Electronics : Ricoh - Caplio R7 black

Rating: - Ricoh Caplio R7 - Reliabilty issue
Caplio R7- Purchased in March 2008. Inside 2 days lens started jamming. Returned & repaired - took 1 month. Since then I have had 3 replacements all for the same fault - camera cannot focus and shutsdown! Each time I was without the camera for 4 to 6 weeks. Wouldn't buy another Ricoh.

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Rating: - Do not waste your money on this camera
I brought this camera 8 months ago and have yet to take a decent photo with it. I have read the instruction book from cover to cover on numerous occasions and have set all the correct settings and it still won't take a decent picture. I have also had to send it back for repair as the lens got stuck.

I would not recommend this camera to anyone.


I had a Kodak DX4530 before this and this takes excellent photo's.

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Rating: - Great value for money with this camera - amazing functionality for at pocket camera!
I had a Caplio R2 many years ago, and when I was to change my FujiFilm i naturally checked out the Ricoh range, which I think outbattles all competitors in small pocket cameras - especcially when it comes to objective zoom.

I am very pleased with the performance of this camera. It is a great point-and-shoot camera, but most suited for good lighted conditions. In bad lightning it usually is enough to do a little change to the exposure compensation to maintain good usable pictures. Here the great quick-access-joystick comes in handy. With this joystick, you can quickly access four of your favorite settings (you choose them yourself).

The battery life is great, I would estimate we do around 200-300 pictures, maybe half with falsh, on a battery.

The image quality is great to my oppinion. I am not though an expert, but for our personal purpose it is great. The 7x objective zoom is excellent, and combined with the small size of the camera (fits easily into your pocket) it is amazing.

So why not 5 stars? Well, om ISO's from 800 and up, the picture tends to be noisy and unsuable. Thats a pitty, though it probarbly is the same with many competitors. Also, the zoom is NOISY. Normally it is not a problem, but some weeks ago I was at a wedding, where is was kind of embarassing to zoom - so I didn't. When traveling and in other situations, it really isn't any problem.

So all in all I can only recomend this camera. If you are looking for a pocket sized point-and-shoot still with some advanced features and that offers value for money, this is a great option.

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Rating: - Dissapointed with indoor shots and blurry faces
I received the R7 as a gift in December 2007 after reading loads of reviews etc and thinking that I had picked the best wide angle/zoom compact camera. I must say that I was dissapointed with the first few shots taken indoors and experienced identical results to other reviewers here. I'm no expert and I didn't really want to offend the person who bought the camera so did nothing about it. I've used it more during the summer and often found that pictures seemed to be blurry despite taking great efforts to keep the camera still and taking photos in well lit conditions. In fact a family day out where I had taken loads of great shots resulted in dissapointment when I viewed the photos on screen afterwards. Close up potraits don't seem to bad and I've had a few really good photos but anything over a few feet away and the focus seems to be off. I'm going to attempt to get Ricoh to take the camera back and have a look as having read the other reviews I don't think my camera is performing as it should be.

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Rating: - What a zoom!
I left my lovely big Fuji S6500 behind on a month long tour round France and relied totally on my new little Ricoh R7 (a replacement for a Pentax E30 I gave away). I was apprehensive but in the end was mostly delighted. It generally takes perfectly exposed, detailed and well balanced shots in decent light (I always whizz images through Photoshop Elements to crop to 7x5" format and correct exposure problems and found very few needing any adjustment). Having now taken several hundred shots (with only one battery recharge) my favourite aspects are the great lens and zoom range (28-200mm is so much better than most small digicams and opens up lots of extra possibilities), the Ricoh SC70 leather case (perfect for having the camera instantly available on your belt), the excellent LCD (far better than my older Pentax), the speed (eg zooming in review mode), the superb macro and the adjustment button (provides instant access to exposure compensation, ISO etc).

Downsides? Low light and flash performance is as poor (or even worse?) as with most small digicams (grainy, blurred etc) and I'm glad I've got my big Fuji for those times. It sometimes feels as if you might easily drop it (haven't yet), the antishake isn't that great, the battery cover slips open too often and when I load pictures onto flickr it's annoying having to delete "EXIF jpg picture " for every image.

Overall I think the R7 excellent value for a small digicam with a great zoom lens and if you have a bigger camera for more difficult conditions it's an excellent alternative when you don't want to lug the big one in case. Just don't expect a tiny camera to take great shots in low light. So it's a great second camera but not ideal as your only one. But then even tiny digicams at twice the price don't qualify as only camera candidates.