NickBland
New Member
RICOH CX1 REVIEW 1 OF 4
Intro
To start with, a little background : having owned many compacts in the past – Canon A80, Fuji F11, F30 & F100fd, Panasonic TZ-3 and LX-3, as well as Nikon 5700 & Olympus C8080WZ ‘bridge’ cameras, and various DSLRS I’ve owned and used for numerous portrait sessions, commercial jobs and various weddings, as well as personal photography - Canon EOS20D, Nikon D200 & (currently) D3, I feel qualified to give you, as a potential Ricoh buyer, a worthwhile & non-technical overview of the new Ricoh CX1 compact. How is it in use, what are its particular strengths, and what won’t it do ?
The latter is especially important these days, as expectations seem very high for what are mostly small-sensor compact cameras. So far, the laws of physics remain, and although major technological advances have been made in recent years, compacts and DSLRs are simply not directly interchangeable … although there are many areas of crossover, and there is definitely room for both. After all, compact camera image quality can be exceptional these days.
As the Ricoh comes with a detailed 240-page (!) manual (also downloadable from the Ricoh site) – which you DO need to read to get the most out of the CX1 – this will be a hands-on review … real-world stuff that matters to enthusiasts that give their cameras plenty of use, in many different situations, and care about ‘quality’. It’s by no means an exhaustive review to start with, but more of a ‘work-in-progress’, and will be updated at various stages. This is a very feature-packed camera, and I’ve certainly not yet had the opportunity to check out all the options at this point …but I see that as a good thing !
1/ Why the Ricoh CX1 ? And what are the options ?
So you’re considering the CX1, probably amongst several other contenders such as Fuji F100fd, F200EXR, Canon G10, Panasonic TZ-7, maybe a few others ….and you may wonder, in my case, as I have an LX3 - superb camera, and just amazing for what it is - why would I need another compact ?
It’s very much down to personal preference & usage, and the fact is that there are many shots that I like to take at longer focal lengths as well, especially when travelling (that's most days!), and the LX3 does only go to 60mm ...which I of course considered when I bought it. The reality is that while I had it, the Fuji F100fd did still get used for its longer focal range, although it was less than satisfying to me, and the pink banding issue was certainly an irritation, although it remains largely a great camera.
Instead of rather obviously replacing the F100fd with the new F200EXR – which continues with the F100 body shape, same 5x zoom lens, and less-than-intuitive menus, I looked long and hard at what's out there, felt like a change, but still needed something pocketable, with a wide-angle/decent zoom lens, great image quality (including superb colour rendition, as you find on most Fujis), and effective image stabilisation for the long end especially. Any new, ‘interesting’ (as in ‘inspiring’) features would also be a pull.
Having attended an imaging exhibition a few years ago, and listening to a great talk by celebrated celebrity/rock star photographer Andy Earl - who was extolling the virtues of the then new Ricoh GRD, I have from that point been interested in the brand, although it seems to get little coverage generally - certainly unlike Nikon, Canon, Fuji and Sony. Even now, in the USA, I gather there are very few Ricoh retailers, so the CX1 may need to be hunted down …read on to find if it would be worth your while !
2/ What does the CX1 offer that others don’t ?
That’s really the point – there isn’t anything out there which has exactly the same feature set, that I’m already finding works so well. In terms of image quality, the 28-200mm focal range is barely compromised at all (see below for image quality impressions), and the sensor clearly works very well in combination with that lens – apparently substantially better than previous Ricoh R-series, from which the CX1 derives in lens and body shape, at least – and it’s a camera that encourages you to make full use of it, as often as possible. This feature alone makes it an inspirational instrument, rather than just another compact. Build quality is peerless in the compact world.
Add in some of the unique features that Ricoh have included : optional 1:1 (square) image format, DR Double-Shot and 120fps shooting capability especially – and it’s obvious that this is no regular compact.
All the best
Nick
Intro
To start with, a little background : having owned many compacts in the past – Canon A80, Fuji F11, F30 & F100fd, Panasonic TZ-3 and LX-3, as well as Nikon 5700 & Olympus C8080WZ ‘bridge’ cameras, and various DSLRS I’ve owned and used for numerous portrait sessions, commercial jobs and various weddings, as well as personal photography - Canon EOS20D, Nikon D200 & (currently) D3, I feel qualified to give you, as a potential Ricoh buyer, a worthwhile & non-technical overview of the new Ricoh CX1 compact. How is it in use, what are its particular strengths, and what won’t it do ?
The latter is especially important these days, as expectations seem very high for what are mostly small-sensor compact cameras. So far, the laws of physics remain, and although major technological advances have been made in recent years, compacts and DSLRs are simply not directly interchangeable … although there are many areas of crossover, and there is definitely room for both. After all, compact camera image quality can be exceptional these days.
As the Ricoh comes with a detailed 240-page (!) manual (also downloadable from the Ricoh site) – which you DO need to read to get the most out of the CX1 – this will be a hands-on review … real-world stuff that matters to enthusiasts that give their cameras plenty of use, in many different situations, and care about ‘quality’. It’s by no means an exhaustive review to start with, but more of a ‘work-in-progress’, and will be updated at various stages. This is a very feature-packed camera, and I’ve certainly not yet had the opportunity to check out all the options at this point …but I see that as a good thing !
1/ Why the Ricoh CX1 ? And what are the options ?
So you’re considering the CX1, probably amongst several other contenders such as Fuji F100fd, F200EXR, Canon G10, Panasonic TZ-7, maybe a few others ….and you may wonder, in my case, as I have an LX3 - superb camera, and just amazing for what it is - why would I need another compact ?
It’s very much down to personal preference & usage, and the fact is that there are many shots that I like to take at longer focal lengths as well, especially when travelling (that's most days!), and the LX3 does only go to 60mm ...which I of course considered when I bought it. The reality is that while I had it, the Fuji F100fd did still get used for its longer focal range, although it was less than satisfying to me, and the pink banding issue was certainly an irritation, although it remains largely a great camera.
Instead of rather obviously replacing the F100fd with the new F200EXR – which continues with the F100 body shape, same 5x zoom lens, and less-than-intuitive menus, I looked long and hard at what's out there, felt like a change, but still needed something pocketable, with a wide-angle/decent zoom lens, great image quality (including superb colour rendition, as you find on most Fujis), and effective image stabilisation for the long end especially. Any new, ‘interesting’ (as in ‘inspiring’) features would also be a pull.
Having attended an imaging exhibition a few years ago, and listening to a great talk by celebrated celebrity/rock star photographer Andy Earl - who was extolling the virtues of the then new Ricoh GRD, I have from that point been interested in the brand, although it seems to get little coverage generally - certainly unlike Nikon, Canon, Fuji and Sony. Even now, in the USA, I gather there are very few Ricoh retailers, so the CX1 may need to be hunted down …read on to find if it would be worth your while !
2/ What does the CX1 offer that others don’t ?
That’s really the point – there isn’t anything out there which has exactly the same feature set, that I’m already finding works so well. In terms of image quality, the 28-200mm focal range is barely compromised at all (see below for image quality impressions), and the sensor clearly works very well in combination with that lens – apparently substantially better than previous Ricoh R-series, from which the CX1 derives in lens and body shape, at least – and it’s a camera that encourages you to make full use of it, as often as possible. This feature alone makes it an inspirational instrument, rather than just another compact. Build quality is peerless in the compact world.
Add in some of the unique features that Ricoh have included : optional 1:1 (square) image format, DR Double-Shot and 120fps shooting capability especially – and it’s obvious that this is no regular compact.
All the best
Nick
It's better for continuity of following discussions. I will add some comments later. Unfortunately, my cx1 review is delayed due to other tasks and unforeseen problems with my laptop 
