There’s something very familiar about the Ricoh CX4, the fourth in the series that began in March 2009 promising to “expand your range of expression”. Is it the shape, the features, the size, or just the colour of the exterior that resonates in the mind of the keen compact digital photographer? Zoom into our Ricoh CX4 review to unravel the answer…
Let’s start by having a good look at the exterior of the Ricoh CX4. It feels quite solidly built unlike many of the ultra-slim ‘credit card’ type cameras and weighs in at a relatively chunky 205g with battery and SD memory card installed. The plastic casing surrounding the lens is unusual because it’s not a complete circle, instead flattening out when it meets the base of the machine.
The Ricoh CX4 has a boxy Volvo feel to the design with a minimalist approach to the control layout. The top manages a tiny power button, larger shutter with zoom ring and a neat mode dial all squashed up to one end, while the back sports a small joystick centred D-pad, a neat column of four function buttons, separate playback and a 3-inch LCD with incredibly sharp images courtesy of a marathon 920,000 dots.
Now if you’re already familiar with the CX collection, you’ve probably clocked by now that the Ricoh CX4 looks astonishingly like its immediate predecessor, the CX3. In fact, apart from the absence of the front hand grip on the older model, the two cameras look identical and have the same dimensions.
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And when you start comparing specifications, you realise just how little has changed in the Ricoh CX4. Both are 10 megapixel cameras with a back-illuminated sensor (thus allowing much better quality photos in low light) and a 10.7x, 28-300mm zoom lens. When you look at the display, the same quick menu options pop up when you press in the joystick and at the bottom of the screen is the same electronic level which was such a welcome novelty in the CX3 when lining up horizons.
If you've used a CX3, you'll be right at home with the CX4's menu layout. Almost too much so
Delving further into the menus on the Ricoh CX4, you find you can still shoot no higher resolution than 720p HD videos, that the highly effective Dynamic Range mode that combines two photos shot at different exposures is still there, that sound is (alas) still in mono and that total beginners to digital photography can still let the S-Auto mode make your mind up for you with six standard options.
So, you ask, is there anything new in the Ricoh CX4 apart from silver and pink casings to go with the stern black? Well the main changes are an improvement to the image stabilisation system which substantially reduces blur on action shots and zooms together with an expanded auto-focus range which now includes subject-tracking to let you keep the camera still while moving objects remain sharp.
A top down view of the Ricoh CX4
The only other noticeable upgrade in the Ricoh CX4 is the addition of a new Creative Shooting scene mode which includes just three new funky effects – Soft Focus, Cross Process (which jazzes up the colours a bit) and Toy Camera – which are unlikely to prove especially popular, as well as a Night Landscape Multi-shot scene mode which vastly improves night photography by uniting four varied exposures into one.
Thankfully the quality of the low-light images on the Ricoh CX4 remains high when kept below ISO 400 and natural light photos are well above average. If you don’t already own the CX3, this is an excellent value compact digital camera for keen amateurs. If you do own it, it’s not worth all the replication.
