The Ricoh 500 is a Japanese rangefinder camera from the late 1950's that has been greatly under-rated. I wrote about that and posted some pictures about a year-and-a-half ago. I just got around to adding a page about the Ricoh 500 to my vintage cameras web site about the camera -- can't believe it has taken me so long.
I originally bought into the idea that the Riken Ricomat lens was of poor quality and I neglected the camera for a long time. Finally, I got around to properly adjusting the infinity focus and found that the lens is really a very fine performer. There are a couple more pictures from it on the web site, and there is also a slide show of shots from the camera which I recently moved to my Picassa web albums.
The Ricoh Five One Nine model was introduced a year after the 500. The f1.9 lens is reputed to be superior to the f2.8, though I'm not convinced there is such a great difference as has been alleged.
Ricoh is one of the oldest camera manufacturers in Japan; it was originally known as the Riken research institute.
4 comments:
Holy cow! Really nice photographs Mike. I've passed up quite a few of these at flea markets over the years. Good to know they have potential, but most I've seen look pretty rough. What a lens! Nice work.
Best regards, Jon
Thanks for the encouraging words. I guess I need to put another roll through the camera.
How did you adjust the infinity focus?
It has been a long time since I used or worked on the camera and my memory is pretty hazy about the whole thing.
Looking at the front I see there are three small set screws on the front ring of the lens. I'll guess that I got at the lens by romoving that ring and then there would likely be more set screws which hold the lens at its optimal focus position.
The general rule for such adjustments is that you set the focus ring to its infinity position and then turn the loosened lens so that an imiage focuses perfectly at the film plane. Then, you clamp the lens in that position with the set screws. You can focus the image on a ground glass at the film plane, but a more precise way is to focus through the front at a target at the film plane using an slr with its lens set to infinity. Mike Elek has a good description of the process.
If your camera has not previously been disassembled it is possible that the lens is not actually out of adjustment. You might just need to check the accuracy of the rangefinder. I see in looking at the front of mine that there is a small screw next to the big rf widnow which probably gives you access to an adjustment screw.
Sorry I can't give better instructions or illustrations at this point.
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