This is the second post of the CX1 review series. Instead of the usual unexciting reviews (a bottle of unduly fermented red wine immediately spring to mind), I will do the review posts in a photographic journal sort of writing.
This is how: I will write about how I used the camera in a real life situation, supplemented with some verdicts on the review items which are focusing, flash and high ISO IQ for this post.
^The signboard dimly lit by a flashlight could be a non-starter for auto focusing, but it obviously posed no problem to the Multi-AF mode of the CX1.
On one hot summer night, I tripped to a secondary forest with friends here in Hong Kong. That was when a serious compact user might prefer taking along a point-and-shooter which suits the rough environment better and offers some manual controls at the same time. And, more importantly, it is cheaper in case a damage occurs. This is a reason why I proposed the price factor to be pivotal to serious compact users’ consideration of a secondary P&S .
So, I took the CX1, which fitted nicely in the pocket of my pants.
^This is a larva of the territorial firefly
The secondary forest, literally known as Tai Po Pine Garden, was a 45 minutes coach ride away from the city. For one thing, it is not remotely located and for another, Hong Kong is linked up by a very efficient highway system. The place was barely vegetated for a few years after the Japanese invasion army chopped all the woods for their military supply during the WWII. It was the British colonial government which ordered replanting of the area.
The forest got the name because it was overhung with pine trees when the replanting was done. Soon, an invasion of bugs wiped off the pine trees. That is why the forest is known as Pine Garden but the woods are of a wide variety.
The bushwalking was far on a novice to intermediate level. All participants were ordered not to turn on the flashlight unless it was necessary. That said, all flashlights were required to be covered by a piece of translucent red paper. The reason? All of us wished to spot the insects at dark.
^Another larva of the same kind was spotted.
For a moment I doubted if the CX1 could focus in this almost pitch-black setting. It was not until the CX1 took the first photo did I sigh a sigh of relief. Its AF auxiliary light was very effective for that matter. The photo of the larva in the palm was blurry because of my shaky hands holding the camera in an awkward position, not because of any issue with the AF.
The CX1 boasts (yes, Ricoh can really boast that) an array of focusing mode, from multi-AF, spot AF, multi-target AF, MF, snap and infinitive (plus Ricoh’s trusty AF macro and useful AF shift of course ). As far as I have tried it, these focusing mode works very well in various focal length of the lens, except for the multi-target AF which I haven’t really tested it.
According to Ricoh, the CX1 uses a more advanced AF algorithm and therefore responses more rapidly in focusing, notably in low light. I can testify to the claim because my GX200 has been consistently outperformed by it. There is one very suspicious point in that on several occasions when the lens was zoomed to 135mm, the lens slightly retracted upon locking the focus which was then lost. The issue doesn’t happen every time and can be attributed to other than the camera's problem. But, anyway, note this if you have a chance to try out a CX1 or CX2 at a shop before buying it.
^The larva was having a sumptuous French dinner, a snail! It injected some poisonous secretion into the snail to compel it out of the shell. We had to be very lucky to spot this and I, turned on the flash of the camera, took this picture in no time.
An hour after the bushwalk started, the team came to a place when some fireflies showed their intriguing twin neon-green signals from one tree to another. The team leader being a wildlife expert paused, climbing up a slope, and got something in his palm. It was a larva of the territorial firefly ready to feed on a snail several times its size.
Every one of us was fascinated by the find as young children did by new toys on the rack. Before long, people were squatting around the scene of insectile murder. It was when the long reach of the CX1's lens could come to the rescue.
I had tried to observe the unnecessary-light-off rule but was unable to get a clear shot. So I bent a bit, adjusted the flash output and shot the photo.
For most long-zoom cameras of its class, the flash output is adjustable for 2 EV up and down in 1/3 increments. As far as CX1 is concerned, the flash results in photos outdo those 
of the GX200 and probably the GRDII. It is exceptional that the CX1 focuses swiftly and fires the flash to get a very evenly and winsomely lit image.
>This is an extra picture to show to the photography tyros the usefulness of adjustable flash output. Otherwise, the face would have been blown out.
>This shows the strength of the SIE engine. The shot was done in a split second when the lady walked past me and stopped less than 1m from the lens. I didn't adjust the flash output. In a circumstance like this, I would expect either the subject to be out of focus or blown out by the flash or the background be rendered pitch-black. I was totally impressed by the result.
I have reasoned that this could be an advantage of the new SIE IV engine. Ricoh says that the engine has a specialised circuit analysing the image by breaking it down into small areas. The effect is primarily to give the white balance of each area the due temperature correction, best suited for multiple light sources.
^A toad in its hiding place. Taken with the flash on and output dialled down.
So for the rest of the night we also saw some larvae of the aquatic firefly. But they were tinier and less dramatic in its flashing lights. On our way back to the starting point, we were greeted by some toads in their hiding places nestled on the vegetated slope. Then the team leader caught a tree frog.
^A tree frog caught by the team leader. Shot in colour in macro AF mode.
The tree frog reminded me of the green frog Kermit of Sesame Street. It was not green and I shot the picture in colour anyway. When viewing the image on the computer screen, I became hopefully: the next Ricoh camera will fare much better in high ISO. Now that we know the GRDIII is doing great in as high as ISO1600, much better than LX3's according to the samples posted by Pavel on ricohforum.com.
^100% crop of the above photo.
(to be continued)
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