Ricoh GXR S10

With the S10 firmly in place, all the shooting information is presented on the large 3” LCD screen – there’s no viewfinder, even though there’s a switch for one. There’s an electronic viewfinder available as an extra that plugs into the flash hotshoe. Everything you could want information wise can be displayed on the LCD, right down to a live histogram, or it can be all turned off. The other interesting feature here is that there’s a button to bring up all the shooting parameters on the screen, like an entry level DSLR, and the parameters can then be navigated and tinkered with. The top of the body houses the mode dial with standard P, A, S, M modes, Auto, some user configurable settings and a clutch of basic scene modes. Things like landscape, portrait, skew-correction, sports, night photography and video. Curiously, video with the S10 is a largely unimpressive 640 x 480 for just the kind of user that would want it, while swapping in the A12 modules boosts it to more HD-friendly 1280x768 resolution.

In terms of physically appeal, Ricoh is clearly trying to give the GXR a Rangefinder sense of quality and solidity, though design-wise it’s more like something rolling off a Russian tank factory assembly line. The buttons and dials by comparison are a little on the flimsy side. The front dial sets things like aperture or shutter speed but is pretty small and quite close to the fire button. This has a very spongy response so getting focus lock is sometime hit and miss. On the back there’s an adjustment selector and the joypad arrangement is preconfigured for more shortcuts with exposure compensation and manual flash adjustment. This latter item is very handy but that usefulness is negated somewhat by burying the flash modes in the menu system in the first place. The flash mode can’t even be changed from the direct display on screen display mentioned earlier.

When it comes to performance, well, you plug in a compact style unit, you get a compact-like performance. Power up time is around three seconds which is slow but shutter lag is around 0.05secs which is good. However, focussing is very pedestrian, regardless of whether multi-point or spot AF is used. There are the usual metering options for centre-weighted, zone or spot, and most the parameters that serious amateurs would want are present. Macro chips in with an impressive 1cm range and for those interested in landscapes, the 24mm equivalent wide angle is much appreciated. The flipside of this is that the 3x optical zoom then only takes the reach out to 72mm. You may as well just walk closer. So, while ostensibly looking good for landscapes, with a small lens and compact-size sensor, there are aperture and detail limitations. Detail in the distance tends to get mushy. For portraits of course, you’d want the A12 unit with a big sensor so there’s a full aperture range and a chance to get that background out of focus with a shallow depth-of-field.

It’s worth mentioning the ISO range which offers 100-3200 on the S10, has noticeable colour shift from ISO1600. Noise, though present, is kept under control so that even the high ISO setting will still produce usable pictures. It does tend to creep into pictures with low light though, appearing in shadow areas. Also, even when shooting outside with the flash, in overcast conditions the resulting skin-tones can be blotchy and uneven. As a compact then, there’s lots of control, if not outright sexy features, and an anaemic zoom and mediocre image quality. But this brings us to crux of the matter: price. The base GXR unit, which doesn’t contain the image processor, sensor or lens, costs an astonishing £420. The S10 unit here adds £329 while the more desirable A12 50mm lens unit will inflict a wallet-gasping £599. There’s absolutely no point in just buying the GXR with the S10 unit because at over £750 it makes it the worst value for money compact ever. An entry level DSLR with lenses will cost you half as much as the setup here and give better performance and results.

The GXR concept is an interesting one, and with a solid body it’s built to last, but the pricing is ludicrous, making every rival a better option from alternative Micro Four Thirds systems to entry level DSLRs. What were Ricoh thinking?