Ricoh Caplio G3 Model S

Ricoh isn't a name most people would associate with digital cameras but it has been producing them for a number of years and the Caplio G3 Model S is its latest. The Caplio is a little hefty for a digital camera but its case, which is about the size of a glasses case, is at least very sleek. The size also makes it comfortable to hold and being fashioned from magnesium, the case should cope well with rough treatment.

The Caplio is a three-megapixel camera with a maximum resolution of 2048 x 1536. At this resolution, five images can be stored in the 8Mb of internal memory but there's an SD Card slot for adding more memory. Cards cost as little as £40 for a 128Mb card from Crucial (www.crucial.com/uk). Image quality, even at the highest resolution, is merely good though, and we've seen far better results from other three-megapixel cameras

Top-notch picture quality, however, is worth sacrificing for the camera's other features. There's no full manual mode but the list of presets is comprehensive and the macro mode goes right down to an impressive 1cm.

There's also a 3x optical zoom and an option to capture 16 shots a tenth of a second apart. There's even a mode for photographing text documents that works suprisingly well.

Contact: Ricoh 020 8261 4031
www.ricoh.co.uk