I’ve posted a detailed hands-on review of the Ricoh WG-50 separately. The short version is that it’s a waterproof, crushproof, freeze proof, and dustproof, all in a compact package. And it’s competitively priced.
It’s one of a category of cameras I call adventure cams in that they’re ready for pretty much anything, as comfortable below the water as above it, and still offer the kinds of image quality and features that you’d expect from a standard compact camera.
So here’s a small collection of sample images taken with a WG-50 under various conditions and with different kinds of scenes. The camera produces JPGs at up to 16MP with dimensions of 4608 x 3456 pixels.
These have been imported into Lightroom, but for nearly all of them the processing is only with a very light touch. The ones of the icebergs have a little more processing mostly to make the most of the detail in the highlights. You can click on each image to open a full-size version for a closer look.
Photos Taken with a Ricoh WG-50 Waterproof Camera

This shot isn’t as sharp as it could be, suffering from some camera shake. Photo taken with a Ricoh WG-50 at ISO 125 at ¹⁄₄₅ sec at f/3.5.

In this low-light shot of part of the harbor of Copenhagen at night you can see some very aggressive noise suppression. Photo taken with a Ricoh WG-50 at ISO 6400 at ¹⁄₂₀ sec at f/3.5.

A shot taken while kayaking along the face of a glacier in Svalbard. Photo taken with a Ricoh WG-50 at ISO 125 at ¹⁄₁₂₅₀ sec at f/4.2.

With the combination of low light and similar tones, this is a good example the extraordinary amount of noise reduction that’s applied to high-ISO images. It’s quite overpowering in this shot and well beyond what I’d normally consider usable. Photo taken with a Ricoh WG-50 at ISO 1600 at ¹⁄₂₅ sec at f/3.5.

This shot is useful to test two things: the sharpness at the corners and the amount, if any, of chromatic aberration. Photo taken with a Ricoh WG-50 at ISO 125 at ¹⁄₂₀₀ sec at f/4.2.

With its many high-contrast edges, ths shot is a good test of both sharpness and chromatic aberration at the corners. You can see it’s a bit soft at the corners and there’s some chromatic aberration (purple fringing), although neither is overpowering. Photo taken with a Ricoh WG-50 at ISO 125 at ¹⁄₄₀₀ sec at f/4.2.

With a top shutter speed of 1/4000, there’s plenty of room to move for very bright scenes in sunlight and snow and ice. Photo taken with a Ricoh WG-50 at ISO 125 at ¹⁄₁₅₀₀ sec at f/4.2.

Another example of the very aggressive noise reduction on high-ISO images. Photo taken with a Ricoh WG-50 at ISO 4000 at ¹⁄₄₅ sec at f/3.5.

Another example of the very high amount of noise reduction that’s applied in camera to the JPGs at high ISOs. Photo taken with a Ricoh WG-50 at ISO 1600 at ¹⁄₂₀ sec at f/3.5.

In macro mode the usable image size drops down to 2MP and the aspect ratio switches to 16:9. Photo taken with a Ricoh WG-50 at ISO 800 at ¹⁄₁₂₅ sec at f/3.8.
Buy At
You can find the Ricoh WG-50 at the usual photography retailers, including B&H Photo, Adorama, and Amazon.
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