The Ricoh CX1 may seem like other Ricoh cameras before it – however the new 9 megapixel CMOS sensor adds some important features – namely extremely quick continuous shooting. With 4fps at full resolution the camera can shoot quicker than most budget Digital SLRs! High speed shooting also allows Ricoh to provide an impressive Dynamic Range mode – this uses the speed of the camera to take two shots of different exposures – combines the two and produces an image with greatly increased dynamic range. The results are quick, clever, and very useful. If this is what’s possible by using a CMOS sensor, then I predict a bright future for CMOS sensor cameras.
The CX1 also happens to have an impressive high resolution 3.0″ screen, and inherits all of the great features of earlier models such as the R10, adding some new features along the way (such as focus bracketing), and gives you a compact wide angled digital camera with some unique features such as an electronic “spirit level”, 1:1 aspect ratio photos, a 28mm wide angle 7.1x optical zoom lens, and lots of customisable functions. Image quality is very good, and the camera offers an excellent package.
