Ricoh's New Industrial-Strength, Heavy-Duty Tough-Guy Camera

Sure, this ugly-ass camera looks like it’s straight out of 2001, but it’s features are anything but old.

This $1,200 unsightly monster is not meant to take photos of your sister’s wedding. Unless your sister is a sasquatch, because this is an outdoorsman’s camera. It’s the kind of thing you’d take on safari, because it’s ruggedized and shock-proof. Or on a white-water rafting trip, because it’s waterproof. This is the camera Hemmingway would have taken to the slopes of Kilimanjaro, were he not dead and didn’t suck, as it’s temperature resistant and designed for use while wearing heavy gloves.

Not only is this 8-megapixel shooter with 3x optical zoom tougher than Vin Diesel at a sexually-ambiguous rodeo, but it’s also connected, with the ability to upload via built-in Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. You can also use one of the said wireless protocols to work with your GPS unit adding time and location stamping for simplified geotagging.

So go ahead, you bad dude, head to the North Pole with this Ricoh, and you’ll be able to prove you dropped your pants exactly where you said you did, in case the unfortunate frostbite doesn’t do the trick.

Ricoh 500SE [DPReview]