Ricoh announces GX100
Ricoh announces GX100
Wednesday, 28 March 2007 12:00 GMT
Ricoh has announced the successor to its Caplio GX8 digital camera. Among the headline features are a 24-72mm (equiv.) zoom lens and a slim body measuring just 25mm deep. Possibly the camera's most interesting new feature is a removable electronic viewfinder, a world first for Ricoh. Images updated.
Ricoh launches the Caplio GX100 compact digital camera with 24 to 72 mm equivalent wide zoom and with a removable electronic viewfinder.

Tokyo, Japan, March 28, 2007. Ricoh (President and CEO: Masamitsu Sakurai) announces the launch of its new Caplio GX100 digital camera. The Caplio GX100 is a superior model that achieves high picture quality thanks to the high-speed F2.5 aperture and high-performance 24 to 72 mm wide zoom lens (35mm film equivalent), 10.01megapixel CCD, and "Smooth Imaging Engine II" crammed into a compact body just 25mm thick - a first in the digital camera category.
The new Caplio GX100 is the successor to the popular Caplio GX8 (launched May 2005, open priced). Caplio GX8 was a highly practical superior model featuring comprehensive manual shooting functions and the expandability to allow system upgrades to meet various applications.
The Caplio GX100 is a high-performance camera cram packed with advanced functions including (1) a 24 to 72 mm equivalent high-performance wide zoom lens (Caplio GX8: 28 to 85 mm equivalent) that can be expanded to even ultra-wide-angle shooting equivalent to 19 mm using the optional wide conversion lens, (2) supports a removable electronic viewfinder (LCD viewfinder), and (3) high image quality thanks to the 10.01megapixel effective CCD (Caplio GX8: 8.24-megapixel) and popular Smooth Imaging Engine II image processing.
Major Features of the Caplio GX100
24 to 72 mm high-performance wide zoom lens in a compact body.
- The newly developed 24 to 72 mm wide zoom lens (35mm film equivalent) features a generous configuration of 11 elements in 7 groups, including aspheric surface lenses and high-refractive-index, low-dispersion lenses. This optimal configuration restricts distortion, chromatic aberration, and light falloff at edges for wide-angle operations while delivering aperture light settings from F2.5(Wide-angle) to F4.4(Telephoto).
- The body size of 25mm is the smallest that can accommodate* a zoom lens of 24 mm or longer, making it easy to carry and enjoy photography anywhere.
- The 7blade iris aperture enables fine tuning and achieves beautiful blurred backgrounds.
- The optional wide conversion lens enables users to shoot 19 mm ultra-wide-angle photography (but note a separate optional hood and adaptor set is required).
Removable electronic viewfinder
- Supports a tilted and removable electronic viewfinder.
- Offers 100% viewfinder coverage without parallax and multi information display similar to an LCD monitor.
- Great for photography in bright outdoor environments. Take photographs as though using a conventional film camera.
- The electronic viewfinder is included in the "Caplio GX100 VF KIT".
The 10.01megapixel CCD combined with an advanced image-processing engine achieves high picture quality with low noise.
- The 10.01megapixel effective CCD combined with the popular unique image-processing engine "Smooth Imaging Engine II" achieves low noise as well as high picture quality precisely reproducing even details.
Twin dials and other controls offer wide array of functions such as simple manual operations
- The Mode Dial on top of the body, the Up-Down Dial at the front of the body, the ADJ lever at the rear of the body and function buttons on the upper part of the body, etc. allow a wide array of manual settings such as aperture-priority AE settings, manual exposure settings, white balance adjustment, and ISO sensitivity selection while holding the camera in one hand.
- Directly select "My Settings" on the Mode Dial to take photos using the arbitrarily allocated settings.
- New features such as the square mode with a 1:1 aspect ratio and the sepia mode further enhance the range of expression.
Excellent expandability with a broad range of accessories for both exclusive use and general purpose.
- The Caplio GX100's hot shoe accepts an electronic viewfinder, an external flash, or an external viewfinder available on the market.
- The optional hood and adaptor allow use of the 19 mm wide conversion lens or other 43 mm diameter accessories, such as various filters available on the market.
- An optional cable switch is also available.
- The Caplio GX100 can meet the diverse needs of professional photographers, high-end amateurs and commercial uses.
Wide-view-angle LCD panel
- A crystal-clear 2.5-inch 230,000 LCD panel with a wide 170° view angle.
Powerful macro functions
- Retaining the conventional popular macro mode that focuses down to 1 cm (on the wide side), the Caplio GX100 permits macro photography using the blur effect down to 4 cm even on the telephoto side.
Compatible with three different power sources: high-capacity rechargeable batteries, AAA batteries, and AC adaptor
- The Caplio GX100 gets approximately 340 exposures with the included high-capacity rechargeable batteries or approximately 30 exposures using AAA dry batteries. The optional AC adaptor, which is convenient for indoor shooting, can also be used as a third power source.
Images can be captured in various combinations of resolution and compression.
RAW compression and RAW with JPEG can be selected for ultimate quality.
An aspect ratio of 3:2 and 1:1 can be selected. Ratio of 3:2 is the same aspect ratio as 35mm and most digital SLR's that allows images to be printed in standard sizes without cropping.
Vibration Correction function, based on a CCD shift method.
- When camera movement from hand shake is detected, the vibration correction system, based on Ricoh's own CCD shift method, moves the CCD in the opposite direction to make corrective adjustments. This results in the ability to take clear, sharp telephoto shots at high zoom magnification, macro shots, and indoor shots without the negative effects of blurring.
Ricoh Caplio GX100 specifications
| Sensor | 1/1.75" Type CCD |
|---|---|
| Image sizes | 3648x2736 |
| Movie clips | 640x480 320x240 15 or 30 fps |
| File formats | Still: JPEG, RAW (DNG)*1, RAW & JPEG*2 |
| Lens | 5.1-15.3mm (24-72 35 mm equivalent) 3x optical zoom F2.5-4.4 |
| Image stabilization | CCD-Shift |
| Conversion lenses | Yes, optional |
| Digital zoom | Up to 4x |
| Focus | Autofocus Manual focus Snap-focus (hyperfocal) Infinity lock |
| AF assist lamp | Yes/No |
| Focus distance | 30cm - ∞ (wide & telephoto) |
| Metering | TTL-CCD Metering Multi (256 segments) Centre-weighted Spot Metering |
| ISO sensitivity | ISO80 ISO100 ISO200 ISO400 ISO800 ISO1600 Auto ISO Auto High-ISO |
| Exposure compensation | +/- 2.0EV 0.3EV steps |
| Exposure bracketing | +/- 0.3EV +/- 0.5EV |
| Shutter speed | Still images: 180 - 1/2000 sec Movies: 1/30 - 1/2000 sec |
| Aperture | F2.5 - 9.1 (wide) F4.4 - 15.8 (wide) |
| Modes | Cont S-Cont M-Cont Program-shift Aperture-priority Manual exposure Movie mode My setting 1&2 |
| Scene modes | Portrait Sports Landscape Nightscape Skew correction Text Zoom macro High sensitivity |
| White balance | Auto Outdoors Cloudy Incandescent Fluorescent Custom |
| White balance bracketing | Yes |
| Self timer | 2 or 10 sec |
| Interval timer | 5 sec - 3 hours interval selectable*3 |
| Flash | Auto Forced off Forced on Red-eye reduction Slow-sync Soft Flash Range: 20cm - 5m (wide), 15cm - 3m (tele)*4 |
| Viewfinder | Removeable electronic viewfinder |
| LCD monitor | 2.5" TFT LCD 230k pixels |
| Connectivity | USB 2.0 Hi-speed*5 AV-out NTSC/PAL switchable |
| Print compliance | EXIF 2.21 DPOF*6 |
| Storage | SDHC/SD/MMC card 26MB internal memory |
| Power | DB-60 Li-ion battery 2 x AAA cells (alkaline/oxyride/NIMH) BJ-6 Charger included |
| Weight (no batt) | 220g (7.8oz) |
| Dimensions | 112 x 58 x 25 mm (4.4 x 2.3 x1.0 in) |
Additional images