I admit visual is my first reason to buy a camera or not. It doesn’t have to be good looking as in beautiful or anything, it could be funny, ugly, or anything. I like all Ricoh’s camera, except for the SLR’s, because the SLR’s are not that attractive for me. When I first spotted this camera, she was in the first row inside the display box at ABC road in Bandung.
The first thing that came in my mind was what a weird camera she is. With a huge built-in flash, almost as big as it’s whole body. Not proportional at all I thought. I knew other Ricoh’s half frame camera at the time, without the flash of course. And the lines are very clean, simple and it’s just beautiful just by looking at it. Everybody would’ve agreed that that camera is such a doll. But not this one.
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Well, her weirdness caught me though. It took me quite a long time to feel her. She did felt good in my hands, the flash is working just fine. No problems at all. And what surprised me is that the film transport is automatic! Not all the time though, most of the time when I take her for a walk I still had to crank it manually, but out of nowhere the auto film transport just worked, up to 12 – 30 frames. The camera back was, what can I say, pretty much, well.. very rusty.
The black enamel finish wear off, and it doesn’t feel smooth in your hands, but its fine by me. Oh, the self timer knob is also broken, but it was replaced with some, I don’t know, some screw cover for other camera. It fits just fine. It took me quite a long time too bargain with the price, then the salesman finally let me pay 85,000 IDR (9 USD) for her. I smiled all the way home that day.
Since I never use a half frame camera before got her, it feels like a never ending journey, a long road, and a long time to finish just one roll of film with her. 72 frames. She’d be a great companion for travelling I say. A small (but not that small) and compact camera with loads of exposures to make. I like how the subject in the image gets a glowy effect when the flash is being used. I like how (not so) simple she is too. I like the film crank knob and the film rewind lever is placed in the bottom plate of the camera. I love the fact that she’s using two AA batteries (you can’t use her without batteries). Very easy to find and cheap too. In the end, I love her a lot!
