If you’re the type of person for whom scaling a cliff or navigating rapids is all in a day’s work – then Ricoh’s latest Caplio 500G compact digicam may be perfect for you to capture those extreme moments.
The Caplio 500G claims to be water-proof to one metre, surpassing JIS protection grade seven performance, shock resistant to withstand falls from up to one metre and dust resistant to JIS grade six.
Apart from its rugged characteristics, the 500G is an eight megapixel camera featuring a 2.5 inch LCD and 3x wide-zoom optical lens (28-85 mm equivalent). The zoom doesn’t extend out of the camera’s protective housing, so you don’t have to be afraid of getting up close and dirty. For wider shots, there is an optional wide conversion lens which increases the focal range to 22 mm.
Ricoh also claims the new high-capacity flash on the camera has a luminosity range of 10 metres for wide-angle images and 6.5 metres in telephoto mode. If you need even more light, you can add an external flash gun.
And since you are likely to be involved in some high-speed adventurous activity while taking your shots with the 500G, an anti-blur mode is in place which Ricoh says will increase the ISO sensitivity, enabling the camera to shoot at faster shutter speeds. This reduces the camera movement particularly in low light situations.
You can use the camera memo function to attach location information to your photos if you find yourself in remote or off-the-map areas, or even just to avoid that all too familiar “where was that again” question when reviewing your shots, once you’ve returned home.
Other notable features include a 1cm macro mode, skew correction mode (to straighten images shot from off centre postions) and PictBridge.
With a claimed focus and shoot time of 0.10 seconds and a 1.2 second startup time, the camera comes with a lithium-ion battery (which Ricoh says will take 400 continuous shots), but is also compatible with conventional or rechargeable AA batteries and an AC adaptor.
RRP: $1099
See: www.ricoh.com.au
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