Back in late June, with only days remaining before my employer closed the local office, thrusting all of us into work-from-home status, a coworker and a former boss cleaned the cameras out of their closets and brought them to me. From the former boss, a Casio Exilim S20 (2 megapixel, fixed lens digital camera from …
Category Archives: Gear
1970s Ricoh Compacts, part 4: the Sears 35|RF
The Sears 35|RF (not to be confused with the Sears 35rf) is a black only, Sears-branded clone of the Ricoh 500 G. This is the camera that started it all, it being the superlative 40mm f/2.8 Rikenon.
Decisive Moment? We don’t need no stinking decisive moments! (A Minolta Freedom Action Zoom 90 review)
Dear God, stop me before I buy another 90s point and shoot. Sure, I know many people find excellent, amazing, unbelievably stupendous cameras for half of nothing at various thrift stores, but I don’t,* and the Minolta Freedom Action Zoom 90 (aka the Freedom Zoom Traveler, Riva Zoom 90, and Freedom Zoom 90) is no …
1970s Ricoh Compacts, part 3: the Ricoh 500 ME
The Ricoh 500 ME is the last of the line, with all of the advancements of previous models, and all of the bells and whistles Ricoh could cram into it, while still being pretty much the same fixed lens, shutter priority rangefinder that started the line.
1970s Ricoh Compacts, part 2: the Sears 35rf
The Sears 35rf (not to be confused with the Sears 35|RF) is a Sears-branded variant of the Ricoh 500 RF, a compact rangefinder from 1980, and one of the last in the line of cameras that began with 1972’s 500 G. Like other cameras in the series (and I’m going to tire of writing this), …
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1970s Ricoh Compacts, part 1: the Ricoh 35 ZF
The Ricoh 35 ZF is a zone focus, shutter priority (and full manual) 35mm camera from 1976. With a 40mm f/2.8 lens, shutter speeds from 1/500 to 1/8 (plus B), and an ISO range of 25-800, there isn’t too much to worry about: set the shutter speed (1/250 or 1/500 in daylight), put the aperture …
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Enter the Konica Wai Wai
Somehow, I’ve managed to be on Twitter at just the right time, twice, to catch generous offers from Dan K: first for a giveaway, through which I scored a bunch of different black & white films, some disposables, and some other stuff; the second to score 1 of 4 reloaded Konica Wai Wai disposables… I …
