This is a bit of nostalgia really. The camera is no longer available new, and has been superceded in every way. Yet if there is a budding camera buff out there, who wants to learn the ropes with a good quality camera, hunt for one secondhand. You will learn how to use the SLR camera with joy, not spend too much in the process, and have a grasp of photography which will be a good foundation if you progress to a modern digital SLR - which is where the art is today.
The camera has the usual SLR facility for interchanging lenses, and I learned how lenses differ in quality as well as ability this way.
It has the full range of settings - from an automatic setting to make things dead easy, to all the varieties of speed and aperture that you can imagine.
It has that lovley shutter clunk that digitals are lacking, and no need for constant battery charging and replacing that make digitals annoying when you spot something that demands a photograph right away.
I've used all kinds of 35mm film in the Ricoh and have a preference for bulk Ektachrome, rolled on in small quantities. Producing one's own slides from such film in a little developing tank, gives an insight to the photographic process that is a learning curve all of its own.
The camera is heavy by modern standards - but just convince yourself that weight is quality in this type of situation.!
It has the usual facility for tripods, and flash, and all the range of colour and special effects filters. This is the system that allows for real creativity - not just standard digital alteration.
I use the digital snappers very happily - see review on FujiPix 610 - but that Ricoh was photography as real art.!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
(+) Fold out LCD screen, Image Stabilization, Zuiko lens quality, Picture quality, Flash options (-) Noise in low light, Too many buttons, Badly laid out, Too many gimmicks
I have semi automatic Pentax SLR, I just don’t seem to have that artistic flair when taking the pictures and digital is so much more economical. Jane x
icatsai 16.04.2005 22:15
I'll bet this guy is still going strong long after our digital Fuji's have run out of gas. Nothing beats a good quality 35mm SLR. Nice camera -- Arla
Deru 13.03.2005 05:27
Might sound like a dumb question but what's SLR? Photography's not really my forté.
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