PHOTO QUALITY. This 16-megapixel waterproof and rugged camera captured images with merely fair quality. We judged this model very good for outdoor performance, such as shooting landscapes in the daytime; fair for indoor performance, such as photographing a well-lit basketball game in a gym;
FLASH. The WG-30W captured flash shots that were good. In our distance test, we found the camera's flash could illuminate most subjects that are closer to the camera, but had some problems with distant subjects. The flash also has very good, even coverage.
LENS. This camera includes a 5x zoom lens, bit more zoom than a standard 3x. The lens also has wide-angle (28mm) capability that's useful for landscapes and group portraits, although you may notice a bit of distortion when you're shooting faces up close, for instance.
IMAGE STABILIZATION. This is an important feature; taking hand-held shots at the telephoto end of the zoom range can generally blur or soften images due to the slight movement of your hands. Shooting telephoto in well-lit scenes, this model did a good job of minimizing the effects of camera shake. In low-light settings, its performance was fair and often produced blurry photos. Overall, the shake reduction results from our tests were fair.
SPEED. In terms of performance, the Ricoh WG-30W powers up very quickly. It has a short interval between shots, which can be important when shooting fast-moving or unpredictable subjects.
VIDEO. The Ricoh WG-30W takes good video. It captures full HD video at 1920 x 1080. As for sound, it captures good audio in mono.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS. It has a small 2.6-inch LCD, which has good quality that lets you compose your shots and has decent playback of photos and video.
