The Film Retriever

I came across this cute little camera in a car boot sale. After a hard bargain, my wife bought it for £4. Matt Denton has a great website where you can find some more info about this camera. I never knew that Ricoh was making rangefinders in the 70's. It just looked so cute and the size was right so for £4 i couldn't go wrong. After i got the results back from the lab, i was blown away from the quality of the pictures this camera can take. The camera offers a fully manual and a speed preferred automation. That is quite convenient if you think that most compact rangefinders of that time offered full automatic (Konica C35) or shutter preferred mode (Yashica). A 1.3v PX675 mercury cell powers the CdS lightmeter which is reasonably accurate. Since the PX675 has been long discontinued, i use a 1.5v SR44 battery which requires to compensate with the ASA dial (expose the 400ASA film as 320ASA) for the difference in voltage. The rangefinder patch is nice and visible. On the...

Searching on the internet, i was surprised to see how few resources you can find about the Zeiss Ikon 518/16 which has been such a popular model during the '50s. After working for almost half a year with my Zeiss, i thought that maybe it would be a good idea to write my own personal review about this great performer. I got this one as part of an exchange deal in a price that i feel ashamed to write. The guy sold me a Agfa Box camera which didn't work properly and since it was still in warranty i decided to give a couple of pounds extra and go for it. And i am glad i did. The camera seems to be in a very good condition. Size wise it is in the same league with the Zenit 12XP when unfolded but fold it up and you can put it in your coat's pocket. And that's not all. I am not exactly sure about the difference in weight, but it does feel much less heavy that the mighty Zenit. And remember, this is a 6X6 medium format camera. The lens on the camera is a 75mm - f/4.5 Nettar c...