my cameras – Ricoh 500G
This is the first of a series of blogs describing my cameras. Here is a list of them, in order of age (oldest first, and as near as I can guess):
- Ricoh 500G (film)
- Yashica FX-3 (film)
- Olympus XA2 (film)
- Olympus is1000 (film)
- Pentax Espio (film)
- “no-name” throwaway panorama camera (film)
- Fuji Finepix s5600 (digital)
Ricoh 500 G
This is a camera from the early 1970s. I bought it soon after our arrival as immigrants in Australia in 1973. So it is about 35 years old. Prior to that, in our 5 years in Africa, I used an increasingly dilapidated Konica. Eventually, with the lens held on with sticky tape (but still fully functional), I thought I should replace it and so bought this little Ricoh. (I don’t have the Konica any longer.)
Like many cameras of these days, the Ricoh is fully manual or shutter-priority automatic, you either set the aperture to A for auto or manually select the shutter speed/aperture combination. It performed very nicely, giving good sharp pictures, with good colour reproduction and accurate light reading.
I used it for many years, although I was not seriously into photography in these days. For a casual photographer, it had the advantages of versatility, compactness, ease of use, reliability. It was fun to use. I cannot remember what it cost, but I think it was good value. I bought it from one of my golfing partners, who had a photographic shop – he gave me a bit of a discount.
Been a bit of a pause here while I dug it out to have a look at it. Suspect the exposure meter is on the blink, so I will put a film in it and get it a fling. I would hate to have to throw it out but if it is not going to work for me that is the thing to do. No doubt I could send it to a camera repair shop but – why? Only for sentimental reasons and there is a limit.
Also the exposure counter no longer works, Not such a big problem as you can usually have a feeling of how much of the film you have used. Again, probably easily fixed, more so than the exposure meter, but …
So, I will test it out and report back.
Filed under: photography | 11 Comments
Tags: old camera, photography, ricoh, ricoh 500G
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Funny, I just bought this camera from the Salvos in Gosford for $3, seems to be working fine, I’m taking it out to take some photos down in Sydney tomorrow.
Have you tried replacing the battery for the exposure metre? Apparently 1.4v hearing aid batteries can be used, as the original (1.3v) is hard to get these days.
So pleased you bought it – it’s a little beauty, you should have fun with it. Yes, I think I tried replacing the battery, but I’ll check it again.
Adam
simen: thanks so much for the comment, I will recheck the battery, maybe just pop a new one in. Thanks for your interest.
I’d be interested to hear how yours performs for you – I love mine and it does a great job.
Best wishes.
i have this camera
How many times I just wished I had a small camera in my pocket and leave all those heavy MF equipment or AF everything cameras at home.
Today me and my wife went to a car-boot sale and I found this camera for £4.50 (eventually bought for £4 without the flash). Unfortunately my sample seems to have had a very hard life, the self timer is broken, with many scratches and the light seals need to be replaced.
I will replace them and use it, i like alot it’s small size and it’s rugged feeling.
So pleased you bought it, hope you get it working OK, it’s fun to use. if you can get it repaired at not too great expense, I am sure it will serve you well.
Adam
I just bought one of these from Ebay for £12.50. I bought an adapter to allow me to use type 392 1.55v silver oxide hearing aid batteries @99p a go, it steps the voltage down to 1.35 v like the original mercury batteries. I got my adapter from the Small Battery Company for £27.50; I know it’s pricey but I have a number of cameras that use the original SR44’s so it should (eventually) make financial sense.
However, whilst the camera is in good nick the foam seals have turned to black tar. That means I am going to have a fair bit of work to do to remove the old gunky seals and replace them with new ones. The good thing is it looks like a nice, solid piece of kit which will hopefully give me years of good service.
Andrew
I am sure you will find it worthwhile, mine has been just great – can’t believe it was 30+ years ago that I bought it!
Thanks for your comments, interesting.
Adam
I just resealed mine using the Jon Goodman pre cut kit from Interslice, on eBay. Works perfectly, is easy and costs $12 US.
Lou, thanks for the comment and the information on seals – I’ll bear that in mind. Problem fixed for you for little cost. I wish I had the money to get that exposure meter fixed but then I remember that in my old days as a teenager back in the 1950s, all I had to judge exposure was a little table on the side of the box the film came in and I didn’t do so bad!