Ricoh Caplio RR770

Ricoh has quietly launched the 7.16-megapixel Caplio RR770, a sleek new compact camera to succeed the budget Caplio RR750. The main draw is a giant 76mm (3-inch) LCD monitor, with a crisp 230,000-pixel resolution.

It has a 3x optical zoom and weighs 140g -- without batteries. AA batteries give the RR770 its potency, which means you should always be able to find replacements should you run out of juice.

Modes include the classics: auto, program, portrait, landscape, sports and night. Six scene modes doesn't sound like much, but we like it when manufacturers keep things simple. Having 32 scene modes is rather pointless when they include ones for photographing white boards and the like, and when half of them are just high ISO modes with a different name.

Having created what is, for our money, one of the best compact cameras around in the Caplio R7, Ricoh is clearly looking to make that compact goodness available to the budget end of the market. Although we're generally more demanding about features, the big screen and Ricoh pedigree mean we like this chap a lot. Pricing and availability are yet to be announced. -Rich Trenholm