Retracting Lens System
Optical 4.8X Zoom Retractable in Slim 25mm Camera
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The Caplio R1 features high performance in low-profile 25mm body with wide 28 ~ 135mm optical 4.8X zoom lens. Zooming range is enhanced to 4.8X from 3.6X on the earlier model. This posed a serious problem to Ricoh's design team. The question was, how can you fit a powerful 4.8X optical zoom lens inside a 25mm slim camera?
Normally lens groups move back and forth in line with the movement of the lens barrel. This methodology works fine with up to 3-group lens structure. However, the Caplio R1's wide 28 - 135mm optical 4.8X zoom is structured with 9-lens in 4-group.
The design team finally came up with an ingeniously bright idea. When the lens retracts, one lens group swings out of the barrel inside the camera, just like a pendulum. Obviously this pendulum-like mechanism had to be designed with the utmost precision so that the lens group can swing back in exactly at the right position when in use. More over, the lens group's swing back motion must be performed within the blink of an eye, otherwise it causes delay in power-up time. These were quite challenging design and engineering issues.
Ricoh Caplio R1, featuring unique Retracting Lens system and 0.8sec start-up time, was put on the market in late 2004 with a great success.
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