Meh, lack of raw and slow glass make it a no-no at that price.

I am too used to being able to recover shadow/highlight detail now, and shoot handheld in less than floodlit conditions. You expect an awful lot of camera for that price, these days, competition is stiff.

I like scones in general, but the best were at the canteen of my last job. They looked exactly like the one in the sample shot. One of the few things from that job I really miss.

For low light shooting and solid dynamic range, the Ricoh GR DIgital 3 is nothing short of stunning- even if it does cheat by effectively having a prime lens..

A bit of a specialist/niche compact, but really rather nice..

"For low light shooting and solid dynamic range, the Ricoh GR DIgital 3 is nothing short of stunning- even if it does cheat by effectively having a prime lens.."

"Effectively"? It's a 6mm f/1.9 prime lens. No "effectively" about it, unless you mean in the sense that "it has a prime lens and this makes it an effective camera".

There is clearly a horses for courses argument here.

A compact camera is designed to be a simple to operate, point and shoot device. It should be intuitive in use where any user control is needed, and user control should ideally be kept to a minimum.

The target market is someone who wants a simple camera and will probably not be interested or know about the technicalities.

These requirements do not mean that there is no need for enhanced features, just that they should be deployed in an intuitive manner that is easily understood by the novice, or possibly even deployed automatically. Providing a superb picture is the goal.

If you require the versatility of RAW format, you understand why you want it and you have the programs to get the most out of it (Photoshop et al) then you don't need a compact camera, with all the restriction in capability the design and the small sensor gives.

This sort of criticism is as relevant as saying that the only problem with a £2000 Nikon DSLR is that it wouldn't fit in a shirt pocket.

Reading between the lines it would seem that there is plenty of scope to criticise the intuitive nature of the interface - simply apply the mother in law test!

@ Andrew Moore - I've got one and yes it does has face detection and red eye removal. ;)

If your into diving I bought this camera and the underwater housing for £370. Seems to work very well.

http://www.waterfrontscuba.com/acatalog/Fuji_Digital_Cameras_and_Underwater_Housings.html

JH

"If you require the versatility of RAW format, you understand why you want it and you have the programs to get the most out of it (Photoshop et al) then you don't need a compact camera, with all the restriction in capability the design and the small sensor gives."

You've been living under a stone for the last few years then, yeah?

In P Mode, when you set image size to M (6mp), you will be able to use DR400 while using ISO100. If you are not in 6MP mode then you are not taking advantage of the EXR hardware capabilities of the sensor. The big advantage here is that you can take full advantage of 400% DR without any increase in noise (higher ISO). Even in DR Mode (if set to M - 6MP) you can go to DR800 in ISO200.

When setting image size to L (12mp) the DR is achieived by increasing ISO. This is a software solution and is not any different that what many other cameras are capable of. This also introduced more noise. I believe this is what the review did based on his commment of ISO increasing when using higher DR.