Ricoh R6 Review by Andy
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This is a copy of the 5 part review of the R6 posted at DPreview by Andy. Original thread is at http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1013&message=23241766
Having used my R6 for a while
now, I thought I’d throw my views into the hat for anyone
contemplating the R6 and wanting to hear user’s opinions.
It’s heavily biased toward my particular areas of interest which
may not be the same as an average user. Be warned, it goes on a bit so
I’ve had to break it down into 5 separate posts.
With new gadgets, I have a habit of spotting areas where I think they
could be improved so I’ve included a number of suggestions. This
may seem I’m complaining about it a lot. It’s not that,
it’s just the way my head works – spotting areas that could
be enhanced.
Before I get into it, I think it's useful to know a reviewers
perspective so it's easier to relate them to your own requirements. So
here're a few relevant details to help you gauge my viewpoint.
I'm in the UK and use photography as a means to an end rather than to
take 'arty' pictures, I’m aware others can make photographic Art,
it's just not what I'm interested in using it for. I nearly always take
photos for more 'technical' reasons such as getting an electronic copy
of a document (I don't have a scanner) and for collecting reference
shots. This means I am nowhere near as fussy as many others on these
forums about image quality (not a criticism, just establishing my
priorities). It's my habit to move the photos onto my PC for any
necessary fiddling. This is usually just a bit of gentle nudging to
improve the quality (such as 'auto levels' in Photoshop) or perhaps a
bit of cropping here and there. This means I'm not overly concerned if
the image the camera captures isn't perfect.
My previous camera (my first and only digital camera until I got the
R6) was a 'Fuji Finepix S602 Zoom' bought in 2002. I mention this as it
has some bearing on my view of the R6 e.g. the small size of the R6
compared to the near SLR sized Fuji. As a side note, while I was
looking into buying a new camera, it made me take a more detailed look
at the S602 than I had taken since I first got it. I have to say I was
pretty amazed at how well it has aged. Not only does it still look
brand new (due to low use and very good build quality) but it has a
good amount of useful features. I also have to mention I found many of
them very difficult to get at and therefore easy to forget. The
location of some of those features being buried under 'shift' buttons
and appearing in some menus and not others. This has led to many of its
features being forgotten and unused. I used this camera quite rarely
which was mostly because of its size. Taking it anywhere was a major
decision which leads to my requirements for the new camera.
First and foremost, I wanted a small, pocketable camera that I could
keep in my jacket without any problems. Second, I wanted image
stabilisation. Third, I wanted it to be as versatile as possible hence
wanting a wide angle with a long zoom.
After much net surfing and reading, it came down to a choice between
the Panasonic TZ3 and the Ricoh R6. Both were brand new at the time so
I had no choice but to wait a few weeks for reviews and user comments
to start coming out. As these appeared, I leaned first toward one
camera then the other then back and forth a few more times. Eventually,
after handling both cameras in the shops, I plumped for the R6.
A few things led to this but being appreciably smaller and lighter,
having more features and being more configurable (I love fiddling with
my gadgets) were the main ones. Being cheaper wasn't really a factor
but was a nice bonus.
First impressions
Photos of the box contents can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/andygrunt/RicohCaplioR6BoxContentsUK
And my video tour of the camera can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s35YCpPuKcc
Even though I'd been able to briefly handle a couple of R6's in the
shops before I ordered one, when I got it out of the box, I was still
struck by its small size. If I didn't know better, I'd have sworn it
was smaller than it had been in the shop. I know it was one of my
choices because it was so small but seeing it in the flesh still
surprised me (keep in mind my previous camera was MUCH bigger). The
fact it has nothing much sticking out really helps make it the
pocketable size I wanted (especially compared to the knobbly TZ3).
The next thing I noticed was how delicate it seemed. By this I mean I
found myself handling it very carefully, wary I might break it. This is
probably all in my mind because of its size but I initially found
myself handling it with kid gloves - no bad thing, really.
As well as the 'delicate' feeling, I have to say it does feel a little
'cheap' by which I mean erm, rattley and plastic. Don't get me wrong,
I'm not saying it is rattling or particularly plastic but that's the
‘air’ it gives off to me.
Some people have commented on the noise made by the camera
(specifically by the lens) when turning on, zooming and turning off. It
does make a noise but it has never bothered me or seemed excessive.
Check my video tour (above) to hear it for yourself.
Buttons
The buttons are pretty small and contribute to the
‘delicate’ feel I mentioned. I find I press the smaller
ones with my nail rather than my actual fingers. Even so, they’re
easy to use. The nearest I have to a criticism of the buttons is the
'Menu/Ok' button doesn't really have much of a distinct 'click' and the
'My/Scene/Camera' slider switch shoots past 'Scene' if I'm not careful
but that's a matter of getting used to the pressure required. Even with
those two very minor criticisms, I've had no problems using the buttons.
Menus
Even when I was only able to play with the camera for a few minutes in
some shops, I found I could easily navigate to and adjust a setting I
was aiming for (always a good test - better than randomly looking
around the menus) and this was with zero instruction. That was a very
good sign especially compared to my previous camera.
After getting the camera home and being able to look around the menus
at my leisure, my initial opinion was pretty much confirmed. The menus
are easy to use and laid out in a reasonably clear and logical way.
When you enter the main menu, the items are largely split between two
sections, the 'Setup' menu and 'Shooting Settings' menu. Each section
has several pages of settings.
It's not perfect though. One or two of the settings in the 'Setup' menu
should be in the 'Shooting Settings' menu (in my opinion anyway) and
vice versa. For example, shouldn't 'Restore defaults' be in the setup
side and shouldn't 'Digital Zoom Img' be in shooting settings? Also,
shouldn’t something like ‘format card’ be at the
bottom of the menu rather than at the top? How often do you need to do
that?
These gripes are pretty trivial but I do find myself hunting around for
the occasional setting as it’s not where it feels like it should
be. Ideally, I’d like the option to rearrange the menus to my own
satisfaction.
Scene Modes
My older camera has scene modes but I'd never used them. In fact I was
surprised to stumble across them recently. I doubt I'll use them much
more on the R6, but even so, I wish there were more. It seems most
other cameras have many more so it feels mean to only have 12 on the R6
especially when both movie and face recognition are counted as
‘modes’. Even if there’s some technical limitation to
12 I’d have liked a better choice. For example, does anyone
actually use the ‘B&W’ or ‘Sepia’ modes?
They can be done easily (and better) on a PC afterwards if that’s
an effect you want.
I have to mention one mode though as it’s one of the features
that helped me lean toward the R6. The skew correction works great. I
believe there are some limitations like having an uncluttered
background but when I’ve tried it in ‘real world’
cases (for me anyway), it’s worked flawlessly.
Image Quality
Even though IQ isn't my top priority, it still has to be good enough
and I'm happy enough with the pictures I get with the R6. My main
criticism is with the exposure – bright areas (e.g. skies) can
often be blown out. I strongly suspect this is an area where learning
the cameras quirks will pay dividends.
I did find the default settings gave me somewhat soft, desaturated
pictures but initially changing the settings to ‘sharp’ and
‘vivid’ fixed that although the colours were a little too
saturated. Reading another post reminded me to try changing the White
Balance to ‘Cloudy’. Having done that (and set
‘Color’ to normal) the colours seem to be more to my liking
(somewhere ‘normal’ and ‘vivid’ colours) but I
need to make a few more tests to confirm.
Various full sized test images can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/andygrunt/RicohCaplioR6Photos
Image Stabilisation
I had specific reasons to want IS. Actually, it's more accurate to say
I had a specific circumstance where I needed IS. As I don't have a
scanner, one of the most common reasons I take photos is to get an
electronic copy of a sketch or document.
This will happen indoors, often in the evening when the light is low
(either from sunset lighting or artificial indoor lights). Taking
handheld shots in these conditions with my previous camera obviously
resulted in many unusable, blurred shots. I have a tripod but don't
want the hassle of digging it out and setting it up just to take a few
quick snaps of this type.
Although the R6 isn't famed for low light results, I did recognise a
few features on the R6 that seemed to suit these types of shots, namely
the IS, skew correction and text mode. These helped to narrow down my
search and contributed toward my choosing the R6.
So, how does the R6 compare with these shots? Very well - I'm very
pleased with the results. In low light, high ISO settings will
obviously add noise but for these types of shots, that’s not a
problem. When I also use the skew correction, the results are pretty
much ideal.
Text mode is completely useless to me though. It ramps up the contrast
to unusable levels (for use with text on a whiteboard or similar) so I
don’t use this mode for my purposes.
Movies
I have little or no use for movies but it's one of those features I'd
expect to have in a digital camera for that one time in a hundred when
I want it. Having had a quick look at it, there are only two faults I
can see with the movie mode on the R6.
First I’d like to be able to use the optical zoom in movie mode.
I do find the digital zoom to be quite impressive but I view it like I
view speech recognition software - I'm amazed it works at all but
certainly wouldn't really consider using it in real life.
Second, it would be nice to have some rudimentary editing abilities in camera.
Macro
The R6 has a very impressive macro mode. Quite what use I'll put it to,
I have no idea (I’ve already exceeded my tolerance for flower
close ups) but having a camera in my pocket that includes this ability
means it's there if/when I need it. I suspect I will be the limiting
factor here as I'll need to constantly remind myself to look at tiny
details as well as wider landscapes when on the lookout for picture
opportunities.
My macro test shots (replicating Guys results for the previous ‘R’ cameras) can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/andygrunt/RicohR6MacroTest
Distortion is evident on the super close ups but I personally
don’t find this a big problem. Unless I take more shots of graph
paper (which seems unlikely), I doubt I’ll even be aware of
distortion in more normal macro shots. A close up of, say, an insect is
not likely to show it and even if it does, such close up shots are so
surreal anyway, it might even add to the effect if anything.
Manual Settings
My natural instinct when looking for a camera was to find one that gave
me full control of the photographic settings. But when I thought about
this, I realised this is mainly to do with my love of fiddling with
settings on gadgets than my actual photographic needs. When I thought
back to how I actually used my older camera, I realised that 99.9% of
all the photos I've taken with it were taken on full auto mode. As I
mentioned before, I don't take photos to produce Art, I take them to
produce a decent, clear picture of something. All I really need is an
auto mode so the R6's lack of much manual adjustment doesn't really
bother me. There are enough goodies on the R6 for me to fiddle with
already.
Having said that, it does allow some adjustment but I'd like to see
more manual controls on future versions of the camera. It's good to
have the option available if you need it.
My Settings
Although I’m sure I’ll tweak them here and there as time
goes on, these are my current ‘My Settings 1’ preferences:
Focus: Spot AF
Color Depth: Normal
Sharpness: Sharp
AE Metering: Multi
White Balance: Cloudy
I haven’t found a need to setup ‘My Settings 2’ with
different settings yet. Nice to have that option for when I need it
though.
ADJ Button Settings
There is also the option to customise the 'adjust' button options. I
like the ability to personalise the settings a lot. My only gripe
(almost inevitably) is that I'd like to be able to do it more i.e. have
more options available to me and have more than four ADJ
‘slots’. For example, I'd like to be able to add the 'Color
Depth' setting as an adjust button option. Also, I'd have liked the
option to select a few favourite scene modes appear here so I could
quickly select them e.g. skew correction or movie mode.
I was disappointed to find that the ADJ button settings weren't saved
with the 'My' settings. I thought I might be able to save a different
set of functions for the ADJ button on the 'My Settings 2' than I did
under 'My Settings 1' but it turns out that both 'My' sets share the
same ADJ functions.
For what it's worth, I have the following setup for my ADJ button.
1: Auto Bracket
2: Cont Mode
3: ISO
4: Focus
LCD Screen
I have no complaints about the screen. It's large, bright and clear and
can be viewed from any reasonable angle. I can't bring myself to get
too excited about it though, as it acts as any camera LCD should as far
as I'm concerned. Any LCD that can't be seen from any reasonable angle
or is too dim to comfortably see is pretty useless.
The lack of an eyepiece doesn’t bother me at all. My old camera
has both a screen and an eyepiece and I always used the screen.
The camera comes with a clear plastic sheet on the LCD screen. It's
obviously there as part of the packaging and meant to be ripped off and
thrown away but I trimmed it down to size and left it on the screen as
a bit of protection. Works fine.
Memory Card
I bought a 4Gb SDHC memory card from mymemory.co.uk for £21 (inc.
postage). I had to format it in camera but it works fine.
This gives me room for 1386 top quality photos or 30 minutes of top
quality video. The only possible problem with that is described below.
Playback
I don’t have any problems with the playback options on the R6 in
normal use but given that the camera allows memory cards of 4Gb and
above, I can foresee a potential problem.
If someone finds themselves with thousands of photos on the camera, it
could really do with more options to help organise and categorise them.
For example, showing shots by date (as other cameras do) and allowing
the user to organise them into categories and/or folders would be
helpful.
Fanciful thinking now but maybe the face recognition feature could be
extended in the future to recognise other types of objects in a picture
and automatically ‘tag’ it so photos could be sorted
easier. Just a thought.
Battery Life
I have a gripe about battery charging. Why do I need to remove the
battery in order to charge it? I'd much rather be able to plug a cable
straight in with the battery still in place. That way, I'd avoid
unnecessary wear on the battery door and internal restraining clip
which must shorten their life. This would also allow me to power the
camera by mains when need be.
The first battery charging took 1hr 25mins and the second took a
similar time. As well as the inevitable fiddling around with the
settings on a new camera I was able to take 183 photos before the
battery was completely drained on the first charge and 114 shots on the
second. Even though there was a fair bit of atypical usage on both
these chargings, it’s still way below the stated 330 shots that I
should get. As several people have pointed out though, it's possible
these batteries need to be charged three or four times before reaching
their proper capacity.
Camera battery life has never been much of an issue for me. I tend(ed)
to only need to take a dozen or so shots at a time. Given this, the
R6's quoted 300+ shots on a single charge is clearly more than enough
for my purposes (assuming it gets up to that with more typical use).
The bigger issue for me is the fact that weeks or months can go by
between my needing to take photos. More often than not, I'd find my
camera battery flat when I needed it, requiring a re-charge. This is a
pain.
Now I have a camera I can easily take around with me, I guess it will
get more regular use but there's still an advance I'd like to see made.
It's not with the camera but the battery.
I've recently started using a new type of ‘AA’ and
‘AAA’ rechargeable that keeps its charge. I think I've
already mentioned it several times in this forum but I have no link
with the company or have anything to gain by promoting them - I'm just
a satisfied customer who is happy to spread the word to other users who
may find it useful. They are the 'Uniross Hybrio' batteries and they
are more like normal batteries that happen to be rechargeable - they
come charged and ready to use and hold (most of) their charge for many
months when not in use.
I can only hope that Uniross (or someone else) start making camera
batteries that use the 'Hybrio' technology so I can get the benefit of
an always charged camera.
Firmware Version
The firmware on my R6 when I bought it was V1.31 but I updated it to
the latest version (1.36) after I needed to recharge the battery the
second time. I couldn't spot any appreciable difference with the new
version but then I hadn’t really given the previous version much
of a workout.
PC Connectivity
I haven't even looked at the software that comes with the camera as I
already have (better) photo manipulation software on my PC. It also
means I connect to the camera using the 'USB Connection' setting in
'Mass Storage' mode i.e. my PC sees it as a new hard drive. This works
well on my Windows XP laptop. I do make a point of switching the camera
off before unplugging the USB cable from it. Not sure if this is what's
recommended but yanking the lead out while it's still on doesn't feel
safe to me.
Unused Features
There are a number of other features on the R6 that I have not really
looked into as I have had no use for them so far. The 'Interval'
feature that allows you to take a shot every 'X' seconds or minutes for
example, isn't something I have an immediate use for but I'd love to
give it a go some time.
I have no use for the 'record dual size' function and can't imagine I would ever use it.
I'm also interested in trying the Multi-Shot function where 16 shots
are arranged, in order onto a single file. The problem is I can't think
of a single use for it. I don't play Golf so have no desire to analyse
my swing. Actually, even if I did, I would probably use the movie mode
instead. Still, if, one day, I suddenly realise I need this function, I
know it's there.
Many people report the flash isn't very good. I can't really comment as
I've not used it except for one test where I took a shot of a near
pitch black room. The shot came out fine, looking more or less as if it
were daytime.
Camera Case
Obviously it’s best to keep my new camera in a case for
protection but I was very keen to find one that didn’t add to the
bulk too much so it was still easy to slip into a pocket. The one I
decided on was in a local ASDA for £5. It’s the 'Hama
Arezzo DF9' case. Photos of it can be seen here:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/andygrunt/HamaArezzoDF9CameraCaseUsedWithRicohCaplioR6
Conclusion
I think there are two questions to ask someone that show how they really feel about a new purchase...
1) Having now bought and used it, if you had the chance, would you buy it again or go for something else?
The only other camera I seriously contemplated was the Panasonic TZ3.
After much research and after playing with both cameras in shops, I
plumped for the R6. If I had my time again, I would still go for the R6
over the TZ3. This is mainly to do with pocketablity which was the top
priority for me. In fact it was practically, the whole point of buying
a new camera. The TZ3 is fatter and heavier than the R6 and has bits
sticking out whereas the R6 is more or less flat - good for slipping
into pockets. The only two pangs I have about choosing the R6 over the
Panny is the TZ3 can do 16:9 shots which would be nice to have (though
low priority really) and, more importantly, the Panny has got great
build quality and feels like it'll survive many knocks. I still can't
help feeling the R6 is more delicate and requires much more careful
handling.
2) Would you recommend it to others?
Would I recommend the R6? Yes I would but not to everyone. If you want
a small, versatile camera and like playing with settings and options
and/or have need of the R6's quirky features (e.g. skew correction,
time lapse etc) then it's great.
On the other hand, if you just want an easier to use P&S camera
(i.e. less fiddling with settings) with similar abilities and want to
feel it'll survive a bit of rough handling, I'd suggest looking at the
Panasonic TZ3 first.
Wishlist
I’m not sure what the limits are on firmware changes and what
features they’d prefer to hold back for a new model but the
features I'd like to see added/changed in a firmware update for the R6
are as follows (roughly in priority order):
1 - More (all?) options available to set under the ADJ button.
2 - Be able to save the ADJ functions for each set of 'My' settings.
3 - I’d like to be able to arrange the items in the menus to my
own preference e.g. move ‘format card’ options down to the
bottom.
4 - Add optical zoom in movie mode. I assume it's a software fix rather
than a hardware change. I don't care if it means the zoom noise being
audible.
5 - Add a 16:9 option. Even though it would just be the top res' cropped, I'd like to have it.
6 - I'd like an extra colour setting between normal and vivid (i.e. roughly the colour levels you get by setting WB to cloudy).
7 - I'd like to be able to file photos into various folders.
8 - I'd like to see more manual controls on future versions of the camera.
9 - More 'My' settings. I can live with 2 sets but a couple more would be better.
10 - More adjustable JPEG quality (i.e. level of compression) setting
e.g. a slider bar such as you get when saving a JPEG in PSP or
Photoshop.
11 - It would be nice to have some rudimentary movie editing abilities in-camera.
There are also a couple of hardware changes I'd like in future 'R' cameras:
12 - I'd much rather be able to plug a cable straight into the camera for charging than have to take the battery out each time.
13 - Related to the above point, I'd like to have the option to power the camera from the mains.
14 - I’d like to see batteries produced using the 'Uniross Hybrio' technology so they keep their charge when not in use.
[This is the complete 5 part posting combined into one with some space edits but no content changes.... Guy]
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