I've now had my RDC-6000 for a couple of years, and I hope writing this review doesn't tempt fate. It has worked consistently and reliably throughout that time, but with a few teething problems, more down to my inexperience than the fault of the camera. Initially I was trying to use the camera by looking at the LCD display, but could never hold the thing still enough to get the results I wanted. By reverting back to the traditional method of looking through the view finder, there was a marked improvement. The digital zoom is pretty useless, the only way you can zoom in is to look at the LCD, and the wobble becomes progressively more pronounced the more zoom is used ( up to 4 x ). The same results can be achieved with the software when you get the piccys onto your PC
The unit is classed as an image capturing device, and can be also used as web cam through the supplied software. Support in the form of new drivers has been maintained by Ricoh covering all the newer operating systems. Connection to PC is via a supplied USB cable, with the option of connecting to a TV monitor to display your results on the big screen, again the cable is supplied to do this. Power is provided by rechargeable battery, including charger, but you cannot use standard batteries if this happens to go flat. Power can be conserved by turning off the LCD display.
Storage is on Smart Media cards, 8Mb being supplied, I now use a 64 Meg card, giving around 1400 low res images, and upto 55ish high res images, with many settings in between. Maximum pixels is upto 3megapixels, but this does use interpolation, otherwise 2 megapixels is the norm. Output to hard copy is good on my HP Deskjet930C, so results will depend on the printer used.
Control of the camera is by a Jog Dial, with simple options to select the mode ( take photo, replay, PC mode etc ) and within that a menu is shown on the LCD to tweak the camera further. As a fully auto camera its gives good results, but can struggle with varied lighting conditions. The Auto Bracket option is very useful here, and while solving the problem it does take up memory. Most other settings can be changed or over-rode, the only thing it lacks that I would like is B setting, but perhaps that’s expecting too much. The overall feel is that of a good 35mm compact camera, nicely weighted and not overly fiddly, but in reality I would suggest a camera with optical zoom.
At present, this would make a good second hand buy.
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09.11.2003 11:32
This sounds like a nice little camera. kim :o)