Ricoh RDC-7

If the Canon Digital IXUS looks smooth, the Ricoh RDC-7 looks positively frictionless. More like a burnished cigar case than a camera, it is pocket-sized and has tiny, discreet controls. It is also very capable. It can capture three-megapixel stills, MPEG movies up to 30 seconds long and sound. A wide range of filters and effects are packed into the sleek body.
The 3x zoom was smooth and progressive in operation, and it had a decent range without the use of digital modification. The designers have cunningly added two shutter releases, so it can be used just as easily in vertical and horizontal modes.
The main control is the back-mounted mode dial, which selects between play, auto, sound, move, multi-image, text and setup. The power button is in the centre of this dial, and the zoom lever extends slightly beyond it, making it easy to locate the controls. The only other external controls are the dedicated buttons for timer, image quality, flash and memory access. This last is there because the RDC-7 comes with 8M of internal memory, but it can also take a SmartMedia card in the slot on the back panel.
The battery is the same as that of the Kodak DC4800; a rechargable KLIC 3000 D-type. Output sockets and a power-in port sit on the end panel. Under a flap to one side of the tiny status LCD nestles a super-crisp LCD viewing and menu screen, complete with its own button panel for secondary functions such as paging through images, expo sure adjustment, white balance, ISO setting, macro and so on.
This means you can just point and shoot with the screen dosed, and access a very programmable unit with it open.
Its software includes a USB connect utility and ArcSoft image manipulation software. This was harder to install than the software of any other camera, and required a lot of backtracking and tinkering with CDs to get It working.
The camera’s download time was 6.5 seconds for a 97OK file via USB. The zoom was very smooth and progressive, and image clarity was good on the screen and viewfinder. The resulting Images were not quite as good as equivalent Nikon and Olympus units, and there were noticeable bleached highlights and loss of detail in shadows. Using the flash lifted the quality of indoor photos — shooting without the flash resulted in a muddy cast. If you need sound and video and cool looks, this is it. If you want pure quality, others have much more to offer.