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Pocket digital cameras are ubiquitous. You probably already own one – you know, one of those little plastic wonders that fits in a shirt pocket and can detect when someone is smiling or not. You also probably have a small camera built into your cell phone, your MP3 player, or your GPS. Let’s face it, […]

The Ricoh R8 is the latest version in Ricoh’s regularly updated series of 7x zoom digital cameras. Offering the same versatile 28-200mm focal length as its predecessor, the most significant change to the new R8 is the increase from 8 to 10 megapixels.

Following Tuesday’s news about the launch of the new R8 camera, Ricoh has announced a second new model which also abandons the Caplio brand name. The R50 is a more modestly specified and lower priced alternative to the wide-zoom R8.

Despite its meagre share of the digital camera market, Ricoh has always been one of the great innovators in the industry. When every other major camera manufacturer is content to push out carbon-copy ranges of almost identical cameras, Ricoh is not afraid to try something different.

I’ve been following Ricoh’s digital camera development with interest for a number of years. The first digital camera I ever owned was a Ricoh RDC-5000 back in 1999. It was one of the first 2.3-megapixel cameras to be launched, and at the time it was the most compact and powerful digital camera on the market.

There are few cameras on the market at the moment that even come close to the R6’s specification, and none that can match it on price. It is currently available for just £224.95, which is significantly cheaper than the broadly similar Panasonic TZ3 at £250. The TZ3 has a longer 10x zoom range (28-280mm equiv.) […]