screen, bringing the Ricoh R5 in line with other cameras in this class."

View Ricoh Caplio R5 Sample Photos

More Ricoh Caplio R5 Reviews: Pocket-Lint, Digital Lifestyles, Think Camera

Another Sample Macro Photo

View more photos of the Apple iPod 30gb 5.5G Black Unboxed taken by the Ricoh Caplio R5.

Sunrise Sample Photo

Indoor Group Photo, Flash On

Ricoh Caplio R5 Macro Timex Watch Photo

Full size version and full EXIF information can be found here.

Ricoh Caplio R5 Pictured (back)

Ricoh Caplio R5 Pictured (front)

Ricoh Caplio R5 Sample Photo Gallery

I've uploaded full size sample photos onto the DigiCamReview Gallery, including several wide-angle photos, and full size versions of the sample photos on this blog. You can view the full EXIF information by clicking on the thumb, and then clicking Photo Properties.

Ricoh Caplio R5 Sample Photo Portrait

Ricoh Caplio R5 Wide-Angle Sample Photo

New Ricoh Caplio R5 Review at Pocket-Lint

Pocket-Lint have reviewed the new 7 megapixel Ricoh Caplio R5 - an update to the unique Ricoh Caplio R4 reviewed here, the new R5 features a wide-angle 7.1x optical zoom lens, ISO upto 1600, a 2.5" screen, newly designed controls and curvier body, and image stabilisation in an (ultra) compact metal body. The camera will be available in Silver, Red, or Black for £249 including VAT:

"I wanted to heartily recommend this camera to you but on balance, I can’t. The Ricoh Caplio R5 straddles the gap between full control and automation nicely, its feature set and build quality almost perfect for the market it’s aimed at – and as the price has just dropped by almost £30, it looks a bargain at £249. But a camera that crashes and its issues around noise mean it cannot glean top marks in this test."

More Ricoh Caplio R5 Reviews: Digital Lifestyles, Think Camera

Ricoh Caplio R5 - Some negatives...

(Picture above) Top of the Ricoh Caplio R5 showing the shutter button, small power button, and below the new zoom control, and mode switch.

I've noticed some negatives when using the Ricoh Caplio R5, so I'll post them here, as a dislikes list:

- Flash position, easy to put finger in front of it
- Flash overexposes images if the subject is too close, the camera requires you to set the camera to Macro mode if you don't want the flash to overexpose the image
- Flimsy battery cover
- Shutter button - easy to half-press, not so easy to press fully due to the metal surround. (as shown above)
- Has crashed (twice so far on switch on, may be resolved with updated firmware?)

Don't worry, I will post a positives list in the future, however, it's often easier to list the negatives first.

R5 Macro - Pink Roses Flower Sample Photo

Camera left on automatic, with some (slightly overly) strong lighting, flash off. Pink Roses. Resized and sharpened (40%) in Photoshop.

R5 Circus Entrance Night Sample Photo

Rotated and cropped slightly. Surprisingly this shot came out blur free even with such a slow shutter speed of 1/5 Sec. I set the exposure compensation to -0.7 for some other shots hoping to avoid blur, but unfortunately none of the other pictures had as much colour as this one, as I'd under-exposed them.

Ricoh Caplio R5 ISO Noise Test

Click the picture above to view actual pixels (at 100% view) showing noise from the Ricoh Caplio R5 tested at ISO64, ISO100, ISO200, ISO400, ISO800, ISO1600. Lighting was average, and pictures were in a room lit from the available light from the windows in the room. What you may notice is that at the lower ISO settings there is some purple fringing around the black text on white background - this becomes less noticable when the ISO setting is increased.

Ricoh Caplio R5 Toast Sample Photo

Another macro shot showing toasted and buttered brown bread.

Ricoh Caplio R5 Macro Sample Photo

This is the Ricoh Caplio R5's macro mode in action, the camera can focus with the subject only 1cm away from the front of the lens! The only problem with this is that lighting has to be good and you have to make sure the lens doesn't obstruct your light source.

R5 Black and White Sample Photo

This was taken through a window so probably isn't the perfect example of image quality, however it does show exposure, tonal range, and constrast. This was taken with the lens on the wide-angle setting.

Ricoh Caplio R5 Specifications, Features

Here's a quick run down of the main specifications and features of the Ricoh Caplio R5:

• 7.0 Megapixel Sensor


• 7.1x Optical Zoom Lens f=4.6-33, 1:3.3-4.8 (28 - 200mm equiv.)


• 2.5" TFT screen, 230,000 pixels


• Vibration Correction (anti-shake CCD sensor)


• 3.6x Digital Zoom / Auto resize*


• ISO AUTO, 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600


• Video mode: 640 x 480 pixels, 30 fps with sound


• 1cm Macro mode


• Pictbridge support


• 10 Scene modes including: TIFF Text mode, Skew correction etc


• 2 Custom Scene modes


• 380 shot battery life

* Auto Resize appears to be a new feature, and instead of enlarging the image, it simply switches you to a lower MP setting if you want to zoom beyond the 7.1x optical zoom, this should mean image quality is not lost, as it simply crops the center of the image.

Ricoh Caplio R5 Sunset Photo

Ricoh Caplio R5 vs Ricoh Caplio R4

Ricoh have updated the megapixels (7.0 compared to 6.0), design (shape), layout (zoom control, mode button etc), colours (silver/red/black front, back always black), screen (230,000 pixels compared to 154,000), megapixels, ISO settings (upto 1600 available compared to 800 on R4), removed the anti-shake button (put it in a menu), video mode (640x480 vs 320x240), better battery life (380 shots vs 330), a "New Smooth Imaging Engine II image processing engine", and possibly more I can't think of right now, when compared to the Ricoh Caplio R4.

Ricoh Caplio R5 Firmware Version - What's Yours?

To check the Ricoh Caplio R5 firmware version, with the camera off, set the mode dial to Video then:

Hold the macro / down button, and hold the Play button at the same time.

(You can use the power button at this point, whilst still holding the other buttons, if you want if it doesn't switch on automatically) This will / should switch the camera on and display the full Firmware information.

Mine is:
Main: 1.22
BKUP: 1.00
MONI: 1.00
ADJD: 1.22
EXTD: 1.04
CPU1: 1.00

Ricoh Caplio R5 Beta* Blog

The Ricoh Caplio R5, announced on the 24th of August 2006, is the latest ultra compact, ultra zoom from Ricoh. It features a 7 megapixel sensor, a 2.5" screen, and uniquely for a camera this size, a 7.1x optical zoom lens.

* the Beta term is in reference to the blogger.com beta running at the moment, and nothing to do with the status of the camera.