Ricoh - WG-80 16.0 Megapixel Waterproof Digital Camera - Black

Overall, the Ricoh WG-80 lacks quality in every aspect. Photo images: at 16MP I knew it was slightly lower than other similarly priced cameras, but the actual quality of the photos taken is sub 12MP. The images it was capturing were comparable to digital photos I was taking ten years ago. It just gets worse once you get to digital zoom. UI & Modes: the side scrolling mode selection gives you a sense of extended feature modes. In reality, they all lack appropriate functionality. It takes forever to get it to focus on closeup modes; I wasn't able to get any decent free-hand night shots, and sometimes auto mode would give the same shot taken a couple seconds apart with a red tint and others with a blue one. Last, the instruction manual does state that after a period of no use it goes into standby mode, but it's almost the same amount of time as turning it back on. Case/body: the only good comments are that the case does feel sturdy and provides a good grip, and that the battery life is also pretty good. I would only need to charge it after about four days of on and off use throughout each day. That being said, after the first day of being tossed into the sea, the front lense developed an outer ring outline. At first I thought it was water that had seeped in, but I think the water made the sealant stand out visually. Unfortunatelly, water did seep in. Even though I rinse with fresh water, after a few sea trips I could feel debris/salt under the power button and it became a hassle to turn it on/off. At that point water hadn't actually penetrated inside the camera, but about a about a month after purchase, the seal on the charging port failed completely. I let it dry and cleaned the ports, but the contact points were damaged and it was very difficult to charge after that. Last, as I was removing my SD card to start a claim, I saw that the seal around the battery compartment (there's one for the charging cable and another one for the battery/sd card) had also failed. In summary, I've purchased a few different waterproof cameras over the years. They've all been priced between 250 and 400 and would be considered good quality consumer cameras (not professional). This is not on par with any of them. If this is the intended quality of the images taken, then it's way over-priced even if disregarding the seal failures or waterproof feature. As a whole, there's just no quality built into this camera and I would definitely not recommend it to anyone.

I had to search for a while to figure out what was different between the WG80 and WG70. I was wanting a better image sensor, or brighter screen, or larger screen but all we got was a slightly better right light around the lens for macro mode and “advanced functionality”. So if you can buy the WG70 for cheaper just get it. It’s the same camera.

I used it in the swimming pool and it takes great pictures under the water.