Ricoh PXRicoh has today unveiled the PX, the first in a new series of digital compact cameras designed to be both water and shock resistant.

Ricoh claims that the 16-million-pixel PX can be used at an underwater depth of 3m, for up to one hour, and withstand drops from a height of 1.5m.

Powered by a rechargeable battery, the PX sports a 5x optical lens designed to deliver the 35mm viewing angle equivalent of a 28-140mm zoom.

A digital zoom expands zoom power to an equivalent focal length of 1,344mm, adds Ricoh.

Features also include a 2.7in display, subject tracking AF, a Smooth Imaging Engine IV processor and an HD (1280×720 pixels) video function.

Minaturize, Toy Camera and Soft Focus are among the PX?s digital filter effect options.

The PX is compatible with the X2-series of Eye-Fi SD memory cards and will go on sale in the UK next month, priced £179.99.

RICOH PX Main Specifications, as supplied by Ricoh UK

No. of effective pixels (camera):

Approx. 16.00 million

Image Sensor:

1/2.3˝ CCD (approx. 16.40 total million pixels)

Lens:

Focal length: 5?25 mm (35 mm format equivalent: 28?140 mm)

F-aperture: F3.9 (wide-angle) to F5.4 (telephoto)

Shooting Distance: Approx. 3 cm ? ∞ (wide-angle), 50 cm ? ∞ (telephoto) or 3 cm ? ∞ (?Loupe?) (from the front of the lens)

Lens Construction: 13 elements in 10 groups

Zoom:

Optical: 5× (35 mm format equivalent: 28?140 mm)

Super resolution (SR): 2×, for a combined zoom of 10× (35 mm format equivalent: 280 mm)

Digital: 4.8×, for a combined zoom of 48× (35 mm format equivalent: 1344 mm)

Auto Resize: *1 7.2×, for a combined zoom of 36× (35 mm format equivalent: 1000 mm)

Focus Modes:

Multi AF (contrast-detect AF), spot AF (contrast-detect AF), face-priority multi AF, subject tracking AF (with AF auxiliary light)

Blur Reduction:

Image sensor shift image stabilization

Shutter Speed: *2

Photographs: 8, 4, 2, and 1?1/2000 s

Movies: 1/30?1/2000 s

Continuous mode:

Frame rate: *3 Approximately 1 fps

Exposure Control:

Metering: Multi (256 segments)/center-weighted/spot

Mode: Program AE

Exposure Compensation: Manual exposure compensation (?2.0 to +2.0 EV in increments of 1/3 EV)

Exposure Range (auto mode, center-weighted metering): 3.2-17.7EV(wide angle), 4.1-19.4EV(telephoto), (Exposure range for auto ISO calculated using values for ISO 100.)

ISO sensitivity (Standard Output Sensitivity):

Auto, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600, ISO 3200

Noise reduction:

AUTO

White Balance:

Auto, multi-pattern auto, outdoors, cloudy, incandescent 1, incandescent 2, fluorescent, manual

Flash:

Mode: Auto, on, off (red-eye reduction option available in camera menus)

Range: Approx. 20 cm ? 3.5 m (wide-angle) or 50 cm ? 3.0 m (telephoto), measured using auto ISO with a maximum of ISO 1600, measured from the front of the lens)

Picture display:

2.7˝ transmissive LCD monitor with approx. 230,000 dots

Shooting Mode: *4

Normal, movie, premium shot (P, portrait, night portrait, hand-held night scene, party, cooking, sweets, loupe, landscape, beach, snow, sports, fireworks, auction, skew correction, pets, miniaturize, toy camera, high contrast B&W, soft focus, cross processing, black & white, sepia)

Image size (pixels):

Photographs: 4608 × 3456, 4608 × 3072, 3456 × 3456, 4608 × 2592, 3648 × 2736, 2592 × 1944, 2304 × 1728, 1280 × 960, 640 × 480

Movies: 1280 × 720 *5, 640 × 480

Storage media:

SD and SDHC memory cards (up to 32 GB), internal memory (approx. 40 MB); Eye-Fi cards (X2 se-ries) supported

Capacity *5 (40 MB internal memory):

Photographs: 6 (4608 × 3456), 7 (4608 × 3072), 8 (3456 × 3456, 4608 × 2592), 10 (3648 × 2736), 15 (2592 × 1944), 19 (2304 × 1728), 43 (1280 × 960), 169 (640 × 480)

Movies:*6 7 s (1280 × 720), 22 s (640 × 480)

File Format:

Photographs: JPEG (Exif version 2.3) *6

Movies: AVI (Open DML Motion JPEG compliant)

Compression: JPEG baseline compliant

Other notable shooting options:

Continuous mode; self-timer with shutter release delay of approximately 10 or 2 seconds and group portrait auto release; framing grid

Other notable playback options:

Multi-frame playback, favourites, privacy settings, resize, skew correction, image cropping, slide shows, DPOF print selection

Interface:

USB 2.0 (High-Speed) mini-B connector, Mass Storage compatible *7, AV output 1.0 Vp-p (75 Ω), HDMI micro output terminal (type D)

Video Signal Format:

NTSC, PAL

Power source:

One DB-100 rechargeable battery; AC-U1 USB power adapter

Battery life: *8

Approximately 300 shots with DB-100 (Off selected for Sleep Mode) *9

Dimensions (W × H × D):

100 mm × 55 mm × 21.3 mm

Weight:

Approx. 156 g (includes memory card and supplied battery)

Approx. 136 g (camera only)

Water and dust resistance:

Class 8 JIS/IEC water resistance, class 6 JIS/IEC dust resistance (IP68); can be used underwater to a depth of 3 m for up to 60 minutes at a time

Operating temperature:

0 °C to 40 °C

*1. VGA images only.

*2. Upper and lower limits vary according to shooting and flash mode.

*3. As measured by RICOH using a Panasonic PRO HIGH SPEED 8 GB SDHC Class 10 memory card. Frame rate and maximum number of frames vary with shooting conditions and with the type and condition of the storage de-vice.

*4. The options available vary with image size.

*5. Individual movies may be up to 4 GB in size or 29 minutes in length.

*6. Compatible with the Design Rule for Camera File System (DCF, a JEITA standard) and Digital Print Order Format (DPOF). Full compatibility with other devices is not guaranteed.

*7. Mass Storage is supported under Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OSX 10.1.2?10.6.6.

*8. Measured according to CIPA standard. For reference only; actual number of shots varies greatly according to how camera is used.

*9. Approximately 320 shots can be taken when 10 seconds is selected for Sleep Mode.