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Tell your friends about us!Caplio RX
- Thread starter 33dollars
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To me the RX seems like a simplified GX with smaller ccd, slower aperture, and no aperture-priority. I've had a black RX myself for a couple of months now.
It was the last in a row of Ricohs to use that dreaded 3mp ccd from Sony. www.ricoh.com/r_dc/info/ccd/
From that bunch and my experience I would say that G3 overall have the best image quality. Marginally warm colours and seemingly better noise being handled better.
I've used most of them at least to some extent with exception for the usual G4 which I never have used. I've had a 300G which is based on the RR30 and have equivalent image quality + the same loud whiny zoom-engine. For the G3, Ricoh kept the same zoom which actually is quite good, but changed to a less loud zoom and af-engine.
Both which have different sound-character compared to the RR30. I had a RR30 for a short period, there was some weird cardwriting problem and it could randomly refuse to write pictures to the card regardless what card it put into it.
I posted some images taken with the my Caplio Pro G3 in an other thread at Dpreview which is for old Ricohs http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/39180960
The RX however have better handling than the G3. The OK button on the G3 is placed a little too far down. Something which Ricoh since corrected for the G4 which still kept the same zoom.
Further on the G3 have no Adj-button unlike the first G4 and RX and neither wide-angle, only 35mm at the wide end. I believe that the G4 was the first Ricoh which had the Adj-button.
It was the last in a row of Ricohs to use that dreaded 3mp ccd from Sony. www.ricoh.com/r_dc/info/ccd/
From that bunch and my experience I would say that G3 overall have the best image quality. Marginally warm colours and seemingly better noise being handled better.
I've used most of them at least to some extent with exception for the usual G4 which I never have used. I've had a 300G which is based on the RR30 and have equivalent image quality + the same loud whiny zoom-engine. For the G3, Ricoh kept the same zoom which actually is quite good, but changed to a less loud zoom and af-engine.
Both which have different sound-character compared to the RR30. I had a RR30 for a short period, there was some weird cardwriting problem and it could randomly refuse to write pictures to the card regardless what card it put into it.
I posted some images taken with the my Caplio Pro G3 in an other thread at Dpreview which is for old Ricohs http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/39180960
The RX however have better handling than the G3. The OK button on the G3 is placed a little too far down. Something which Ricoh since corrected for the G4 which still kept the same zoom.
Further on the G3 have no Adj-button unlike the first G4 and RX and neither wide-angle, only 35mm at the wide end. I believe that the G4 was the first Ricoh which had the Adj-button.
Wiener
Active Member
Yup, funny how fast things HAVE changed! I used to be happy with my Minolta Dimage Z1 which had a similar sensor size and liking it a lot better than the Pentax Optio I was gifted years later. The race towards larger sensors was often frought with problems!
Nice to air the older stuff! Now where did I bury that Dimage...
Andy
Nice to air the older stuff! Now where did I bury that Dimage...
Andy
These older Ricohs with the 3mp ccd and some previous models use go for dirtcheap prices in auctions even if them are in ok condition. The R3 and the the first GX go for somewhat somewhat higher prices and sometimes also the G4 Wide. Still fully useful cameras though unless the ccd in some of these with 3mp have gone bad.
At least Ricoh can still replace it without charge anything else than shipping-cost TO the repair centre. But them almost need to find sample images on the memory card which shows that the problem is there. I've mostly experienced the problem in warm conditions or troublesome lighting conditions which them not face in the laboratory-tests and hence the problem not always show up there.
A good thing with the RX is that it like its predecessors can focus fast when it is used with AA batteries. I believe that the GX and GX8 is in line with the 500SE which is based on the GX8 and which have very fast AF as long as a DB-43 or Fuji NP120 battery is being used but also very slow AF with AA batteries. The GRDI continued on this part, unfortunately, with slow AF when AAA batteries was put into it.
At least Ricoh can still replace it without charge anything else than shipping-cost TO the repair centre. But them almost need to find sample images on the memory card which shows that the problem is there. I've mostly experienced the problem in warm conditions or troublesome lighting conditions which them not face in the laboratory-tests and hence the problem not always show up there.
A good thing with the RX is that it like its predecessors can focus fast when it is used with AA batteries. I believe that the GX and GX8 is in line with the 500SE which is based on the GX8 and which have very fast AF as long as a DB-43 or Fuji NP120 battery is being used but also very slow AF with AA batteries. The GRDI continued on this part, unfortunately, with slow AF when AAA batteries was put into it.
Paid for a GX 5mp not long ago. It took the seller long enough to provide me with correct Iban numbers etc to do the transaction from my bank.
I was in fact looking for a GX8 as it have better noise-rendering than the GX 5mp. But GX8 is harder to find on Ebay and the first GX is not bad either. Like the RR30, it renders the noise like small dots which not exactly look like grain and that contribute to a somewhat digital look.
Have not got it yet but bought it mostly to potentially let a friend of mine have it if he's interested. Might be a good Ricoh-introduction camera for him.
First I was thinking about a R3, or a R5 as the R5 actually can be rather good if it works well. Thought I better avoid the R4 as it is such a mixed bag from my own experience. Lots of noise, more than the R3 at iso 100 and it ís not looking very good either plus the occasional banding problem makes it worse than the R3.
The problem with all these compact super-zooms is the slow aperture at the wide end and I guess that he might want something more allround with some manual settings like aperture-priority which can be useful in macro to control Dof.
Currently he have one of my previous cameras which I let him have when his own Sony Cybershot Dsc-1 encountered a mishap. Gave him an old Coolpix 700 2 mp which he seemed to like a lot despite the fact that it is a fixed 35mm lens f2.6. But that was a very good compact in its day according to the review of it at Dpreview and it still perform well in right hands.
It is not like many other crapcams from that era which had slow AF and huge shutter release lag etc. Once he told me after having used it for a short couple of weeks that he thought that it probably had been ahead of its time somewhat.
I was in fact looking for a GX8 as it have better noise-rendering than the GX 5mp. But GX8 is harder to find on Ebay and the first GX is not bad either. Like the RR30, it renders the noise like small dots which not exactly look like grain and that contribute to a somewhat digital look.
Have not got it yet but bought it mostly to potentially let a friend of mine have it if he's interested. Might be a good Ricoh-introduction camera for him.
First I was thinking about a R3, or a R5 as the R5 actually can be rather good if it works well. Thought I better avoid the R4 as it is such a mixed bag from my own experience. Lots of noise, more than the R3 at iso 100 and it ís not looking very good either plus the occasional banding problem makes it worse than the R3.
The problem with all these compact super-zooms is the slow aperture at the wide end and I guess that he might want something more allround with some manual settings like aperture-priority which can be useful in macro to control Dof.
Currently he have one of my previous cameras which I let him have when his own Sony Cybershot Dsc-1 encountered a mishap. Gave him an old Coolpix 700 2 mp which he seemed to like a lot despite the fact that it is a fixed 35mm lens f2.6. But that was a very good compact in its day according to the review of it at Dpreview and it still perform well in right hands.
It is not like many other crapcams from that era which had slow AF and huge shutter release lag etc. Once he told me after having used it for a short couple of weeks that he thought that it probably had been ahead of its time somewhat.
Well. No well working Ricoh Caplio GX 5mp here. The sensor is bad as hell and gives images which at least on the lcd screen looks as bad or worse than these from the 400G Wide when I had sensor problem with that camera. So it is not the usual banding problem here. Well visible horizontal lines over most part of the pictures.
Has not bothered to transfer any of these images from the GX to the computer yet.
At least I don't know of any known ccd problem with the Caplio GX unlike other cameras which also used 1/1.8" 5mp ccd which was infamous for this particular problem.
Among these there was the Olympus C-5050z probably the most notable of the cameras with that bad ccd among a bunch of compacts from at least Nikon as well having used the same ccd in some of their Coolpixs. I think that there might have another modified or slightly newer 1/1.8" 5mp from Sony. At least the Olympus 5060 Wide zoom, not same as the 5050, was also 5mp but had no reported sensor problem. Instead it was the mode dial which could give problem on that camera.
I've occasionally noticed that a similar sensor problem can occur with the GRDI as well. Though not frequent and I've luckily not experienced it myself.
One user in another thread and on the last page another which also have had the same problem.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4248
Has not bothered to transfer any of these images from the GX to the computer yet.
At least I don't know of any known ccd problem with the Caplio GX unlike other cameras which also used 1/1.8" 5mp ccd which was infamous for this particular problem.
Among these there was the Olympus C-5050z probably the most notable of the cameras with that bad ccd among a bunch of compacts from at least Nikon as well having used the same ccd in some of their Coolpixs. I think that there might have another modified or slightly newer 1/1.8" 5mp from Sony. At least the Olympus 5060 Wide zoom, not same as the 5050, was also 5mp but had no reported sensor problem. Instead it was the mode dial which could give problem on that camera.
I've occasionally noticed that a similar sensor problem can occur with the GRDI as well. Though not frequent and I've luckily not experienced it myself.
One user in another thread and on the last page another which also have had the same problem.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4248