Review: Ricoh Caplio R4 digital camera

Ricoh's Caplio R4 looks suspiciously similar to many of its predecessors, particularly the R3.

In fact, the R4's case is almost exactly the same as its younger sibling, and the only significant change appears to be an increase in the number of megapixels the camera can handle - from five to six.

The R4's lens is the same one that appeared in last year's model. It also sports a 7.1x optical zoom that, if used on a 35mm film camera, would give it a range from 28-200mm.

This provides for an excellent variety of focal lengths, from fairly wide-angle shots right up to a close-up zoom.

This is combined with a very good macro mode that allows for pictures at around 1cm away from the subject. The feature is very handy for nature photography (although for obvious reasons it's more useful for flora than for fauna).

One problem with increasing the number of megapixels is that manufacturers then have to squeeze more detail into the Charged-Couple Device (CCD) – the part of the camera that actually captures the image.

As this remains the same at 0.4in (just over 1cm) wide, the same size of CCD has to capture a million extra pixels for each image. This results in noise – the odd speckles that appear on some digital images, particularly in low light.

This is certainly a problem for the R4, although this is the case for many cameras in this price range (and with the same sized CCD). However, it's not much of a problem unless light levels are really low and you're shooting without the flash. The flash itself is small but reasonably powerful.

Menus and the display are similar to other Capilo cameras, which means they are well laid out, and easy to use. There's a small amount – 26Mb – of internal memory, but that won't last long, especially when taking full-size pictures. The camera takes SD cards for more photo storage.

All in all, this is a decent general purpose camera with an excellent lens and a very good macro mode, but the level of noise on the pictures perhaps make it more suitable for outdoor pictures than anything else.

Those with a previous Caplio would be advised to stick with it, but for newcomers it's well worth considering.

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Rating: 4/5
Price: £249