Ricoh G600 water- and bulletproof camera - already any tests or experiences?

[MatthiasM]

Hello,

has anybody already checked out this new supposed-to-be unbreakable G600 from Ricoh
They say it is an improved, smaller successor from the still available Caplio 500G. It seems to be too new (on the market since may), no real reviews or test anywhere online until now. It looks rather nice and much less clumsy than the Caplio 500G, but has no optical view finder any more, just the display.

Best regards
Matthias

 

[Rob]

Yer, specs do look good on paper. More info on it here: http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/g/g600/index.html

For me, main upsides would be:
Obviously very tough
Hot shoe
nice lens for a compact (28mm to 140mm)
can take AAAs as well as li-ion
Manual focus
5sec Intervalometer

Main downsides:
Max 8s exposure time
looks like no manual aperture contol
No optical stabilisation, only software based
No RAW
Only actually rated to 1m depth

Good find though MatthaisM  , I would also like to hear people's reviews...

 

[nickwilliams]

I think Eddie has a Ricoh camera, Rob, and I don't think the optical quality is as good as my Canon G7.

Nick.

 

[Rob]

Interesting Nick. I test drove a compact Ricoh GR Digital for a month a couple years back and the optics seemed pretty good. However your G7 wasn't about then to compare against.
However the sensor on the Ricoh GR was rubbish! Noise levels even at the lowest ISO were unacceptable, especially in the sky. 

 

[Darkstar]

I saw a review of this camera on the web whilst researching my next little baby (due to be an Olympus mju 1030 SW).  I was quite disappointed at the noise problems it was displaying.  Photos were virtually useless at anything over ISO400 and noise was even visible at ISO200.

If you want robust and waterproof take a look at the Olympus mju 1030 SW.  About ?200, 10.1 megapixels, low noise, waterproof to 10m, shockproof from 2m, 3.6x optical zoom, 5x digital zoom, crushproof to 100kg, scratchproof, dustproof, IP58 rating for the geeks like me and also has an optional case which will waterproof it down to 40m. 

Only downside I can find is that it doesn't have a hotshoe and worse still it only shoots .jpg.  But for a camera which is going to be my point and click I can forgive it for that.  I just hope the compression software is good enough.  But at 10 Megapixels with recorded pixels of 3548 x 2736 and a file size of 4.9MB, it should be just about ok as long as I take care to frame properly and not do any lossy post processing!

 

[MatthiasM]

@ Darkstar, do you still know the URL where you found this review? Concerning noise, I found reviews about the Ricoh R8, whith AFAIk the same CCD and there was written about much noise.

 

[Rob]

...If you want robust and waterproof take a look at the Olympus mju 1030 SW... 

Camera looks good but, as you say, it's very much a point and shoot. It offers little/no manual control so to get reliably good shots underground will be very difficult.
I bet it'd be good for surface stuff though, especially gorge walking.

 

[menacer]

Im really disappointed with latest pics from my camera, everything seems grey and contrasty so im looking for a change.
The robustness of the two cameras seems great, mine keeps failing when grit gets in the retractable lens...
However although the 2 cameras seem initially great im really after something that offers manual settings.
I do lots of stuff with 8 or 15 sec exposure times.
Im not too worried about the file sizes, just want a robust camera with manual settings.Im not looking for other people to do all the research work or anything, but if anyone out there knows of a camera that fits the bill it will save me a lot of research work.
thanks.

 

[ogofmole]

I too would be interested in this type of camera with manual settings, at the moment I use a Olympus 720SW with reasonable results and the occasional excellent image with remote flashguns and fireflys. I also sometimes use my Canon G7 with waterproof housing but this is a very bulky camera with housing. So a small tough manual compact would be the ideal caving camera.

 

[Rob]

...So a small tough manual compact would be the ideal caving camera.

The Holy Grail, no less  :bow:

 

[MatthiasM]

OK, let's wait wether Ricoh changes anything concerning the noisy CCD, then it would be an interesting a task for a hacker to hack the firmware..... (I'm quite sure that this camera has an hidden option to update the firmware by USB). For some Canon cameras exist many unofficial (Canon would say: unauthorized) firmware mods. why not with a Ricoh?

 

[nickwilliams]

http://www.hucklow.com/MISC/PHOTO/

shows a series of photographs taken by me with my Canon G7 and by Eddie with his Ricoh. The ones with file name IMG_ are mine, the RIMG_ ones are Eddie's.

No attempt was made to use any of the manual features of either camera, so far as I am aware. This is hardly a scientific test, but it might be useful in the context of this discussion.

Nick.

 

[Darkstar]

@ Darkstar, do you still know the URL where you found this review? Concerning noise, I found reviews about the Ricoh R8, whith AFAIk the same CCD and there was written about much noise.

Sorry, I flit around on the net quite a bit and have no idea where I was or what search terms I was using when I saw the review.  Rob is right though, I have no intention of taking this underground and using it in anything other than a moisture free passage for happy snaps.  The reason being that the on board flash is very close to the lens and so there will undoubtedly be a lot of back scatter unless you are using remote flashes in which case I would be taking a proper camera!  I really bought it for wet outdoor activities and diving.

Good luck with the search for the holy grail Menacer.  Let us know if you find it, many have been searching for a long time!

 

[JJM]

(It has been around for a while now, so just wanted to ask)

Has anybody actually tried that one in flesh? it sure sounds great (to me at lest) but would really like to know more about the actual handling underground (especially some of the long exposure settings workability).
I would buy one myself off the internet, but after i take in underground, I cant return it, so if it's not-quite-what-i-want, I'd be stuck...

Or if anybody has seen one in a shop somewhere, I'd be grateful for info...

 

[Sally-J]

For me, main upsides would be:
Obviously very tough
Hot shoe
nice lens for a compact (28mm to 140mm)
can take AAAs as well as li-ion
Manual focus
5sec Intervalometer

I know someone who's just got one of these and they informed me the thing that looks extremely like a hot shoe is actually an "accessory shoe" and as such is a pretty useless feature. They will be taking it underground at some point so I'll try to remember to post on here how it coped.