What will the R11 bring?

Only a few months before the expected R11. Any guesses what changes there will be? Any trends elsewhere in camera technology/design that might appear?

Barrie

Popflash says the R11 will have a touch screen.
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• that i'd see as the very last usefull additon - a fast(!) AF, less smearing and possibly B/W selectable "on the wheel" would be my favourites

Karl

Gordon Inkeles said:

Popflash says the R11 will have a touch screen.
--
Social Biking Blog
http://bikesocial.blogspot.com/

Click to expand...

If that's true, then it's definitely bad news. At least for me. When I unpack new camera, the first thing I do is sticking a hardcover shield over the LCD. I don't like the idea of touch screens in digital cameras. I can only hope that the touch-screen functionality does not replace the HW controls

From my point of view, touch screen on the digital camera is the same sort of gimmick (or rather marketing feature) like a face/smile detection or more and more megapixels. Such additions will not improve my photos and I don't really care about them. What I need (and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this) is RAW and less aggressive/more configurable JPEG processing.

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Ricoh GR/GRD/GX100 Forum
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Pavel Kudrys said:

What I need
(and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this) is RAW and less
aggressive/more configurable JPEG processing.

Click to expand...

Agree fully with you on this and think a touchscreen is a waste but could be ok if you only use it to determine the focus point and scroll through your pictures in review mode. The rest should be done as it is now, the R10 is the perfect design for the R series.

Could not agree more on your last point, this is the only thing missing to make the R10 in to a serious compact.

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I'm probably going to anger a few people here but i would like the idea of a touch screen

I'll take the example of the iphone. I've had mine for nearly 6 months and constantly touch it all the time. The screen is not damaged in the slighest. I think this kind of feature would be great for panning around pictures. 1 touch and the pic goes to 100%, click again and it's 50%, again and it fits. I think it could also be nice to touch the screen to toggle certain display elements such as shutter speed, histogram.

Pavel, you can still put a protective coating on a screen and be able to use it but the ones you choose which are hard coated and sit quite far away from the screen would obviously not work

I like phyical buttons for controlling a camera so my comments are mainly for enhancing the playback mode.

Tom

Gordon Inkeles said:

Popflash says the R11 will have a touch screen.
--
Social Biking Blog
http://bikesocial.blogspot.com/

Click to expand...

--
Ricoh GRD1
Ricoh GRD2
Ricoh GR1
Epson RD1s / m-hexanon 28mm f2.8 / cv nokton 40mm
f1.4

http://ricoh-gr-d.blogspot.com

Ricoh community is pretty close group of people who seem to be on the money when it comes to speculating future cameras. What do you think what will Ricoh introduce in 2009? My major agenda here is that is it possible that Ricoh could get a decent sensor in GX300. To me it seems that Ricoh uses sensor technology that was used 6-12 months ago so it's already outdated.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=canon_g9%2Cricoh_gx200%2Ccanon_g10&show=all

I could be wrong here I haven't been looking so closely what manufacturer they use for their sensors. Will they just introduce a 14-15 megapixel sensor that was used last year and again struggle with noise/smearing or is there a chance they would do something like Panasonic did. Yes I know, even the best output from Panasonic/Matsushita sensor isn't anything to go nuts about but it's still better than 15MP 1/1.7" or 12MP 1/2.3". Ricoh has a good approach to noise reduction and in-camera processing but they give way too much head start for competition by using not so good sensors. Would it be great if it the pixel density was closer to 19-24MP/cm² like S100fs or LX3 have. I remember seeing a quota here in the forum from someone who was working for Ricoh it was said at Photokina that Ricoh is planning something to match LX3. Was it just all in my head or have you guys heard any rumours about their future cameras and possible sensor/megapixel related things? Thanks and those who don't want to start speculating about the future, sorry.

--

If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment of knowledge always pays the best interest.

Please, Ricoh....
less image processing option, to give true 'Ricoh-style' grain, if required a proper mono option, not just a scene mode with very little control

• much better video, HD 30fps is now becoming the market norm', stereo sound would be special

But...!

• no touchscreen! Ricoh's controls are among the best already, and not everything has to be an iClone ;-)
• no more megapixels! If anything the R11 should have less, but better IQ/processing
• don't change the R8/10 body design...looks great, and well made.

A

tomkmem said:

I'm probably going to anger a few people here but i would like the
idea of a touch screen

I'll take the example of the iphone. I've had mine for nearly 6
months and constantly touch it all the time. The screen is not
damaged in the slighest.

Click to expand...

Yes Tom, I agree that the touch screen is great thing for phones or umpcs. And yes, the touch screen and apple-like image browsing would be very nice addition for digital cameras too. But I think it would be a real nightmare for "record" mode. If nothing else, the touch screen cannot be used without looking at it. I mean, with HW controls, you can effectively use the camera even with LCD turned OFF. I really doubt you can do the same with touch screen So touch screen would mean permanently enabled display and the screen full of fingerprints. And finally, the touch screens work well for mobile phones/PDAs, but these devices are usually resting in your palm at arm's length distance. Using the touch screen for changing the camera settings (at its usual operational distance) would be "a bit" cumbersome

tomkmem said:

Pavel, you can still put a protective coating on a screen and be able
to use it but the ones you choose which are hard coated and sit quite
far away from the screen would obviously not work

Click to expand...

OK, I would not object against the touch screen if it would be covered with glass (like iPhone screen) or at least hardened plastic (like LX3 screen). However, the majority if today's LCDs (used in cameras and other electronic devices) are not covered with glass or anything hard. Especially the touch screens with "old" pressure sensitive surface are very fragile. And this is what I'm worrying about. LCD alone is usually the most fragile and most expensive part to replace, so it asks for an additional protection. This is why I'm using the hard plastic cover you saw on my GRDII After a year or so of use, it's full of marks and scratches. I guess my GRD's LCD would already be scratched (if not damaged) without the hard protection cover.

tomkmem said:

I like phyical buttons for controlling a camera so my comments are
mainly for enhancing the playback mode.

Click to expand...

Yes, from this point of view, touch screen would be a very nice addition. But it must not replace the actual HW controls! I just hope that the R11 screen would not be larger than the current R10 screen, because this would mean even less space for HW controls and possible removal of them. At least is the R11 external dimensions remain the same as R10. Let's wait and see

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There will be no R11.

TR

TONY M ROSE said:

There will be no R11.

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OK Tony, now we are interested.

No R11, but maybe an R12 instead? Or some new model naming system altogether? Are Ricoh sticking to the 6 monthly release cycle or not for the R series?

Regards............ Guy

Guy Parsons said:

TONY M ROSE said:

There will be no R11.

Click to expand...

OK Tony, now we are interested.

No R11, but maybe an R12 instead? Or some new model naming system
altogether? Are Ricoh sticking to the 6 monthly release cycle or not
for the R series?

Click to expand...

Intriguing. If no R11 then maybe a new line - perhaps a cross between R10 and GX - which might give us 'RGX' with a 24-240 lens (a la Samsung), manual control but small sensor. Sometimes when one maker introduces a new lens there seems to be some collaberation through 3rd parties. Pure speculation, we shall see.

Despite the recession this could be a good year for wide angle compacts.

Nick

No more "R" series. We expect a completely new series of cameras.

TR

So that would make the R10 a future classic and worth grabbing one... hmmm... I have to keep reminding myself "I have enough cameras... I have enough cameras..."....

I'm very curious. Where is this info coming from that the R series is finished? When will the replacement be announced?

bminney said:

I'm very curious. Where is this info coming from that the R series is
finished? When will the replacement be announced?

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We can trust Tony Rose to give good information, but of course all people with genuine inside information are bound by non-disclosure agreements, so we just have to wait... and wait.... for a real Ricoh announcement.

The US PMA show is March 3 to 5 and the camera makers seem to start announcing new releases in about the two week period leading up to PMA. So keep looking at the 'Latest News' items here on DPReview from about middle of February.

Like some here, I am eagerly awaiting news to make purchase decisions for an upcoming trip. Any rumours are welcome.

Regards............ Guy

Quite exciting waiting for an announcement. I don't normally do 'brand loyalty' but in Ricohs case I do. The R4 was a revelation to me and I know I will need to replace it soon. The other Ricoh models don't really appeal to me. I want a camera that can easily be carried for those special moments (the alternative is a camera phone).

Barrie
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bminney/

Shame if Ricoh drop the R-series, just as it had 'returned' to form with the R8 and R10 (returned from the previous high of the R4).

With the R, Ricoh was beginning to establish the ongoing Toyota Corolla or VWGolf(Rabbit) of camera ranges!

A

I personally would like to see a 7x zoom, useable iso 800 with in camera control of NR.

that would be enough to bring me back to Ricoh. As far as a touch screen, I really like them, they are fast and easy, so that's not a deal breaker for me.
LG

I would like fewer pixels so we get back to the R4 quality and some manual control over shutter speed, a moonlight setting (15 or 30 secs), and fixed exposure for pano shots.

I don't understand the call for b&w settings or other software incamera because there are some really good free software to play around with out of the box such as GIMP, noise reduction and pano. I just want to get the shot very quickly with minimum of fuss. I quite enjoy the 'fiddling' around of photos at my leisure in front of a pc.

Cheers
Barrie