Tough as Nails - The Sturdy Ricoh G600
Previewed on 2 May 2008

It's always fun to go somewhere exotic, whether it's the waves of the beach, a snowy resort on a mountain or perhaps a wild sandy adventure in the African desert. The trouble with most of these spots is that they are also fairly dangerous places to be taking fragile gadgets such as cameras. But not for the Ricoh G600. Water resistant, shock resistant and dust resistant, the Ricoh G600 is a sturdy camera that can go the distance with you.

The Ricoh G600 has a shock resistant structure that means it can withstand a fall from up to 1.5m so unless you are Yao Ming, you don't have to worry about dropping it. You also don't have to worry about it crashing into sand and kicking it around in a dust storm. A little grit isn't going to worry this tough warrior. The G600 boasts a JIS protection grade six, which basically means, not even the tiniest grain of dust is going to wheedle its way into the body which is sealed tighter than Fort Knox, and don't fret about about getting wet either, not even a hurricane would worry the G600, it's water resistant to 1m underwater.

What use is a brawny body without some oomph underneath? So the G600 is coming prepared for some serious action. There's a 2.7-inch screen which will automatically adjust brightness depending on how dark it is. Flash is effective to up to 10m, so photos in the dark wouldn't be much of a worry, and in case you can't use the flash, the ISO ranges up to a nice 3200.

It's got a fantastic 5x optical zoom, fantastic because the zoom doesn't extend. Anyone who's ever dropped and broken the zoom mechanism will appreciate this feature. The optical zoom is equivalent to a 28-140mm lens and is wide angle, which means you can fit in more of any scene. Getting up close is no issue, as macro mode allows you to get as close as 1cm to the subject. Last but not least, the G600 has a nice 10 megapixels CCD sensor, which is more than enough for anyone to blow up their images into posters.

All of this is packed into a small body that weighs only 260g, which is pretty impressive. The armoured body alone would have been weighty without the gadgetry inside. The added perk the G600 can brag is the design of the body. Trying to take photos with normal cameras when you are wearing ski gloves can be a bit tricky when the buttons are so tiny. But the G600 has a nice sensible body with fairly easy to find, widely spaced buttons so you don't have to fumble around with big chunky gloved fingers. The Ricoh G600 is expected to make its debut around May 2008.