Help in Buying a Compact Camera

[rua66]

Hi,
I'm new to this. I need to buy a compact camera. So i went to a shop and I found like 60 diferent camera's. One of them was th R10, normally people talk to me like Nikon, Sony, Panasonic... but never Ricoh. I loved the brand like 20 years ago. and i didn't belive that they had digital cameras. What i'm asking is a option on buy between 3 cameras that i saw. I'm no Pro (don't know what EV means and does, could learn more about cameras) and looking for a good camera for under 200€ . So i found the R10, samsung WB500 (HZ10W), and the samsung NV100HD (TL34HD), i know that samsung have HD but not a priority for me. Can you help me? or give me another option.
Many thanks
António Rua - from Portugal

 

[VladimirV]

Hi António,
Sorry for my late reply but I missed your post.

I had a look a the cameras you narrowed it down to and they all look very similar in some ways. I don’t have a lot of experience with Samsung regarding usability but they have some of the best build compacts out there and are not far behind Ricoh.

The Samsung HZ10W seems here to be best because it offers the widest and longest lens and also good built. The macro and controls are not as good as the Ricoh R10 though.

It is not easy but unless you shoot a lot in Macro I believe the Samsung HZ10W will be a better choice, especially if you also want to use the video mode. I would not consider the NV100HD due to teh touchscreen interface and it does not seem to have anything above the R10 or HZ10W.

If however you can spend a bit more money the Ricoh CX1 will be the better choice due to the fast frame rates it has, the very fast AF and some of the other features. It is however useless for video mode and can not really compete with the rest.

Hope this helps.

 

[rui fernandes]

Olá António!

Welcome to the forum! I guess you must be from Lisbon or Porto. It's now possible to find Ricoh cameras in Portugal, but only in a few shops in the big cities ;-)

I can't say much about Samsung cameras, but I use Ricoh since 2006 (R3+R4+GX200). I can say that it's very difficult to me to use a different compact because:
Easy and friendly menus; Easy and personal settings available; Speed of use.

If I was searching a "full auto best results ever camera", I would search other brand. With Ricoh you must take a learning path in order to get the best results. Another thing is, you must learn how to get the best files to edit in your PC. My R3+R4 originals are allways "worst" than what you can see in my page. But they have a great quality to let me work on them. With GX200 I feel that I can get a great result out of the camera, not needing so much editing work.

R10 seems a very good choice, with a great price at Pixmania. But I'm not so sure if I would buy it now. CX1 is getting much more attention and interest, and I'm very curious about it ;-)

Whatever your choice, I think you will be sactisfied and, more important, you will understand better your needs for the next camera. Like Vladimir, I advise you to check the zoom range, macro, or any other "special" feature to you before a final decision. Try dpreview buying guide, to compare the several models/features side by side.

If you need some more info, in Portuguese, send me a PM.

Força, e boa sorte!

 

[Tom Caldwell]

I would second Rui's thoughts.

In respect to the R10 - I have an R8 now recycled to my daughter. It is an excellent camera if set up properly - see my notes elsewhere on this forum.

However it, like all Ricoh cameras, performs best with a little thought from the user. If you wish to get more from your photography then any Ricoh is a type of camera that will make this task so much easier as they encourage experimentation.

However if you are thinking of buying a camera in this class the CX1 now has much more to offer and does not need the same amount of tuning as the R8/10.

If simplicity of use is desired then just buy the camera that suits in the shop - they are all of a muchness in automatic mode.

 

[rua66]

Hi,
I forgot to post, i've already bought a camera. After reading all of the post on inumerous forums, i bought a Samsung WB500 / HZ10W. I'm quite happy except for the night shots. 10x optical zoom.

I have a doubt, maybe in the future i'll have a look at the CX-1.

Many thanks for the help.