Ricoh Caplio R1v

Five-megapixel cameras, of which this is one, are getting smaller and cheaper all the time, but then megapixels aren't everything when it comes to cameras. Equally - or more - important is the quality of the components, particularly the lens. After all, if the lens isn't up to scratch, all the megapixels in the world aren't going to get a decent picture out of the camera.

Fortunately, Ricoh hasn't skimped on the quality of the lens in the R1v. It's a 4.8x zoom lens, going from a fairly wide-angle 28mm to a decent 135mm, and the camera has an impressive 1cm macro mode, meaning you can take shots from remarkably close to objects.

You can control most aspects of shooting, from the usual selection of modes (night, macro, portrait and so on) to white balance and other more advanced settings. You can also put it into manual focus mode, in which you use the zoom buttons to focus the lens, but this is a little fiddly.

Considering the inclusion of a zoom lens, the camera is very thin; Ricoh has used a clever piece of technology to allow the lens to fold in on itself for storage.

It's not as thin and stylish as, say, Sony's DSC-T1, but it comes close, and at nearly half the price, it's a bargain. It takes SD and MMC memory cards, but none are included, and the 12Mb of internal memory won't hold more than a few photos. But considering the quality of pictures you can take, the R1v is a steal.

Contact:
Ricoh 020 8261 4000
www.ricoh.co.uk