Ricoh CX4 Review

A Post By: Barrie Smith

It hit the doorstep, all blushing pink in colour… Ricoh’s latest entry into the compact stakes – the Ricoh CX4. This pink is a startling colour and, just to set your mind at peace, it’s also available in a more sedate silver or black. Phew!

Seemingly a run-of-the-mill digicam, the CX4 has a few tricks up its digital sleeve.

Ricoh CX4 Features

The 10 million pixel CMOS sensor is imaged by a 10.7x optical zoom lens with a slowish f3.5 maximum aperture. The shots show the full extent of the zoom.

There’s no optical viewfinder but the LCD screen is a large 7.6cm display with a high resolution of 920,000 pixels.

Maximum image size is 3648×2736 pixels, or 31x23cm as a print. Movies: A reasonable 1280×720 pixel Motion JPEG clip that runs for 12 minutes can be written to a 4GB SD or SDHC card (Class 6 recommended)… now you can see the reason for space-efficient AVCHD in other cameras!

Continuous stills can be shot at a variety of rates, depending on image size, starting at 5fps and moving up to a burst of 120 pictures shot at 120 fps: the only hangup with the latter is that the images are 640×480 pixel files.

The range of exposure modes is limited: only auto; no shutter or aperture priority but there are a number of scene modes that can help with night portraits, correction of skew in a picture plus others.

Creative Shooting Mode has a number of options: high dynamic range capture where two successive images are merged to extend the dynamic range; mini diorama mode; high con B&W; cross processing and toy camera (read ‘Diana’ plastic camera) mode plus ‘night landscape multi-shot mode’, where a burst of four exposures is shot at high ISO settings and merged into a single picture.

The CX4 also offers a new subject-tracking AF system that automatically tracks a moving subject, making it ideal for shots of active children and animals.

Another feature, once common, but less these days, is an intervalometer allowing a series of timed exposures to be made over a period up to an hour. See that flower grow!

Ricoh CX4 ISO Settings

ISO 100 shows good performance, as it should.

At ISO 800 noise is on the rise but that setting is still useable.

At ISO 1600, noise is even more evident but setting is still useable.

At ISO 3200, noise is very noticeable and definition noticeable. IMHO not usesable.

Startup

Within three seconds after power-up I was able to shoot my first shot, then take follow-ons as quickly as I could tap the button.

Distortion

There was a little barrel distortion at the zoom’s wide end but none to speak of at the tele end.

Comment

Quality: OK but not brilliant.
Why would buy the CX4: you want a high quality digicam with some nice toys you can play with… like cross processing etc.
Why you wouldn’t: ID texts on the rear controls are near-illegible in low light; you need more exposure control; you want Full HD video.

Overall, a pretty good compact, although possibly a little over-priced. I did appreciate the stiff mode dial: no chance of the dial slipping to an unwanted setting… unlike most of my own compacts!

Ricoh CX4 Specs

Image Sensor: 10 million effective pixels.
Metering: Multi zones (256), centre-weighted, spot.
Sensor Size: 11mm CMOS.
Lens: f3.5-5.6/4.9-52.5mm (28-300mm as 35 SLR equivalent).
Shutter Speed: 8 to 1/2000 second.
Memory: SD/SDHC cards plus 86MB internal memory.
Image Sizes (pixels): 3648×2736 to 640×480. Movies: 1280×720, 640×480, 3209×240 at 30 fps
Viewfinder: 7.6cm LCD (920,000 pixels).
File Formats: JPEG, Motion JPEG.
ISO Sensitivity: Auto, 100 to 3200.
Interface: USB 2.0, AV, DC.
Power: Rechargeable lithium, DC input.
Dimensions: 101.5×58.6×29.4 WHDmm.
Weight: 205 g (with batteries and card).
Price: Get a price on the Ricoh CX4 at Amazon.