[Recovered Thread: 46046]

[blr]

Looks like the new Rollei dr5 which is to be introduced shortly is nothing more than rebadged Caplio R1v Have a look here

http://www.pma-show.com/rollei/dr5.html



Interesting though the camera is listed as recording 640x480 pixels video @ 30fps. Wonder if R1v is the same.

Rollei si a well respected German manufacturer. Putting their name on a Ricoh camera should mean that these Caplios are good.

[dmau58]

It seems to be the policy of Rollei to sell under their own name digicams already produced under other names. They already did it with Ricoh, selling the Caplio GX as Rollei DR 5100, and the Kyocera Finecam M410 became Rollei DK 4010.

In both cases, the lens bears the name D Vario Apogon. Do they replace the original lens by their own one, or do they just change the name as well? I have not yet read test reports of these Rollei digicams in order to compare them with the tests of the original brand.

[snappy]

Rollei and Ricoh have had an OEM deal before. Ricoh produced a great 35mm P&S called the GR1. There were other model variations too. Rollei rebadged them using their own name.

As for replacing the lens.....never happened.... The only thing replaced was the name, BTW you paid more for the Rollei name.

I have read reviews where comments like "The lens in the Rollei is sharper" and laughed.... Same lens. It's funny how a good name can produce better results with the same equipment. But to be fair, photography is a subjective art.

[snappy]

Just went and had a peek at that Rollei link.


It's OEM.....It's a Ricoh.

[blr]

One thing that appears different in the specs is the movie mode. The Rollei is listed as having 640x480 @ 30 fps movie while the R1v does only 320x240 as far as I know, so perhaps the camera is slightly tweaked

[davej]

blr wrote:

Rollei si a well respected German manufacturer. Putting their name on a Ricoh camera should mean that these Caplios are good.

Rollei certainly was a well-respected manufacturer, as were Minox and Voigtländer, but they all seem to have been reduced to trading on their past glories and rebranding other companies' products. E.g. see this review of the Konica Minolta E40:

http://www.digicamreview.co.uk/konic...e40_review.htm

"The Konica Minolta Dimage E40 is also known as the BenQ DC E43, Minox DC4211, Premier DC4331, Rollei Prego dp4200, Centon DC4s, Voigtländer Virtus D4, Maginon Slimline X4, and so on... It is believed that Premier manufacture these 'OEM' cameras for other companies to re-badge/bundle etc."

If the review is to be believed, the E40 is a competent but unremarkable camera offering average image quality. So I don't think it's safe any longer to rely on the Rollei name as a guarantee of high quality, which is a shame. Which is not to say that the Ricoh R1v is not a good camera, it may well be.

One thing that has put me off Ricohs is reports of mechanical problems, e.g. faults developing with zoom mechanisms. One review of the R1 found the lens cover mechanism to be unreliable:

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/fullrev...p?reviewId=738

I'd be interested to hear Ricoh owners' reliability reports, both positive and negative.

[blr]

I've been using my Ricoh R1 for 4 months now and didn't experience any mechanical problems-works very well.

[snappy]

DaveJ, you nailed it when you suggested Rollei are trading on their name.

Some of their current line up look like budget priced Vivitar cameras that were OEM ex-Premier.


As for the Caplio RV1....if Ricoh did not use a bigger CCD then you'd be better off buying the smaller 4 megapix R1. Because the more room the pixels have on the CCD the better.

[celsius]

:!:On the Rollei site, select News->Press Release->Jan 2005 - 2and you will see that the video support is only 320x240...

http://www.rollei.de/index_e.html

Specifications
Rollei dr5
Sensor: 1/2.5" CCD, 5 megapixels
Image resolution: 2560 x 1920, 2048 x 1536, 1280 x 960, 640 x 480 pixels (dr5)
Video clips: QuickTime Motion, JPG;320 x 240 pixels, 160 x 120 pixels (30 fps)
Storage media: SD or MM cards
Internal memory: 12 MB
Recording formats: JPEG (EXIF 2.2), TIFF, DPOF, AVI
Loudspeaker and microphone built in
Lens: D-VarioApogon 4.6-22mm f/3.3-4.8 HFT(equivalent to approx. 28 – 135 mm in 35mm photography)
Zoom ranges: 4.8x optical, 3.6x digital
Focusing: Autofocus or manually
Focusing range: Autofocus, 30 cm to infinity
Macrofocusing: 1 cm to 13 cm
Shutter: Controlled mechanically and electronically;
8 s to 1/2000 s, auto
1/30 s to 1/2000 s (video)
ISO sensitivity: Automatic or manual control; equivalent to ISO 64, 100, 200, 400, 800
Exposure metering: Evaluative, center-weighted average and spot metering
Exposure control: Programmed AE
Exposure compensation: Manual; max. +/- 2.0 EV in 1/3 increments
Shooting modes: Single frames and continuous
White balance: Auto, manual; sun, cloudy, tungsten, fluoresecent
Flash: Auto, off, red-eye-reduction autoflash, red-eye-reduction fill flash, slow sync
Flash range: 0.20 m – 2.70 m (W), 0.13 m – 2.10 m (T)
Viewfinders: Optical viewfinder and LCD monitor
LC monitor: 1.8" TFT LCD monitor (110,000 pixels)
Self-timer: 2s or 10s delay
Interfaces: USB, video (NTSC, PAL), audio, AC
PictBridge compatible
Power supply: 2x size AA alkaline batteries (1.5V), 2x size AA NiMH or nicad batteries (1.2V), 1x lithium-ion battery, AC adapter (optional)
Tripod socket: 1/4"
Dimensions (mm/wxhxd) 100 x 55 x 25
Weight: approx. 150 g (without batteries and SD card)
Camera kit: Rollei dr5, USB and video cables, standard batteries, wrist strap, driver CD, operating instructions, brief instructions



Too bad... that would 640 would have been great.

Chad

[bilcho]

I've been a Ricoh owner since 1998, when I was fortunate enough to acquire a GR1. Of the dozen or so cameras I've owned, (including Minolta, Konica, Nikon, Pentax, Fuji and Canon) it is still the best. Build quality is superb, optical design is almost perfect, and importantly, it is exceptionally easy to use and has been 100% reliable. But maybe that's what you get for paying 400US for a fixed lens 35mm compact.

With this in mind,I have no hesitation in saying that Ricoh are capable of producing cameras to match anything (and I mean ANYTHING) on the market.

Whether the RV1 is cut from the same block remains to be seen.

What you say about OEM (and ODM) is exactly right. A lot of manufacturers design and manufacture (ODM) or just make (OEM) camera, which then appear under different names. Ability and Premier are major Taiwanese manufacturers, and Sanyo is also a successful ODM producer, but I have heard that Canon is also getting in on the act.

Interestingly, in the late nineties, Ricoh was also in the compact camera ODM business; its major client was Nikon.