Ricoh HZ-15 Announced

Ricoh HZ-15 Announced
August 2013, Carl Garrard

The blend of companies that is now "Ricoh" is starting to show fruit of the labor that merging creates. Ricoh now adorns the HZ-15, in a new camera that is Ricoh's first compact superzoom. It's got quite a spec sheet for a camera of this type, but certainly isn't alone in the world of superzoom compacts. Still, it's nice to see a Ricoh logo on a camera like this and I rather like the style. More on the HZ-15 below. This camera has been ignored in today's announcements, so I wanted to bring it to light for my readers. Ricoh UK published the press release, so it's apparently fair game! RICOH HZ-15 SEARCH

RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. is pleased to announce the launch of the RICOH HZ15 digital compact camera, featuring a compact, lightweight, easy-to-carry body; a high-magnification optical 15-times zoom lens; and a large 3.0-inch LCD monitor. Within a compact, go-anywhere body, this new model features a host of outstanding features, including an optical 15-times zoom lens with 24mm ultra-wide-angle coverage, high-resolution image capturing with 16 effective megapixels, a large, easy-toview 3.0-inch LCD monitor, and a sophisticated SR (Shake Reduction) mechanism. In addition, meticulous attention has been paid to every design detail, from the high-grade, glossy black coating to the easy-to-hold grip, enhancing the HZ15’s functional operations and stylish appearance.

Major Features

1. Optical 15-times zoom lens with 24mm wide-angle coverage

Within its compact, lightweight body, the HZ15 features a powerful optical 15-times zoom
lens covering focal lengths from 24mm wide-angle to 360mm super-telephoto (in the
35mm format). Thanks to this extra-wide zoom range, the HZ15 can capture beautiful,
lively images in a wide range of subjects and scenes — from spectacular landscapes to
fast-action sports events. It even offers macro photography at a minimum focusing
distance of just three centimeters from the subject.

2. State-of-the-art shake reduction mechanism

The HZ15 comes equipped with an innovative CCD-shift-type SR (Shake Reduction)
mechanism to deliver sharp, blur-free images even under camera-shake-prone shooting
conditions, such as when photographing in the telephoto range, in the dark with only
incident light, or for sunset scenes.

3. Exceptional image quality

With its 16 effective megapixels, the HZ15 captures well-defined, high-quality images with
extra-fine resolution. It also records beautiful HD-quality movie clips (at 1280 x 720 pixels).

4. Stylish, easy-to-hold body design

Every design detail of the HZ15, including the finish and texture of the camera body, has
been optimized for comfort, quality and operability. These include a glossy black coating
on the body, an easy-to-hold grip, and functionally laid-out control buttons and switches.

5. Large 3.0-inch LCD monitor

The HZ15 features a 3.0-inch LCD monitor with approximately 230,000 dots. This large
monitor provides a clear view of images and menus, so the photographer can quickly and
efficiently check the captured images and menu settings.

6. 20 Scene modes for easy capture of specific subjects and scenes

The HZ15 provides 20 distinctive Scene modes to automatically optimize all shooting
settings for a given scene or subject. With a simple choice of the icon corresponding to
the desired Scene mode, this handy feature allows the user to take beautiful, lively
images with minimal effort.

7. High-resolution, HD-quality movie recording with push-button start

The HZ15 captures beautiful, HD-quality movie clips (1280 x 720 pixels, 16:9 proportions,
approx. 30 frames per second).* Thanks to an independent movie recording button
provided on the camera’s top panel, the user can instantly switch to the movie recording
mode from any other shooting mode. The user can also take advantage of the
sophisticated Movie SR (Shake Reduction) mode to minimize annoying camera shake
during movie recording.
* When the HZ15’s AV output terminal is used, movie clips are output as normal image-size data. If the user wishes to play back movie clips at HD resolution (1280 x 720 pixels), the data must be transferred to a personal computer for playback.

8. Others

• In-body recharging system, for simple, mobile-phone-style battery recharging
• Compatibility with Eye-Fi wireless LAN SD memory cards
• Image viewing, editing and filing software included: MediaImpression 3.6.1 LE (Windows version compatible with Windows 8) and MediaImpression 2.2 LE (Macintosh version compatible with Mac OS X 10.8)

Handsome!