Wide-angle compact zooms

[Elle]

I'm looking for light, small, as wide-angle as possible and zoom. My current first choice is the Canon Powershot S70, with the Fuji Finepix E510 as a possibility. I've now seen references to the Ricoh Caplio R1 and R1V but they don't seem to have been reviewed and are mentioned only rarely. Does anyone have information on these and how do they rate?

[PeterB666]

I'm looking for light, small, as wide-angle as possible and zoom. My current first choice is the Canon Powershot S70, with the Fuji Finepix E510 as a possibility. I've now seen references to the Ricoh Caplio R1 and R1V but they don't seem to have been reviewed and are mentioned only rarely. Does anyone have information on these and how do they rate?
The Ricoh Caplio R1V has only just been announced. I doubt it is even in the shops yet.

The R1 has been around for a little while and seems a reasonble camera. Probably the best of the Ricoh cameras as far a picture quality go. Other than the change to 5mp, I don't think there are any other changes with the R1V.

You can find reviews of the R1 at:
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/camera/review/26/page_1.html
http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews_ricoh_caplio_r1.php
http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/fullreview.php?reviewId=738
http://www.itreviews.co.uk/h675-ricoh-caplio-r1-review.htm

Strong points are good zoom range, small size, very fast shutter response, looks good, AA batteries.

Weak points are lens a little slow at the wide angle end, very poor flash range, some elements of style over function with controls.

By comparison, the Fuji F510 is somewhat bulky and lacks slower shutter speeds, lens is slow at the telephoto end but it is cheap and has a big LCD (but it does not gain up in low light). The Canon S70 is expensive and the shutter could respond faster (Note even the S60 is more exensive that those two).

The Ricoh is auto only, where as the Canon and Fuji cameras have full manual operation.

[Elle]

Thanks for the review addresses. I've dropped the Fuji from the list and am now down to the Canon S70 or the Ricoh Caplio R1(V). I understand the Caplio lens reassembles itself each time it's used and wonder how stable that would be over the longer term. I'd love to hear from anyone who has owned and used one. The price is attractive and the 28-135 range appealing. The images seem a little less sharp than Canon's, but it appears that this is fixable with photoshop. I'm still dithering.