Big, chunky, easy to use. My son’s camera and he loves it. And the pictures are really OK.
It was a charity shop find and looks like a low-end charity shop camera; but doesn’t feel like one. This has some weight and the plastic feels very solid.
Turn it on by sliding back the view finder cover, this also opens the lens cover – nice touch, viewfinder and lens protected. (Really, a good idea; viewfinders are great at getting full of dust.)
There’s a nearly unpressable mode button near the LCD for setting flash mode. And a slider on the top to zoom – which takes ages and makes a whirring, grinding noise like a bad time at the dentist. (A good time at the dentist; has one ever been had?)
There’s a date back. Now, the date back display is on all the time… but not the main LCD so you need to turn the camera on to see how many shots you have left. Why not leave that on as well?
It’s a slow lens (4.5 at best) but that’s zooms for you.
I’ve just noticed a ‘super macro’ button on the side, Never seen that before. It’s as nearly unpressable as most other compact camera buttons. When you do manage to press it there’s some more dental-style whirring and a macro icon appears on the LCD… must try it.
Picture quality – really not at all bad. Certainly better than my Leica Mini Zoom which cost about 10 times as much.
Links
Manual: http://www.butkus.org/chinon/ricoh/ricoh_shotmaster_tru-zoom/ricoh_shotmaster_tru-zoom.htm
Some facts from camera-wiki: http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Ricoh_Shotmaster_Tru-zoom
A picture
I’m pretty sure this pic of me was taken with this camera…
