Ricoh’s new CX5 compact is virtually identical to the CX4 it replaces. There is one new feature, though, that alone makes the camera worth mentioning: “hybrid” autofocus.
First, the things that have stayed the same. The CX5 keeps the 10MP backlit sensor, the 28-300mm (35mm equivalent) sensor, the 3-inch, 920,000-dot screen and of course the same slim body.
Hybrid AF works by adding in a distance sensor to the AF mix. This assists the contrast-detection AF found in all compacts and — according to Ricoh — shrinks the minimum focus time down to 0.2 sec, whether you’re shooting zoomed out, or all the way in to 300mm. That’s pretty fast.
Back when film compacts first gained AF, they all worked this way, as there was no sensor with which to detect contrast. An infra-red beam was shot out at the subject and its return time was measured to determine distance. Think sonar, only with light. This, as you can imagine, was less than completely accurate – it could be fooled by including the sun in the frame, or by shooting through glass. It could, however, focus in the dark.
The CX5 has another “feature”: Super-resolution. This is software-based image processing that claims to enable “amazing photographs with high resolution” but which is little more than smart sharpening. Seeing as you can only shoot JPEG and not RAW files, this may actually prove useful.
Price and availability are yet to be announced, but as a guide, the street-price of the CX4 is around $300.
