Ricoh CX6 Pro Reviews

The Ricoh CX6 is a light compact camera that is quick to use and enables you express your creativity and build on your skills. The Ricoh CX6 is priced at £259.99 (around $420), and its predecessor the CX5 is still available at around £184, or $205. The extra cost could well be worth it when considering the Ricoh CX6's extra specifications, such as the advanced shooting modes, faster shooting and start-up times. Ricoh has put a lot of thought into how the camera may be used, providing a lot of customisation. The Ricoh CX6 enables a lot of photographic creativity while remaining generally simple to use. It's a shame is doesn't have raw file capability, but it is a good camera for DSLR users looking for a compact backup, or for compact users looking to get more serious about their photography.

The Ricoh CX6 certainly has a lot going for it. To start off with, the LCD screen more than matches any other advanced compact on the market. Add to that the entirely reasonable 10.7x optical zoom, the new addition of shutter and aperture priority shooting modes and a eminently usable layout and body design and, in theory, you should be on for a winner. However, the CX6 still has holes in it's specification, with Raw capture being one clear example of this. When you throw several image quality issues in to the final assessment, you have to conclude that while the CX6 is a very capable advanced compact, it's not quite worthy of a Gold award.

Thanks to its super-fast auto focus, a dedicated movie button and massive, bright hi-res LCD, the Ricoh CX6 offers an excellent balance for anyone who appreciates the convenience of point-and-shoot but wants more sophisticated results. The other new features include the aperture and shutter speed modes – placing the CX6 neatly in the space between a convention compact camera and a ‘proper’ DSLR. Next inclusion? RAW support and 1080p movie mode please.

The Ricoh CX6 offers enough new features - autofocus speed of 0.1 second, aperture- and shutter-priority shooting modes, a 3fps burst mode with auto-focus, a higher resolution 3 inch LCD screen, and a separate movie record button - to justify replacing the CX5 model, but overall the CX6 is now looking a little long in the tooth compared to slimmer, smaller and more polished rivals. The aperture- and shutter-priority shooting modes is undoubtedly the CX6's main new feature, but while you have full control over the latter mode, only being able to select the wide-open or minimum aperture with nothing in-between restricts what you can achieve in the aperture-priority mode. The even faster 0.1 second AF speed and the 3fps burst mode complete with auto-focus makes the CX6 one of the quickest-focusing compacts on the market, so if you're frustrated by missing the moment because your current camera takes too long to focus, then this model is well worth a look.

The Ricoh CX6 is a feature-packed camera ideal for carrying on your travels. It's great for macros and its 10.7x optical zoom lens means you can get close-up when out shooting. Image quality is good, with great colour reproduction and levels of noise throughout the ISO range up to ISO 1600. The CX6 is also fantastic at making sure you don't miss any of the action with an extremely fast focusing system and 5 fps full size image high-speed shooting.