Ricoh cx1 manual

One is a new pixel output interpolation algorithm that is used to minimise the risk of blown-out highlights. Image data from the red and blue channels are interpolated to calculate the green value if the green channel which is prone to over-saturation is over-exposed. In this mode the camera captures two exposures in quick succession, one recording the highlights and the other the shadows.

In-camera processing combines them to produce the end result. The degree of dynamic range expansion can be set across four levels: very weak, weak, medium and strong. In the DR mode, the camera can also be set to record two images, one with dynamic range expansion and the other a normal shot.

Both images are displayed briefly on the LCD screen immediately after being taken, allowing users of the camera to compare them. The illustration below simulates the on-screen view the photographer sees. Another noteworthy feature is the multi-pattern auto white balance, which sets the white balance on the basis of light sources in different areas of the image. This setting is additional to the standard auto white balance mode and is designed to provide better colours in mixed lighting scenes, including those combining sunlight and shadow and subjects photographed with flash and natural light.

In addition to the standard infinity, snap, spot AF and manual focus modes, the CX1 also comes with a Multi-target AF setting that selects a range of focus positions when the shutter button is half-pressed.

Fully pressing the shutter button causes the camera to capture seven shots at the distances automatically defined by the camera. The sharpest image selected on the basis of file size is saved.

Image size is fixed at N 2M and the sequential images are saved as a single file. Photographers hoping for raw file support will be disappointed. Image capture is JPEG only and nine image sizes are provided, including a aspect ratio and a aspect ratio.

At the highest resolution, you can choose between Fine and Normal compression. Typical file sizes for the Easy, Scene and Continuous shooting modes are shown in the table below. Interestingly, files are marginally larger in Multi-AF mode. Video clips are recorded with monaural audio and the optical zoom is disabled, leaving users with digital zoom only. Maximum clip length is 90 minutes — or the equivalent of 4GB. Typical recording times for a 1GB memory card are shown in the table below.

Playback and Software Pressing the playback button displays the last picture taken with basic shot data superimposed by default. You can toggle through the various display options by pressing the Display button. These include a highlight alert display, thumbnail image plus brightness histogram and basic shooting data and image only display. The thumbnail image plus brightness histogram display. When an image is displayed on-screen turning the zoom lever toggles between 20 and frame thumbnail displays.

Once a frame is selected, zoom playback is also accessed via the zoom lever and up to 16x magnification is possible with high-resolution shots. The arrow pad is used to move the magnified area around the frame. Users can also switch from frame to frame in playback mode at a pre-set enlargement ratio. The playback menu includes rather a lot of settings, as shown below. The playback menu, accessed by pressing the Menu button in playback mode.

As well as the standard rotate, resize, trimming and protect functions, the CX1 includes a basic slideshow display without selectable transition effects. Post-capture white balance compensation is also provided in playback mode. Post-capture white balance compensation adjustments. Both are Windows only. DL automatically creates a folder called Digital Camera in the My Documents folder on the computer and saves all images there in folders carrying the date of each shoot.

A screen shot showing the browser interface for the DL application. Press the ADJ. Holding the Camera Hold the camera as shown below for best results.

Hold the camera with both hands and lightly press both elbows against your body. Put your finger on the shutter release button. Page 37 Preventing Camera Shake If you move the camera when pressing the shutter release button, the still image might not come out clearly due to camera shake.

The shutter release button works in two steps. When you press the shutter release button halfway Half-press , the auto-focus function is triggered to determine the focal distance.

Next, press it all the way down Full-press to shoot. Page 39 To take a picture with the subject in the foreground in focus against a background, half-press the shutter release button to focus on the subject, and then compose your shot. Subject to be focused on Shooting range Gently press the shutter release button all the way. Page Shooting With Easy Shooting Mode Shooting with Easy Shooting Mode Turning the mode dial to EASY limits the shooting functions that can be changed and allows you to shoot with easy operations and without having to make any complicated settings.

With this mode, even first-time users can comfortably use the camera without worrying about the settings. Turning the zoom lever toward Z Wide-angle allows you to take a wide-angle picture. With the camera ready to shoot, turn the zoom lever toward z or Z. Page 42 Using the Digital Zoom While you can use the normal zoom to enlarge the subject up to 7.

To use digital zooming, turn and hold the zoom lever toward z until the maximum magnification is reached on the zoom bar, then momentarily release the zoom lever, and then turn the zoom lever again toward z. This is good for shooting small subjects because you can shoot up to approximately 1 cm 0. At the time of purchase, the camera is set to [Auto]. Page Using The Self-Timer Using the Self-Timer You can set the self-timer to shoot after either two or ten seconds, or you can select [Custom] to customize the self-timer setting.

With [Custom], you can take a set number of pictures at a set interval. Use [Custom Self-Timer] on the shooting menu to set the shooting interval and number of pictures for [Custom]. You can also delete or zoom in on the images. Press the 6 Playback button. See P. Note Setting your favorite image files to [Flag Function Setting] on the playback menu allows you to easily display these files.

Page Thumbnail View Thumbnail View When playing back images on the picture display, the playback screen can be divided into 20 frames or 81 frames.

Turn the zoom lever toward 9 Thumbnail View. Page Enlarging Images Enlarging Images You can enlarge a still image displayed on the picture display.

Pressing and holding the DISP. Press the button! Range] and then press the ADJ. During Shooting Mode Normal Symbol Display Picture Display Off Synchro-Monitor Mode Grid Guide Display This displays auxiliary lines on the picture display to help you compose your picture. Page 61 Level indicator display When level: The level indicator becomes green, indicating that the scale is in the middle. When tilted to the right or left: The mark on the level indicator becomes orange, indicating the opposite side of the direction in which the camera is tilted.

A histogram is a graph indicating the number of pixels on the vertical axis and the brightness on the horizontal axis from left to right, shadows dark areas , midtones, and highlights bright areas.

Page Advanced Operations Advanced Operations Read this section when you want to learn more about the different camera functions. Button Functions Page Adj. Button Functions 1 ADJ. The ADJ. Page 65 Press the ADJ. This is particularly useful when you are using a tripod to take pictures. See Step 3 and beyond on P.

The following functions can be assigned to the Fn button. For the operating procedure of each function, see the corresponding reference page. Page Backlight Compensation Function Easy Shooting Mode Backlight Compensation Function Easy Shooting Mode You can use the backlight compensation function when the main subject looks too dark in situations such as shooting a dark subject against a bright background.

You can lock the focus where the macro target is shifted and shoot the picture. Pressing the Fn button switches focus modes depending on the [Focus] setting on the shooting menu GP. Use the following operating procedure. Scene Modes Use when taking portrait pictures. Page 77 Use to straighten a rectangular object, such as a message board or business card, shot at an angle to make it look as if it were shot squarely. For detailed operations, see P. Page 78 Press the ADJ. Press the shutter release button to shoot the picture.

Press the MENU button. You can select from [Deep], [Normal] and [Light]. To change the setting, use the shooting menu or the ADJ. This section explains easy ways to change the setting with the ADJ. Use [Reg. When you shoot a scene with high contrast, such as both a subject in sunlight and a subject in a shaded area, the bright areas appear overly bright and the image does not look natural.

Expanded dynamic range image Turn the mode dial to Display the shooting menu. Caution The time until image recording is complete may be longer when using the internal memory. Compose your picture and then press and hold the shutter release button.

The consecutively shot still images are grouped together as a set and are recorded as one MP file. Note The image size is fixed at N VGA. MP file MP is a file format for recording a set of still images. You can set the number of frames shot per second frame rate to either 30 or The maximum recording time per shooting is 90 minutes or the equivalent of 4 GB. The shooting menu can be used to set the following shooting settings.

See the following table. Refer to P. Press the MENU button in shooting mode. For movies, choose the movie size. Figures inside the bold frame indicate those shown on the screen. Normal mode: The compression ratio is high, resulting in a small file. Normally, shooting is done in this mode. Fine mode: The compression ratio is low, resulting in a large file, but the picture quality is better than in Normal.

Select from the following 6 focusing modes. Page Multi-Target Af Multi-Target AF When you half-press the shutter release button, the camera automatically determines multiple focus positions.

When you then press the shutter release button all the way down, the camera shifts among the different focus positions, taking 7 consecutive pictures. The 7 still images are grouped together as a set and are recorded as an MP file. Page Manual Focus Mf Compose your picture and half-press the shutter release button. Page Press the ADJ. Press and hold the ADJ.

Page Exposure Metering Modes Exposure Metering Modes You can change the metering method the range to use for metering used to determine the exposure value.

There are three light metering modes. Exposure Metering Modes Symbol Mode Description None Multi The entire shooting range is divided into partitions, and each is metered to determine the overall exposure value.

Page Picture Quality And Color Picture Quality and Color You can change the picture quality of an image, including the contrast, sharpness, color and color depth. You can select from the following picture quality settings. You can set the light intensity from Display the shooting menu. Page Bracket Shooting Bracket Shooting Bracket shooting is the function for performing automatic consecutive shooting while changing the exposure, white balance, color, or focus position.

Page White Balance Bracketing Press the shutter release button to shoot the picture. When shooting is completed, three still images are displayed on the picture display. They are, from left to right, at Page Color Bracketing Press the shutter release button to shoot the picture. Page Focus Bracketing Contrast, Sharpness and Color Depth During Color Bracket Shooting During color bracket shooting, the contrast, sharpness, and color depth values set in [Image Settings] are applied.

Focus Bracketing With focus bracketing, the camera automatically takes 5 consecutive pictures while adjusting the focus in the following order.

Half-press the shutter release button. Press the shutter release button all the way down. By using long time exposure, you can capture the movement of moving subjects such as the trail of fireworks and car lights when shooting a night scene. Available Setting Description Pictures Set this between 1 and 10 pictures. The default setting is [2 Pics]. Interval Set this between 5 and 10 seconds. You can set the shooting interval from 5 seconds to 1 hour in increments of 5 seconds.

In this case, the shooting interval becomes longer than the set time. Page Camera Shake Correction Camera Shake Correction You can prevent camera shake by turning on the camera shake correction function. At the time of purchase, the camera shake correction function is turned on. It doesn't sound like a big deal in theory, but in practice it really helps to make the horizons in all your wide-angle shots perfectly level. The Ricoh CX1 features an anti-shake system called Camera Shake Correction - turn it on in the Main menu and the Ricoh CX1 automatically compensates for camera shake, which is a slight blurring of the image that typically occurs at slow shutter speeds.

You don't notice that the camera is actually doing anything different when anti-shake is turned on, just that you can use slower shutter speeds than normal and still take sharp photos.

Ricoh seem to have realised the importance of this system, as it is turned on by default, and thankfully leaving the anti-shake system on didn't negatively affect the battery-life, with the camera managing over shots before the battery needed to be recharged comparable to the R The face recognition feature offered by the Ricoh CX1 is based on a pretty simple system that only recognises a maximum of 4 faces.

Ricoh have also chosen to make it a specific scene mode, rather than a general setting that applies to whichever shooting mode is currently selected, which rather limits its usefulness. Face recognition does work if the subjects are looking directly at the camera, but the CX1 takes a while to lock onto the subject, and I think that the tried and trusted method of half-pressing the shutter button to focus and then recomposing the shot is a quicker and more reliable method.

The main menu system on the Ricoh CX1 is straight-forward to use and is accessed by pressing the Menu button on the rear of the camera. There are two main menus, Shooting and Setup. Quite a lot of the camera's main options, such as image size, sharpness, metering mode and continuous mode, are accessed here, so the Shooting menu has 17 options spread over 2 screens, and there are 26 options in the Setup menu over 3 screens.

Despite increasing the number of on-screen choices from 6 to 10, the new sharper display ensures that the various options and icons are clear and legible. If you have never used a digital camera before, or you're upgrading from a more basic model, reading the comprehensive and easy-to-follow manual before you start is a must. Thankfully Ricoh have chosen to supply it in printed format, rather than as a PDF on a CD, so you can also carry it with you.

Ricoh have a long history of creating responsive cameras, and the CX1 certainly extends that tradition. The start-up time from turning the Ricoh CX1 on to being ready to take a photo is very quick at around 0.

Focusing is very quick in good light and the camera happily achieves focus most of the time indoors or in low-light situations. Note that the camera does struggle to lock onto the subject sometimes at the tele-photo end of the lens. It takes about 0. In the fastest Continuous mode the camera takes 4 frames per second for up to 60 images at the highest JPEG image quality, which is excellent for this class of camera. Overall the Ricoh CX1 is extremely quick in terms of operational speed. Once you have captured a photo, the Ricoh CX1 has an above average range of options when it comes to playing, reviewing and managing your images.

You can instantly scroll through the images that you have taken, view thumbnails 81 onscreen at once! There's a Recover File option which will rescue deleted images, just so long as you don't turn the camera off first. Level Compensation allows you to correct the contrast and tone of an image after it has been taken, and White Balance Compensation the white balance.

The Skew Correction function alters any photo that was taken at an angle so it appears as if it were taken directly in front of you. You can "flag" an image, which essentially allows you to choose up to three files and then immediately display them by pressing the Fn button during playback, and images are automatically rotated during playback to fit the current orientation of the camera.

The White Saturation display mode during image playback indicates over-exposed highlights by flashing those areas on and off. When taking a photo, pressing the Display button toggles between the detailed information, the histogram and gridlines to aid composition.

Appearances can be deceptive - the Ricoh CX1 may look a lot like the R10 model, but it offers a number of quite radical new features that focus on producing better looking images. Does it succeed? Take a look at the Image Quality page to find out. All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 9 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 3Mb.

The Ricoh CX1 produced images of good quality during the review period. The Ricoh CX1's main drawback in terms of image quality is noise, with ISO showing some noise, blurring of detail and slight colour desauration.

The noise and loss of detail get progressively worse as you go from ISO to ISO and finally the fastest setting. The new Dynamic Range mode works really well, resulting in images that have noticeably more dynamic range that those shot in the Normal mode, and far surpassing most other compact cameras. There is one main drawback though; the DR images have noticeably less saturated colours than the Normal version, which more accurately matches the scene, which makes the CX1 less successful than the Fujifilm FinePix FEXR that we recently reviewed.

The Ricoh CX1 handled chromatic aberrations very well with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 9 megapixel images were just a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting of Normal and either require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should set the in-camera sharpening to Sharp. The night photograph was OK, with the maximum shutter speed of 8 seconds allowing you to capture just enough light for most situations.

Macro performance is the stand-out highlight, allowing you to focus as close as 1cm away from the subject, although there is a lot of lens distortion and shadowing at such a close distance. Anti-shake is also a feature that sets this camera apart from its competitors and one that works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure.

When the Ricoh CX1 is in DR mode Dynamic Range double shot it takes two images with different exposures, and then records a single image that combines the properly exposed parts of each one.

Here is an example which was shot with Normal and then the four DR modes Very Weak, Weak, Medium and Strong , with links to the original full size images and histograms. Full Size Image. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening setting of Normal.

You can change the in-camera sharpening level to one of the preset levels Sharp, Normal or Soft if you don't like the default look.