Inside Story

When the R8 digital camera was announced in February 2008, it was met with both shock and welcome. That's because it didn't carry the "Caplio" family name. As Ryo Fukui, who directed planning for the R8, tells, "'Caplio' sounds like something 'cute' or 'sweet'. But, that wasn't what we wanted. We sharpened our concepts and gave it just an inorganic code to bring the idea of a 'tool for taking pictures" to the forefront."

He adds, "The concept we pursued was an 'expanded photographic scope.'" Looking for a shorter release time lag has always been a task, but in 2003, they brought a 28 mm wide-angle lens to a compact digital camera. Then, in 2005, they incorporated a 7.1x wide-angle zoom. Fukui tells, "We tried to expand the photographic range from both a time axis of 'nimbly pulling out the camera and taking pictures" and a space axis of "macro, wide-angle and zoom shots'. We wanted to convey those concepts to users more straightforwardly and more simply."

Shigeki Takeuchi of the sales strategy group noted, "The 'RICOH' brand became clearer when we stripped the 'Caplio' name." The lineup of the RICOH brand has been established via the 'GR Series' of fixed 28 mm focal distance cameras for professional use, the 'GX Series' for amateurs who enjoy taking pictures, and the 'R Series' for photo lovers who want take pictures everyday and post them on blogs, etc. So, where will the R8 be positioned in all of that?