Ricoh Caplio GX Review

The screen display in the Automatic record mode. Icons across the top indicate that the flash is disabled, there is a SD card in the camera, Auto record mode. The red hand indicates the shutter speed its too slow to handhold the shot without blurring. The image size is 2592 (5-megapixels), quality is Fine and there's space left on the SD card to take 226 more pictures. On the bottom is the zoom lens slide gauge, the battery condition icon and the aperture and shutter speed. The green crosshairs indicate a good auto focus lock.

Aperture-Manual exposure mode allows you to select both the shutter speed and aperture for the exposure. In the Aperture mode you can select one of three aperture settings (Open, halfway, minimum) with the sub command dial and the camera will match a shutter speed automatically. In the lower right corner is the realtime histogram display, it is enabled by pressing the DISP button.

For full Manual exposure you select a shutter speed from the menu (1/2000, 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 4, 8, 15 or 30 secs.) and select the aperture with the sub command dial. An onscreen exposure guide is displayed to help you select the proper settings whenever the shutter is half-pressed.

In Auto, Aperture or Manual mode you press the ADJust button to set the exposure compensation, white balance or ISO speed. These can also be set via the menu.

Auto, Aperture, Manual mode MENU options:

PIC QUALITY/SIZE - NC2592 (TIFF 5MP), F2592 (Fine 5MP), N2592 (Normal 5MP), F2048 (Fine 3MP), N2048 (Normal 3MP), F1280 (Fine 1MP), N1280 (Normal 1MP), N640 (Normal VGA 640x480)
FOCUS - Auto, Manual, Snap, Infinity
PHOTOMETRY - Multi, Center, Spot
SHARPNESS - Sharp, Normal, Soft
CONT. MODE - Off, Continuous, S-Continuous, M-Continuous (records 16 images in 3 secs. and saves as a single image)
AUTO BRACKET - Off, On, White balance bracketing
MANUAL EXPOSURE - Off, 1/2000 - 30 secs shutter speed
INTERVAL - Time-lapse recording delay
IMAGE WITH SOUND - Enable/disable sound with still image capture
DATE IMPRINT - Off, date, or time
EXPOSURE COMP. - Override metering +/-2.0EV in 0.3 steps
WHITE BALANCE - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Manual
ISO SETTING - Auto, 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
APERTURE SETTING - Open, Half, Minimum
RESTORE DEFAULTS - Return all settings to default

The SCENE exposure mode gives you access to six pre-programmed modes for taking pictures in normally difficult situations. Shown here is the High Sensitivity mode, the camera sets the ISO speed to 1600 and the color LCD "gains up" to help you frame in very dim lighting. This is an illuminated subwoofer speaker that is under my computer desk. the room was dark except for the blue light inside the speaker.

When you turn the mode dial to SCENE this is the menu that lets you select which of the scene modes you want to use. Once in Scene mode you push the 4-way controller "up" to access this menu to change to another scene mode.

Scene mode MENU options:

PIC QUALITY/SIZE - NC2592 (TIFF 5MP), F2592 (Fine 5MP), N2592 (Normal 5MP), F2048 (Fine 3MP), N2048 (Normal 3MP), F1280 (Fine 1MP), N1280 (Normal 1MP), N640 (Normal VGA 640x480)
FOCUS - Auto, Manual, Snap, Infinity
IMAGE WITH SOUND - Enable/disable sound with still image capture
DATE IMPRINT - Off, date, or time
EXPOSURE COMP. - Override metering +/-2.0EV in 0.3 steps
WHITE BALANCE - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Manual

The focus mode is selectable between Auto, Manual, Snap and Infinity. Shown here is the manual focus mode, you adjust focus with the "up" and "down" buttons. The image can be enlarged by pressing the OK button.

The Snap focus mode gives you a large depth of field so most everything from close to distant will be in focus and eliminates the auto focus delay for nearly instantaneous shutter release time. Infinity is good for landscapes or open-sky pictures where the auto focus would often fail otherwise.

Press the DISP button to toggle between no overlay info, overlay info, info + histogram or these framing grids.

The GX has a very respectable macro focusing mode. The Macro focus range is from 1cm (0.4 in.) to infinity in Wide angle or from 8cm (3.2 in.) to infinity in Telephoto.

The GX can record movie clips with audio at 15 frames per second in 320x240 resolution for up to 80 seconds or 160x120 resolution for up to 5 minutes. Movie clips are recorded in Motion JPEG format and saved as AVI files.

Movie mode MENU options:

MOVIE SIZE - 320x240, 160x120
FOCUS - Auto, Manual, Snap, Infinity
WHITE BALANCE - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Manual

The GX can also record sound only. The length of sound that can be recorded depends on how much memory you have.