Ricoh CX2

Ricoh’s CX1 impressed us earlier this year with its sturdy construction and good performance in all sorts of lighting conditions.

The CX2 improves upon this with its 10.7x optical zoom lens (equivalent to 28-300mm on a film camera) and an improved continuous shooting mode that can capture five frames per second at a resolution of nine megapixels.

Ricoh has also added some excellent scene modes that are more than just gimmicks. The high-contrast black and white mode, for instance, lets people with no knowledge of photographic settings take black and white shots with the grainy appearance of photographs taken with high-speed film. The Miniaturise mode creates a ‘tilt-shift’ effect in which objects shot from above look like models – it normally requires an expensive lens to create such effects.

The camera’s Dynamic Range mode balances shots containing light and dark areas which would otherwise lose their detail in the overexposed parts. This worked very well in our tests, revealing details that would have been lost otherwise – it also gave more realistic colours. There is a new safeguard against accidentally deleting pictures, although this requires not switching the camera off before you change your mind.

Both outdoor and indoor shots were well balanced with realistic colours. In night mode, the camera was able to focus on a night scene through glass – we managed to get it to take a picture of the Tyne Bridge through a window. Moving cars were blurred while the rest of the picture remained sharp.

The Auto Exposure and Auto Focus Target Shift feature was less impressive. It is intended to allow the user to focus on a specified part of the scene in the foreground while blurring the background without resorting to manually focusing the image, but in our tests this didn’t work very well. After a weekend of light use, the CX2’s lithium battery was only a third depleted.

The Ricoh CX2’s Easy mode worked well, and it comes with a good range of manual controls, and the comprehensive and easy-to-follow printed manual completes an excellent all-round package.