Ricoh Caplio 500SE

Although the information has been floating around for a while now, Ricoh has officially introduced its first GPS-ready digital camera, the 8 million pixel 500SE, in Europe today. The 500SE's integrated precision GPS module provides an easy- to-use device for geo-coding images and video at the time of capture. It is capable of transferring images via Bluetooth or Wifi and receiving NMEA data streams from external GPS devices via the built-in Bluetooth radio. It features the same 28mm wide zoom, 2.5-inch LCD and waterproof / shock-resistant body as the 500G, announced last year.

A purpose-built digicam for the construction and resource industries that can also be used by adventurous photographers.Although neither the smallest nor sleekest-looking 8-megapixel digicam on the market, Ricoh's Caplio 500SE is nevertheless a very interesting camera. For starters, it has been designed to meet the needs of a very specific target market: outdoor photographers who need to keep track of where shots were taken and photographers who use map-based workflows. Design features that tailor this otherwise fairly standard digicam to meet these requirements include a robust camera body with all-weather usability and the addition of a Bluetooth radio module that can receive NMEA data streams from external GPS devices.

While it has its share of flaws, the combination of rugged, waterproof design with GPS capabilities and an 8 megapixel sensor makes the Ricoh Caplio 500SE an attractive proposition for outdoors photographers.

Ricoh is billing its 500SE bar-code camera as a time-saving enterprise mobility solution. The Test Center takes a look.