Archive for April, 2006
Traditional camera-makers have lost their focus
By Associated Press
April 19, 2006
TOKYO – They are some of the most legendary names in photography.
Minolta scored the world’s first successful auto-focus, single-lens reflex camera. Fuji invented 1600-speed film, once the industry’s fastest. Nikon’s fabled F-series made the 35 mm camera the picture-taking workhorse for the last half-century.
Now the companies share a more dubious distinction: abandoning part of the business that made them famous.
Camera-makers have battled to adapt to the digital revolution the past 10 years, but recent retreats by leading brands underline how the industry has turned upside-down.
With interlopers like Sony, Panasonic and Samsung capitalizing on their high-tech know-how, traditional camera-makers and their black scrolls of film may soon join 19th-century daguerreotypes as museum-shelf curios.
In just the past few years, digital cameras have catapulted from cutting-edge novelties to mainstream must-haves. But with the market poised to plateau, more players are chasing fewer opportunities and the old guard is losing out.
“It’s inevitable that many of the camera manufacturers in the market today will be either bought up or go out of business,” said Ed Lee, an analyst with InfoTrends Inc., a market research group.
More than three-quarters of all cameras sold today are digital, and digital images are expected to account for 90 percent of all professionally taken photos by 2010, compared with 70 percent now, according to InfoTrends.
Camera buffs were stunned in January when Konica Minolta Holdings Inc., which traces its roots to 1873, said it was quitting the camera business altogether – digital and film – and selling its digital assets to rival Sony Corp.
Nikon Corp., in the same month, said it would stop making seven of its nine film cameras and concentrate on digital models.
Fuji Photo Film Co., which plans to cut 5,000 jobs, changed directions last month announcing it would spend nearly $8.5 million to diversify into pharmaceuticals.
Europe’s biggest film-maker, Germany’s AgfaPhoto GmbH, couldn’t adapt at all; it’s now bankrupt and liquidated.
Meanwhile, Antonio Perez, who is leading Eastman Kodak Co. through a four-year digital remake, has warned that Kodak, the pioneer of point-and-shoot photography, is now “at the worst possible place” after a $1.03 billion third-quarter loss.
Die-hard film fans in groups like the Konica Minolta Photo Club mourn the passing of an era.
“Some members are very sad because they’ve been using Minolta for a long, long time,” club liaison Tadashi Hasegawa said.
April 20th, 2006
Digital Camera News: Zigview Digital Viewfinder for SLRs, Digital Foci Memory Card Gateway
Digital Camera Reviews, OH
Digital Foci Memory Card Gateway Announced
The Digital Foci Memory Card Gateway is a card reader that can handle all of the current memory cards formats (CompactFlash Type I/II, MicroDrive, SmartMedia, MultiMedia Card, SD Card, miniSD, Memory Stick,MS PRO, MS Duo, MS PRO Duo, and MagicGate MS).
The Memory Card Gateway connects to your computer via a USB 2.0 connection for transfers up to 480Mbps. The reader is fully powered through the USB connection. An LED for each card type shows the connection status and transfer status. A Velcro mounting pad lets you mount it wherever you want and you can even copy from card to card since there are 4 separate slots in the device.
The Digital Foci Memory Card Gateway is available in three colors: Lucid Purple, Midnight Gray, and Crystal Blue. The device measures 3.6″ x 2.1″ x 0.6″ and weighs only 1.8 oz. The Memory Card Gateway includes a USB cable, Quick Start Guide, Resource Disc, and Velcro mounting pad. You can purchase directly from Digital Foci at www.digitalfoci.com for $29.95.
Zigview, First Digital Angle Viewfinder for SLR Cameras Announced
Argraph has announced two products, both called Zigview, that attach to the viewfinder of an SLR to make it easy to take low and high angle photography easier, and has some additional features. Two models are available – the Zigview-B and Zigview-R.
The Zigview-B is the “base” model. A 2 inch TFT LCD can be rotated so that low angle shots or high angle shots can be framed correctly.
The Zigview-R adds a motion detection shutter release, sophisticated intervalometer, and bulb exposure controller. The motion sensor works by detecting brightness changes in 9 areas of the viewfinder image. A sensitivity adjustment prevents any false alarms. This is a great feature for a nature photographer who is waiting for a bird to land in a nest. The photographer can sit back and just wait.
The intervalometer on the Zigview-R allows you to shoot up to 999,999 times over a period of 999 days with intervals between 0.5 seconds and 99 days. This can be combined with the bulb control to allow long exposures.
Available at “photo retailers nationwide”, the price will be around $249 for the Zigview-B and $299 for the Zigview-R. For more information, see http://www.adi-digital.com/Zigview/page1/Zigview_page1.htm
April 19th, 2006
Sony’s New Video Camera Shoots for Glory
The HC3 offers consumers high def for less than $2,000 — and is enabling the manufacturer to recapture high profitability
BusinessWeek
When Sony (SNE) unveiled the mass-market, high-definition video camera called the HC3 in late February, it staged none of the standard over-the-top glitz. Held at a tiny theater inside one of Sony’s satellite offices in Tokyo, the event was so low-key it looked like a minor product launch.
But the sleepiness of the event belies the importance of cameras for Sony’s bottom line. In an otherwise lackluster electronics portfolio, the unit stands out as a star performer. Although hardly anybody thinks of Sony as a camera maker, the company is No. 1 in video cameras, holding on to 40% of the $8 billion global market. The company’s recent purchase of Konica Minolta Holdings’ digital single-lens reflex camera operations also makes it a contender in that $13 billion market.
DIGITAL HOME. Sony refused to comment on full-year earnings ahead of its Apr. 27 announcement. But Goldman Sachs (GS) estimates the digital-imaging unit’s profit margins amounted to 7% and contributed to more than a fifth of the electronics division’s sales last fiscal year, which ended in March. That’s no small feat, given that Sony’s overall margins probably totaled less than 2% — the third straight year of weak profitability. In a report issued on Apr. 10, Deutsche Securities’ Yasuo Nakane called the business “one of Sony’s cash cows.”
The unit’s rosy profit outlook represents only part of the story. Led by its executive vice-president, Yutaka Nakagawa, the camera division is key to chief exec Howard Stringer’s plan to make sure Sony gizmos find their way into the digital home. The thinking goes like this: Anyone who spends roughly $1,200 for the HC3 will want a high-definition TV or projector to watch the superclear footage and a PC for editing purposes — and a living-room console would help organize all the data.
The HC3 is a sign of Sony’s new direction for another reason: It shows how the company is trying to mine the market for ideas. That might not have happened so readily in the past. But since the company fell behind in flat TVs and music players — areas where Sony might once have dominated — execs have questioned whether engineers should have the final word on new technologies. Stringer now says the rank-and-file should listen more intently to what consumers want, and has put that strategy front-and-center in his strategy for restoring Sony’s fortunes.
SIMPLE TO USE. When it comes to video cameras, Japanese companies rule the roost. But while Canon (CAJ), Toshiba (TOSBF), Hitachi (HIT), and Sharp also make digital video cameras, as of now Sony is the only one offering a high-definition gizmo so small for less than $2,000. Even so, the company didn’t jump in right away.
Before getting started, Sony officials wanted to know if such a product would sell. Poll results gave them an answer: Consumers were interested if it was compact and a cinch to operate. “We took that very seriously,” says Sony’s camcorder product planner, Noriko Shoji. “For this product, we relied more heavily on surveys.”
Those consumer surveys helped shaped the debate over the HC3′s design. Sony’s feature-happy engineers felt consumers would appreciate a fully loaded video camera. But surveys suggested only technophiles would miss the manual controls. Fewer buttons would mean less circuitry, letting engineers make the most of the smaller imaging chips and lens. Simpler controls would also give the gizmo broader appeal, especially among travelers and parents with young kids. “Unless we appeal to them, high-definition products might not go mainstream,” Shoji said.
The HC3 has gotten off to a promising start in Japan. The HC3 has topped the sales charts in digital video cameras for seven weeks straight, according to Tokyo-based market watcher BCN. In the past week alone, one in every six video cameras sold in Japan was an HC3, BCN says.
PETITE CHIPS. Sony’s profitability in cameras resulted in large part from in-house technologies. The company developed the CCD and ClearVid CMOS sensor chips for high-definition pictures and miniaturized the circuitry for recording and playback. It also made the touch-screen liquid-crystal display panel as well as the mini-DV cassette tapes and the memory sticks used to store data.
“Sony has an advantage, especially in technology for high-definition pictures, because it makes professional-use cameras for broadcasters,” says Hiroyuki Shimizu, Gartner’s principal analyst for semiconductors in Tokyo.
By shrinking the imaging chips, Sony managed to go with the HC3′s small lens, says Shoji, the company’s product planning chief. Procuring so many parts internally also allows Sony to cut costs without having to depend on suppliers, says John Yang, technology analyst at Standard & Poor’s. And it has a firmer grip on the supply chain. “If you’re getting technology from someone else and there’s a shortage, you pay a premium,” Yang says.
THE BIG PICTURE. Sony’s dominant share probably won’t last. Rivals are already rumored to be rushing similar products to market before the seasonal sales peak in autumn. Gartner predicts Sony’s profits from high-definition video cameras will last two to three years before low-priced commodities take over the market.
Sony will eventually have to switch from cassettes to other storage devices, such as DVD recorders, hard drives, or even flash memory chips, which could further erode margins. But that won’t be much of a concern for Stringer if he can apply the lessons learned from the HC3 to other gizmos — and jazz up the Sony brand again.
April 19th, 2006
Sad picture of a passing era
Australian IT, Australia
APRIL 18, 2006
MINOLTA, Fuji and Nikon are some of the most legendary names in photography.
Minolta scored the world’s first successful auto-focus, single-lens reflex camera; Fuji invented 1600-speed film, once the industry’s fastest; and Nikon’s F-series made the 35mm camera the picture-taking workhorse for the past half-century.
These companies are now abandoning part of the business that made them famous.
In the past 10 years, camera makers have fought to adapt to the digital revolution, and recent retreats by leading brands show how the industry has turned upside-down.
Since interlopers such as Sony, Panasonic and Samsung have capitalised on their hi-tech know-how, traditional camera makers and their black scrolls of film may soon join 19th-century daguerreotypes as museum-shelf curios.
In the past few years, digital cameras have transformed from cutting-edge novelties to mainstream must-haves and with the market set to plateau, more players are chasing fewer opportunities and the old guard is losing out.
“It’s inevitable that many of the camera manufacturers in the market today will be either bought up or go out of business,” said Ed Lee, an analyst with US-based market research group InfoTrends.
More than three-quarters of all cameras sold today are digital, and digital images are expected to account for 90 per cent of all professionally taken photos by 2010, compared with 70 per cent now, according to US market research group InfoTrends.
Camera buffs were stunned in January when Konica Minolta Holdings, which began in 1873, announced it was quitting the camera business altogether and selling its digital assets to rival Sony.
Nikon announced in the same month that it would stop making seven of its nine film cameras and concentrate on digital models.
Fuji Photo Film, which plans to cut 5000 jobs, announced last month that it will spend almost $US8.5 million ($11.66 million) to diversify into pharmaceuticals.
Germany’s AgfaPhoto, Europe’s biggest filmmaker couldn’t adapt, and is bankrupt and liquidated.
Eastman Kodak chairman and chief executive Antonio Perez, who is leading through a four-year digital remake, has warned that the pioneer of point-and-shoot photography is “at the worst possible place” after a $US1.03 billion third-quarter loss.
Although Kodak is the third-biggest digital camera maker, it was slow to shift its focus to digital, quitting the black-and-white paper business only last year.
Some big names, such as Kodak, Nikon and Olympus, farm out manufacturing digital cameras to hi-tech companies with expertise.
Sanyo Electric, Taiwan’s Premier Image Technology and Altek Corp are among the ghost makers.
One key exception is Canon, which has invested heavily in digital technology. Canon shipped about 12.6 million digital cameras in 2004 to lead the world with a 17 per cent market share, according to US market researching company IDC.
Canon has used marketing to make sure consumers do not forget its name amid the onslaught of digital newcomers, and as a result its camera division accounted for only 35 per cent of the company’s overall sales last year, but 42 per cent of total operating profit.
That performance has helped Canon notch up six straight years of record earnings.
Global shipments of digital cameras are expected to peak at 92.7million units this year, before starting to decline because of market saturation, IDC analysts say.
Traditional camera makers such as Nikon are hoping to keep a toehold in high-end digital single-lens reflex cameras, which are favoured by professionals, use interchangeable lenses and tend to have higher profit margins.
But newcomers such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, which makes Panasonic products, are already unveiling their own SLRs.
AP
The Australian
April 18th, 2006
James Cameron: Lights, Digital Camera, NAB
The famed director will keynote the Digital Cinema Summit on Sunday at the annual National Association of Broadcasters show.
By Laurie Sullivan
TechWeb.com
Apr 17, 2006 09:18 AM
In one week all eyes will turn toward the Las Vegas Convention Center to see the latest media gadgets and tools at the annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show.
Multimedia has exploded in the past year with telecommunications carriers and set-top box companies offering options, such as software from Sling Media that can turn mobile phones into televisions or Apple Computer selling TV episodes for $1.99 each on iTunes Music Store to view on iPods.
NAB attracts movie makers, content producers, broadcasters, engineers, and telecommunication carrier that are rushing to lay claim in Internet protocol television (IPTV) and streaming media to mobile devices and cellular phones.
On Sunday, James Cameron takes the stage to keynote the Digital Cinema Summit. Cameron, known for directing “Titanic,” “The Terminator,” “The Abyss,” and “Aliens” also will join cinematographer and inventor Vince Pace, and producer Jon Landau, to talk about three-dimensional (3D) digital movies.
Digital media will affect companies throughout the entertainment supply chain, from production to consumer. Earlier this month, six major studios began selling, rather than renting, full-length feature movies on the Internet through Movielink LLC and CinemaNow Inc. Universal Studios stepped in with “Brokeback Mountain” and Sony Pictures began selling “Fun With Dick and Jane.”
The broadcast industry also expects the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to pull the plug on analog signals by 2009, moving high-definition (HD) products onto center stage at this year’s NAB conference.
A recent discussion with executives at NVIDIA Corp. highlights new graphics cards the company will demonstrate at NAB. The cards are meant for new workstations Hewlett-Packard & Co and Dell Inc. intends to deliver soon.
The graphics cards will enable HD broadcast networks to create “stunning graphics and flashy transitions in real time” and will give television viewers “a new experience,” said Julien Zanchi, NVIDIA product manager for professional solutions. “A few years ago any graphics card could do the job, but now with HD it’s more difficult to implement the processes into PCs.” Thomson’s Grass Valley will demonstrate applications that support multi-authoring and distribution formats, as the entertainment industry transitions toward a complete digital supply chain relying on bits and bytes.
Sony Electronics Inc. and other top camera manufactures will return to capture the attention of show-floor attendees by demonstrating HD cameras, such as Sony’s 4K-digital projector with 4096 X 2160 pixel resolution, said spokesman Tom Di Nome.
Internet companies have also found a place at NAB. Executives from CustomFlix Labs Inc., a wholly owned Amazon.com Inc. subsidiary, will offer new ways to self-publish and distribute DVDs on-demand. CustomFlix in March announced an agreement with Withoutabox Inc., a community of independent moviemakers, to provide more cost-efficient ways for independent filmmakers to create and fulfill industry screener and retail DVDs.
Software and services are making an appearance, too. Axia Audio, a division of Telos Systems, will launch software applications for IP-Audio networks at NAB. iProFiler, a multi-channel audio archiving and logging program works with Axia IP-Audio networks to capture and store up to 16-stereo audio channels, or 32-mono channels, of time-stamped MP3s without audio cards.
Quantel Ltd., focused on content delivery and digital cinema products and services, will launch workflow software, as more companies in the entertainment industry take a cue from enterprises to improve collaboration in their digital supply chain. ZoneMagic lets users collaborate on projects whether they’re in the same floor in a building, next door or across towns, countries and continents.
April 18th, 2006
Digital refocuses photo industry
Old-guard camera, film makers losing out to high-tech
By Hans Greimel, Associated Press
April 17, 2006
TOKYO – They are some of the most legendary names in photography.
Minolta scored the world’s first successful auto-focus, single-lens reflex camera. Fuji invented 1,600- speed film, once the industry’s fastest. Nikon’s fabled F-series made the 35 mm camera the picture-taking workhorse for the past half-century.
Now the companies share a more dubious distinction: abandoning part of the business that made them famous.
Camera makers have battled to adapt to the digital revolution for the past 10 years, but recent retreats by leading brands underline how the industry has turned upside-down.
With interlopers such as Sony, Panasonic and Samsung capitalizing on their high-tech know-how, traditional camera makers and their black scrolls of film may soon join 19th century daguerreotypes as museum-shelf curios.
In just the past few years, digital cameras have catapulted from cutting-edge novelties to mainstream must-haves. But with the market poised to plateau, more players are chasing fewer opportunities, and the old guard is losing out.
“It’s inevitable that many of the camera manufacturers in the market today will be either bought up or go out of business,” said Ed Lee, an analyst with InfoTrends Inc., a U.S.-based market research group.
More than three-quarters of all cameras sold today are digital, and digital images are expected to account for 90 percent of all professionally taken photos by 2010, compared with 70 percent now, according to InfoTrends.
Camera buffs were stunned in January when Konica Minolta Holdings Inc., which traces its roots to 1873, said it was quitting the camera business altogether – digital and film – and selling its digital assets to rival Sony Corp.
Nikon Corp. said the same month it would stop making seven of its nine film cameras and concentrate on digital models.
Fuji Photo Film Co., which plans to cut 5,000 jobs, changed directions last month, announcing it would spend nearly $8.5 million to diversify into pharmaceuticals.
Europe’s biggest film maker, Germany’s AgfaPhoto GmbH, couldn’t adapt at all; it’s now bankrupt and liquidated.
Meanwhile, Antonio Perez, who is leading Eastman Kodak Co. through a four-year digital remake, has warned that Kodak, the pioneer of point-and-shoot photography, is now “at the worst possible place” after a $1.03 billion third-quarter loss.
Kodak, which is cutting up to 25,000 jobs, is the third-biggest digital camera maker worldwide, behind Canon and Sony. But Kodak was slow to shift its focus to digital, quitting the black-and-white paper business only last year.
Die-hard film fans in groups such as the Konica Minolta Photo Club mourn the passing of an era.
“Some members are very sad because they’ve been using Minolta for a long, long time,” club liaison Tadashi Hasegawa said.
Many of the big names in photography were once startups in their own right as they rushed to market in the 1950s with the advent of 35 mm cameras, undercutting and stealing market share from European makers.
Now they are the ones having difficulty adapting to the technology used in digital cameras: image processing chips and sensors called charge-coupled devices, or CCDs, which capture light and transform it into digital signals.
“In today’s era of digital cameras, where image sensor technology such as CCD, which we don’t have, is indispensable, it became difficult to timely provide competitive products,” Konica Minolta spokesman Minoru Ikehara said.
Some names, such as Kodak, Nikon and Olympus, farm out manufacturing of digital cameras to high-tech firms with expertise.
April 17th, 2006
Analog IC designers to benefit from digital camera sector’s expected 50% shipment growth in 2Q
Digi Times
With Taiwan’s digital camera makers expecting 50% in sequential shipment growth in the second quarter, their component suppliers from the analog IC sector, including Aimtron Technology, AME, and Advanced Analog Technology (AAT) will enjoy strong sales, according to industry sources.
Aimtron has received orders from Taiwan’s top digital camera maker Premier Image Technology for 6-channel PWM ICs, and shipments began in March, the sources said, adding that Aimtron will see demand for digital camera-use PWM ICs almost doubling in the second quarter.
Aimtron posted a sequential growth of 41% in revenues to NT$63 million for March, and the sources said that the company’s revenues for April should go up to NT$80 million.
AME has secured orders from Altek, and will start shipping the products in volume this month, the sources revealed.
With rising market shares in PWM ICs for digital cameras and other portable consumer electronics, AME recorded NT$67 million in revenues for March, and its revenues for April stand a good chance of hitting NT$80 million, the sources remarked.
AAT will also see its monthly revenues rise to an average of NT$80-100 million during the second quarter, up from a average of NT$65 million during the first quarter, due to strong demand from the digital camera and LCD TV sectors, the sources added.
April 17th, 2006
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
The Rensselaer Republican, IN
RENSSELAER — Kentland Bank will be honoring 25-year employee, Phyllis Britt, with a retirement open house for her past years of service. The open house will take place all day on April 21, and the community is invited to join Kentland Bank in honoring Phyllis Britt. Cake and punch will be served throughout the day.
“It has been a pleasure to work with Phyllis, and we will miss her dearly,†said Stan Haines, an employee of Kentland Bank.
Britt started at the bank in 1972 as a teller, when it was called Farmer’s National Bank. She was trained early on to start new accounts, order ATM cards, type loans up, take care of CDs and to create Christmas Club accounts.
“As a teller I was able to take care of just about [any] service the customer requested,†said Britt. â€What is really interesting is, back then, we all shared a single computer to do all the tasks.â€
SEE MORE OF THIS STORY IN THE MONDAY, APRIL 17 EDITION OF THE REPUBLICAN.
April 17th, 2006
Foreign firm to operate traffic digital cameras
Malay Mail, Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: Thinking out of the box, the Transport Ministry has come up with a way of ensuring the success of its planned digital camera system to catch speedsters.
It will leave the camera work to a company and pay it a commission for every person booked for traffic offences on highways, trunk roads and at major traffic junctions.
Which means it is in the interest of the company to detect every offender.
This way, the Ministry will achieve its goal of reducing the number of road accidents with- out having to spend money installing and maintaining the system. The company will bear the costs.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said the Government planned to install these digital cameras at some 300 accident-prone areas along trunk roads and highways early next year.
The cameras will also be mounted at traffic junctions in urban areas.
The devices will operate round- the-clock and will relay the photographs, along with information on the nature of the offence and the time and date, to the Road Transport Department and the police.
Summonses will then be issued, either by the RTD or police, according to the nature of the offence.
The cameras will capture those who speed, drive recklessly or cross double-lines.
“For motorists, of course, there is nothing to cheer about. We want them to follow the rules to reduce fatalities,†Chan said.
The Road Transport and Road Safety departments – whose staff recently visited the United States, Britain, Germany and Australia – are talking to several foreign companies about the camera models and the cost.
Chan said the Ministry was eager to implement the system because it appeared foolproof.
“The cameras will be handled by an independent foreign operator. They will provide the system and the technology, and we will not be burdened with the high cost of getting the sophisticated system,†he added.
He said that the company would recover its costs from the commission it earned from each summons issued by the authorities.
“We will pay the operator from the money obtained from the summonses,†Chan said, adding that the method had been successful in countries such as the US and Australia. — NST
April 17th, 2006
Ricoh GR Digital 8.1mp camera
The Register
Review In October 1996, the Ricoh GR series of 35mm film cameras was born. They were some of the company’s first compact cameras aimed at the enthusiast and pro snapper where image quality and the resolving power of the lens were the paramount considerations, and not just a tiny package. A digital GR that aims to follow those illustrious forb
The Ricoh GR Digital certainly looks the part of a GR of yore – its 2.5cm “thin” body with slightly bulging handgrip-cum-battery-and-memory-card housing are key traits. Its fixed focal length 28mm (35mm equivalent) lens has a bright F2.4 maximum aperture and as a prime lens, it’s the key to preserving the GR’s reputation.
It provides the same unparalleled sharpness and lack of distortion synonymous with the GR name
Those familiar with GR film cameras know they were not simply point-and-shoot cameras, and the GR Digital is no different. It provides a comprehensive set of controls, full manual shooting settings and a range of fine-tuning options that will satisfy the most demanding professional or enthusiast.
There are also a set of accessories including wide-angle lens adaptors, matched optical viewfinders – disappointingly there is no built-in optical viewfinder – and Sigma-made external flashguns that allow you to expand the camera and its versatility.
In use, the camera sits snuggly in the hand with the shutter release and dual control dials – one front and one on the back, a la digital SLRs – making the camera feel every inch a camera within your complete control. A mode dial with the manual, aperture priority and program settings includes a green-coloured point-and-shoot setting; a 320 x 240-pixel, 30fps movie mode; and a single scene mode, a black and white text setting for snapping documents.
The large 2.5in screen dominates the back plate and provides comprehensive display options, including composition frame lines, an active histogram, or nothing but the image through the lens. The screen is sadly quite difficult to use in brighter conditions and although it is very sharp, I found that shadows and highlight areas in a shot were not displayed particularly well even when adjusting the screen’s brightness. The result is a lack of detail that belied the true quality of the shots.
Other controls on the back include the main Menu and OK button; a four-way control set-up that surrounds the Menu button providing flash, replay and the camera’s excellent 1.5cm macro settings. These buttons also double as jog-style buttons that assist in scrolling the many menus the GR has to offer or to run through shots you’ve taken.
The menus include the usual array of set-up options and access to the more advanced settings such as the completely customisable image parameters – sharpness, contrast and colour depth can all be tweaked and saved as custom settings. There is also auto exposure bracketing and white-balance bracketing built-in, along with the ability to shoot with the AdobeRGB colour space embedded into the shots.
You can shoot JPEG, TIF, RAW and RAW/JPEG combo files, and save them on either the internal 26MB storage or an MMC or SD card. You get comprehensive ISO control, from ISO 64 to ISO 1600, with the noise controlled fairly well up to ISO 400, mediocre at ISO 800 but suffering more beyond that.
A fast shutter response of around a tenth of a second makes the camera responsive to use but writing larger TIF or RAW files to any storage is disappointingly slow. In terms of image quality, the 256-zone metering and AF work a treat, macro focusing is excellent too, and the sheer level of detail that GR lens captures – including the GW-1 0.75x wide-angle adaptor lens I also got to play with on this test – allows those eight million pixels on the sensor to do their job well. Distortion is minimal at worst and negligible at best.
Verdict
While the Ricoh GR Digital is not without flaws and notwithstanding its £400 price tag, which may make some swallow hard before parting with any cash for it, it is also a very accomplished compact camera. The new GR would be ideal as a professional’s back up, or perhaps the weapon of choice for enthusiasts.
In either case, they’d be safe in the knowledge the camera boasts a superb specification, lacking nothing but a built-in optical viewfinder. Moreover, the image quality and versatility will not let them down. In short, it is worth every penny.
April 13th, 2006
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