Ricoh is one of the most popular brands that we easily associate with photocopying machines, and there’s no doubt about it, considering that they are one of the world’s largest manufacturers of photocopiers today. They have long been in the camera business as well, that is since the heyday of film cameras, although they are not as popular as other Japanese labels such as Canon and Nikon. In this age of digital cameras, Ricoh continues to provide the general market with additional camera options, and one of their latest offerings is a 10-megapixel digital compact – the R10.

 The topside sports a brushed metal surface. Interestingly, on the mode dial, you’ll find two unusual modes for a point-and-shoot camera – MY1 (My Settings 1) and MY2 (My Settings 2) – which enable users to set and save desired, customized settings. In our humble opinion, these modes are no longer necessary, considering that its potential user would probably prefer a more straight-to-the-point way of shooting pictures instead, by means of setting the camera to either Easy Mode or Scene Mode.

  For enhanced maneuverability, we can see here that the middle finger touches the camera’s rubber grip. Also, take note of the proximity of the flash to the middle finger. Based on our experience, there were times when our middle finger unintentionally blocked the camera flash during usage.

On the LCD screen, a meter helps you indicate whether the camera is tilted or balanced. If the camera is tilted, the meter turns red, and if balanced, it turns green.

 A pretty decent standard shot made by the Ricoh R10.

We’ve heard that the recently opened Eastwood Mall has a lot of interesting sights inside and out to offer, so we went there during a short break to unwind. Seeing it as a good opportunity, we took out the R10 to play around with it.

As we went by the Eastwood Plaza, we couldn’t stop ourselves from taking a photo of the clock tower. Although it was slightly overcast that day, we can see here the accurate yet soft color rendition of the R10.

Having more time to walk around the plaza, we took more outdoor shots with the R10. Comparing some of these photos with the shots taken by the 10-megapixel Canon A480, which we previously blogged about, the color of the photos taken by the R10 are noticeably less brilliant. See the photos below:

Some nice macro shots courtesy of the Ricoh R10:

 Eventually, we arrived at the Eastwood Mall and went inside to see some attractions. Wasting no time, we proceeded to take some indoor shots with the R10. While shooting inside the mall where the lighting conditions are dimmer than the outdoors, the R10 had difficulty in capturing clear and sharp shots as its stabilization started to perform weakly. The 7.1x optical zoom lens became useless in this case. At any rate, we still managed to get some decent shots like the following:

ISO 80

After work, we went back to the Eastwood Mall to test the camera’s ISO sensitivity which we identified as one of its main weak spots. Using the subject above as a point of reference, we began to set the camera at ISO 80 (the lowest ISO setting for the R10) where we got a pretty decent shot. At ISO 100, it is still an acceptable photo. The nightmare started at ISO 200 where graininess and color clotting became visible. Logically, we got worse outputs at higher ISO levels.

ISO 100

ISO 200

ISO 400

At this point, R10’s stabilization and focus became even worse. Below are the other night shots that we took with the Ricoh R10 at ISO 80:

There is no doubt that the Ricoh R10 is a well-built, masculine point-and-shoot camera. But at the end of the day, we, as discerning end users, judge a digital camera based on the quality of its output which is a very critical aspect that Ricoh should heavily improve on in the succeeding model after the R10. Mulling over its price tag of PhP 21,495, we see that you could be paying a premium only for its robust build and zoom lens.