Click Tick
By Aditya Kuber
The Caplio G3 Model S from Ricoh shows a major shift in design from all previous digital cameras. The new model S has a body made from die-cast magnesium, an innovative material, both durable and attractive. The build quality though doesn’t infuse too much confidence. Ricoh has taken the term ‘optical tunnel’ to a new high with one of the smallest optical viewfinders ever seen on any camera. Probably it’s there in the first place merely as a formality. The camera has virtually no grip to speak about and could slipping from your hold. The one-side rounded design is interesting, but is a little too long to fit into any shirt pockets.
On the whole, it is clean with all buttons placed on the back in an ‘embossed’ format that prevents accidental pressing while shooting or playback. The top is neat too with only the shutter release and power buttons with a mode dial around it. It’s easy to understand, but the materials used make it appear a little lower end. An upgrade feature of the Caplio model S is its internal image memo functionality. “Image memo” allows the user to input handy text messages directly on to captured photos in the review mode. This makes managing images easy. The G3 also employs a 3x optical zoom plus a 3.4x digital zoom – for a combined total of 10.2x zoom. This is equivalent to a telephoto range of 35-357mm on a regular 35mm film camera. It’s got a handy zoom range, but watch out for the digital zoom.
On the whole, images are sharp, vibrant and good to look at. For a 3mp camera, the Model S does deliver some punchy images. As you would expect, some amount of noise was visible in the images, but it won’t disturb if you stick to 4x6” prints.
The camera is available in the market for an MRP of Rs. 18,000. For the same price also look at the more reliable and stylish Nikon Coolpix 3100 or the Kodak DX6340.
(c) The Economic Times, 2003. As published in 'ET-Personal'.
Posted by Scribbler at 9:33 PM
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