Photo gallery: Ricoh GX200Design
If you prefer your camera of choice to hark back to the days when you would look longingly at the serious camera your parents had while you played in the sand with your box brownie, we have the answer for you.
From the outside, the Ricoh GX200 seems a little austere, completely befitting the serious tag that we might bestow it with. Black plastics are clad with a matching rubberised thumb and hand grip on the back and side respectively. Completing the back panel is a 2.7-inch LCD screen, resplendent with 460,000 pixels packed inside.
Button configuration is relatively standard, and the dial configuration to adjust shooting specifications provides a professional feel quite distinct from other compact cameras. The zoom rocker is relegated to the upper right-hand corner just underneath the mode dial, while the flash unit pops up covertly from the camera body, nestled within the hotshoe attachment (also doubling as the viewfinder attachment).
Indeed, the design of the Ricoh leads us to draw comparisons with rangefinders, or other compact cameras that are leading the 35mm revival charge such as the Canon PowerShot G10 and the Panasonic Lumix LX3.
Features
As the successor to the GX100, the GX200 has been upgraded to 12 megapixels, and the sensor now measures 1/1.7 inches. It shares the similar boxy exterior as its predecessor, though the insignia has slightly changed. Image stabilisation is now standard on the GX200.
One of the most curious features to this little black box is the electronic viewfinder, which you can attach at the top of the camera. The viewfinder is available for purchase with the camera, though you can decide whether to shoot with it attached or just use the LCD screen. Despite our general distaste for electronic viewfinders, the Ricoh's was incredibly easy to use, good quality, and provided 100 per cent field of view.
The lens itself is a pleasingly fast f/2.5 at its widest (24mm) and f/4.4 at telephoto, a welcome change for a camera of this class. As for the zoom range, well, it's capped at 3x optical zoom (72mm) but, there is a teleconverter and wide-angle converter available to turn the standard 24-72mm lens into either 19mm or 125mm. Picture types are also plentiful — there's RAW (in the open DNG format), plus JPEG shooting, in a number of ratios.
Performance and image quality
Overall, our impressions of the Ricoh were favourable. It made us think more carefully about composition and the act of taking a photo because of its serious exterior and abundance of shooting tools such as a grid overlay and the histogram which appear on-screen. The menu system does take some getting used to though.
A side by side comparison of the same results from RAW (left) and JPEG (right). As you can see, RAW produces a much nicer result. Click for larger image.
(Credit: CNET Australia)
Unlike most other compacts, it's not a camera that will produce the optimum images when you first pick it up. It's a delicate creature, only revealing its personality and best work after a little attention and care. At times, the Ricoh will test your patience and it will take a lot of trial and error to get the best shots out of this camera. We found that shooting in RAW gave the best results by far — the image processor appeared to keep noise under control a lot better than JPEG.
Its personality was not without downsides, however. One of the main usability issues was the zoom rocker, as it was slow to spring to action and then, once it reached full telephoto extension, the autofocus took even more time to establish itself before achieving focus.
Another area that let the Ricoh down was noise. In most shooting situations, setting the ISO to anything above 400 resulted in some of the worst noise we have seen on a compact camera. Purple fringing was kept to a minimum though, which earned the Ricoh some brownie points in light of the noise issues.
Furthering the nostalgic feel of film photography was the 1:1 format which produced perfectly square images, making it seem as if we were using medium format film. Furthermore, the electronic level, which is activated by pressing the display button on the back of the camera, has to be one of the most useful tools on the Ricoh. It acts like a spirit level, helping the photographer line up the horizon correctly, so perspective doesn't have to be altered in post production. Using the histogram also helps achieve a more balanced and even exposure; though we did find that in high contrast situations, highlights did tend to blow out.
Conclusion
As a portable alternative or backup to a dSLR, the GX200 is an incredibly competent compact. Some noise and styling issues aside, Ricoh has clearly put an incredible amount of thought into this little package. That being said, it is best to shoot at as low an ISO number as you can get away with to maximise the chances of getting a usable shot if you intend to print or use the 100 per cent crop.
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