Ricoh Auto Shot
In honour of Ricoh purchasing the digital imaging business of Pentax from Hoya I present the Ricoh Auto Shot. 1960’s design, function and results, the later ensured by using a poor quality cheap film. The defining features of this camera are it’s two shutter speeds (1/30) of a second in manual mode and 1/125 in auto and that the film advance is accomplished by a clockwork spring. Unfortunately my spring is mostly noun and not so much verb, resulting in a single exposure for every wind instead of the much cooler 6 when it was new. The exposure adjustment is controlled by a selenium cell surrounding the 35mm f2.8 lens. The aperture blades come together to produce what I like to call batkeh, odd bat shaped highlights at some apertures.
It’s a small camera as you can see here when compared to a quarter. The shutter release is actually OK being in the front as your index finger naturally falls on top of it when you hold the camera up with both hands, there being no other way really to hold it and trip the shutter. The fastest setting is for ASA200 film which makes the 10 possible selections between 12 and 100ASA amusing. It’s a fun little camera and if I ever find myself time traveling to 1964 I will be sure to take it along.
