Ricoh releases CX6 compact superzoom with fast AF
updated 08:20 pm EST, Tue November 15, 2011
Features 35mm optical zoom of 28mm to 300mm
Ricoh has unveiled the CX6 compact camera. The device focuses on speed and features a hybrid autofocus system with lock-in times as short as 0.1 seconds. The autofocus system is the same one as used in Ricoh's CX5, launched earlier this year, and can keep up the speed not only through the whole zoom range but give a 3FPS shooting speed even with moving subjects.
The lens reaches far with a 10.7X optical zoom equivalent to 28mm, or good enough for wide angles, to a telephoto-level 300mm.
The zoom has a 2X "super-resolution" mode for up to 21.4x magnification (equivalent to 600 mm), and a digital 4.8x zoom for up to 103X magnification, the equivalent to 2,880mm in a 35mm camera. The sensor is a 10-megapixel, 1/2.3-inch CMOS unit that can help with lower light. The camera comes with common exposure metering modes. The CX6 comes with 40MB of internal memory and supports SD external memory cards.
Ricoh said the camera will available in black, white or pink. Priced around $413, it will be available in stores starting early December, although it's most likely to cater to Europe and Japan than North America. The CX6 represents one of the first products to come out since Pentax a $124 million acquisition of Ricoh from Hoya and could see a different strategy given Pentax's larger resources.
