Ricoh CX3

Back to normal broadcast.

Ricoh has released their latest Point and Shoot camera for the masses, well, not quite the masses since most people don't know Ricoh makes cameras. Still they do churn them out with clock work precision, every 6 months. I started with the R5, then skipping 5 siblings, I got the CX1. Of course I had to dump the elder boy on MY elder sibling first.

The difference with this release is the Back Illuminated Sensor. Ricoh went shopping at Sony's and got this, which supposedly gives it better light sensitivity. The samples seem better than CX1, but just got to wait to try it out. I have had some grief with the CX1 in dark lecture halls and auditoriums where photos at ISO 800 became bad impressions of impressionist paintings. Flash photography results in horrible uneven lighting, something I have always hated about Ricoh cameras.

Coupled with the new heart is a newer brain, it inherited extra brain power from the GRD III, and, and, wait for it, an option to modify the in camera noise reduction! That is good for a Raw-less camera. So now you can do either Impressionism or Pointillism, your pick. Though not holding out much hope for flash photography, it is not an issue for me. I am not a flasher.

The final interesting feature is that Ricoh has joined the HD video race at 720P. Now I can spam the world with high def trash on YouTube, buahahahaha!

So am I tempted yet? A firm not-so-sure. It has the 3 distinct advantage plus a few miscellaneous bonuses (Cat face detection??), but I guess I still have a big crush on the GXR.