With good build quality, well laid out (and sturdy-feeling) buttons and controls, as well as a capability to capture very good image quality, the Ricoh CX5 continues our love affair with Ricoh cameras. It's not a perfect camera, and some of its features could be improved (such as the tracking focus), but we feel it's a great compact for anyone who wants a big zoom, excellent macro capability and reasonably clear and vibrant photo quality. It includes features that we miss on other compact cameras, such as the electronic level, and even though it's bigger than most other compacts on the market, we just love how solid and well-balanced the Ricoh CX5 feels in our hands. The colour of our test model, however, is not something we're keen on - it's available in black, silver and pink.

Appealing design, great performance and a tempting price for advanced amateurs

The Ricoh CX5 is a little bigger than a typical compact camera, but it packs a versatile 10.7x zoom lens that's also great for macros. We love the CX5's build quality and controls, and its 3in screen is super-sharp and bright. It can take clear and vibrant photos for the most part, but its picture quality does suffer from some noise issues. Nevertheless, we still think it's still a great camera.