ZDP-189
New Member
My primary reasons for buying this camera were my love of Ricoh cameras, the convenient simplicity of 1970's rangefinders and to be able to add a multi-exposure feature to my collection of cameras with notably quirky features.
Besides this, the camera doesn't really distinguish itself from the run of the mill 40/2.8 rangefinders that were so common at the time, which is probably why the 500 series doesn't make most people's list of legendary cameras. A QL17 GIII or 35SPN it isn't. Nevertheless, Ricoh's engineers made the most of a limited budget and produced a capable package. The plastic construction with aluminium shell is rigid and light. For outdoor shooting it's fast and intuitive and the aperture and shutter range can handle all outdoor and most indoor conditions.
The lens is a typical 40mm prime lens with an aperture range of f/2.8 to f/16. The 4 blade iris is round wide open at f/2.8 when it counts. I shouldn't have to mention that like 99% of rangefinders, it doesn't zoom. However, 40mm is a good choice, being closer to a normal lens than a 50mm or a 35mm and takes good portraits. A wider lens would have been useful, but 40mm is fine once you have got your eye in.
The shutter is a battery independent mechanical leaf shutter mounted behind the lens with speeds of 1/8s to 1/500s + bulb. This covers most needs. It is louder than a modern compact, but quieter than a Leica M.
The meter's CdS sensor is mounted next to the front element so that it will work with filters, except grad filters. For grad filters note the exposure before mounting the filter and adjust with the film speed if necessary.
The camera was designed for a mercury battery, but works fine with one LR44 alkaline cell. This is an important consideration for users, as mercury cells are exceedingly hard to find these days. The meter is displayed as a needle in the right side of the view finder.
In manual mode, you have to read the meter then transfer the reading to the aperture setting on the lens barrel which is inefficient, but the meter also couples to the iris to give shutter priority AE and the AE works well. In manual mode, there is a warning signal shown in the finder.
If the battery runs out, then you'll still be able to eyeball light levels and play on, because the shutter is mechanical, unlike my Zeiss Ikon ZM that left me scrambling for scarce batteries in Paris. Even the speed winder is battery independent!
The shutter trigger features a cable release and safety lock, but no off switch, so you need to remove the battery if the camera is to be stored for an extended period.
The 500ME has a reasonably bright (approx) 0.5x viewfinder. The tiny and faint diamond shaped RF patch is hard to use but at least it helps you to confirm focus. What I prefer to do is scale focus in the view finder by observing focus markings on the barrel through the bottom right corner of the viewfinder. There is a parallax compensation mark, but I prefer to shoot wide and crop at close distances.
There are multiple winding options: the camera features a standard type single stroke manual thumb lever, which is great unless you are right eye dominant and wear glasses. The camera also takes an optional Ricoh SP Winder. This has a noisy clockwork mechanism but offers only 1.1fps; no faster than it can be wound by hand. The spring stores enough energy for 10 advances. The SP winder incorporates a spool release so film can be changed without removing the winder. The winder is not heavy, but it helps to balance an external flash unit as well. With a short film path, if you load and shoot frame zero, you can get 38 frames out of a 36 exposure roll. Otherwise, you get 37.
The camera's special feature is a shutter cocker to permit multiple exposures. A safety button prevents accidental cocking. You can even do half-frame advance overlapping multiple exposures if you try.
The film speed dial covers 100-800 ASA and can be changed from shot to shot, allowing for exposure compensation if required, such as when shooting multiple exposures. Here I shot a double by taking one photo of a well lit subject with a dark background, then exposed a dark background with highlights as decoration on top. The way it works is highlights burn through while shadows are cancelled out.
There is a convenient nine second self timer.
One thing I really like is that the camera is pretty much foolproof. The camera has a battery check button, film loaded indicator to tell you if there is a cartridge inside and shutter cocked indicator. Plus, you can check that the film's advancing by observing the rewind knob. You can also see that there's no lens cap on be observing the in-finder meter and the manual exposure mode indicator will tell you if you've slipped out of AE mode and need to rotate the setting or use the meter. If you set the film speed right and check all the signals, there's virtually no chance that you'll waste a whole roll of film.
I bought it with an XR SL180 non communicating thyristor autoflash. The power is GN18m at 100ASA. It's simple and it works. This extends the usability of the system in low light conditions, but it affects the balance and bulk of the otherwise pocketable system. X sync is 1/125s, but I believe the camera should sync at all speeds.
Perhaps a better configuration is to use the hotshoe to mount a Voigt Kontur brightline. The 0.50x finder is good enough, but a little low magnification for eyes open shooting. The Kontur is a unique accessory finder that projects a 50mm frameline over my left eye, which in my case is stronger. This leaves me mentally in the action and the slightly tighter frameline leaves a little cropping room.
The shooting experience is a bit slow and laborious if you use full manual, but if you have good light and 400ASA film, you can happily snap away outdoors in aperture priority with your mind on interracting with the subject. I would scale or hyperfocal focus stopped down at f/5.6 or narrower. If you run out of batteries without noticing, AE mode defaults to f/4 which you can probably get away with exposure-wise in most situations.
Hyperfocal distances are useful to remember for cameras that have poor RF focussing:
F/16 3m
F/11 5m
F/8 7m
F/5.6 9m
Test roll after test roll came in sharp and well exposed, which is better than many (now aged) cameras of this era. I abandoned the first negative strip which was just used to test shutter, focus and meter function in the store (more good camera stores should do this) but here are some shots I developed at home. There's not much art to them, but any camera that can shoot rats will excel at family and street shots. Shutter priority isn't my preference in cameras, but it works out well for kids and critters as you need to maintain a certain minimum shutter speed to freeze action and grab a sharp image without motion blur. It also helps to avoid camera shake.
I think the most obvious target market of the 500ME is the collector, but it is a practical camera suitable for holiday snaps and a reasonable film camera to learn some of the finer points of film photography on. The camera is also an excellent candidate for funky lomography-style shooting. I am totally satisfied with my purchase and I would recommend it to other members of the forum.
EDIT: Notes... Film was Tri-X done in T-Max soup. The colour images were made on a GRD IV.
Besides this, the camera doesn't really distinguish itself from the run of the mill 40/2.8 rangefinders that were so common at the time, which is probably why the 500 series doesn't make most people's list of legendary cameras. A QL17 GIII or 35SPN it isn't. Nevertheless, Ricoh's engineers made the most of a limited budget and produced a capable package. The plastic construction with aluminium shell is rigid and light. For outdoor shooting it's fast and intuitive and the aperture and shutter range can handle all outdoor and most indoor conditions.
The lens is a typical 40mm prime lens with an aperture range of f/2.8 to f/16. The 4 blade iris is round wide open at f/2.8 when it counts. I shouldn't have to mention that like 99% of rangefinders, it doesn't zoom. However, 40mm is a good choice, being closer to a normal lens than a 50mm or a 35mm and takes good portraits. A wider lens would have been useful, but 40mm is fine once you have got your eye in.
The shutter is a battery independent mechanical leaf shutter mounted behind the lens with speeds of 1/8s to 1/500s + bulb. This covers most needs. It is louder than a modern compact, but quieter than a Leica M.
The meter's CdS sensor is mounted next to the front element so that it will work with filters, except grad filters. For grad filters note the exposure before mounting the filter and adjust with the film speed if necessary.
The camera was designed for a mercury battery, but works fine with one LR44 alkaline cell. This is an important consideration for users, as mercury cells are exceedingly hard to find these days. The meter is displayed as a needle in the right side of the view finder.
In manual mode, you have to read the meter then transfer the reading to the aperture setting on the lens barrel which is inefficient, but the meter also couples to the iris to give shutter priority AE and the AE works well. In manual mode, there is a warning signal shown in the finder.
If the battery runs out, then you'll still be able to eyeball light levels and play on, because the shutter is mechanical, unlike my Zeiss Ikon ZM that left me scrambling for scarce batteries in Paris. Even the speed winder is battery independent!
The shutter trigger features a cable release and safety lock, but no off switch, so you need to remove the battery if the camera is to be stored for an extended period.
The 500ME has a reasonably bright (approx) 0.5x viewfinder. The tiny and faint diamond shaped RF patch is hard to use but at least it helps you to confirm focus. What I prefer to do is scale focus in the view finder by observing focus markings on the barrel through the bottom right corner of the viewfinder. There is a parallax compensation mark, but I prefer to shoot wide and crop at close distances.
There are multiple winding options: the camera features a standard type single stroke manual thumb lever, which is great unless you are right eye dominant and wear glasses. The camera also takes an optional Ricoh SP Winder. This has a noisy clockwork mechanism but offers only 1.1fps; no faster than it can be wound by hand. The spring stores enough energy for 10 advances. The SP winder incorporates a spool release so film can be changed without removing the winder. The winder is not heavy, but it helps to balance an external flash unit as well. With a short film path, if you load and shoot frame zero, you can get 38 frames out of a 36 exposure roll. Otherwise, you get 37.
The camera's special feature is a shutter cocker to permit multiple exposures. A safety button prevents accidental cocking. You can even do half-frame advance overlapping multiple exposures if you try.
The film speed dial covers 100-800 ASA and can be changed from shot to shot, allowing for exposure compensation if required, such as when shooting multiple exposures. Here I shot a double by taking one photo of a well lit subject with a dark background, then exposed a dark background with highlights as decoration on top. The way it works is highlights burn through while shadows are cancelled out.
There is a convenient nine second self timer.
One thing I really like is that the camera is pretty much foolproof. The camera has a battery check button, film loaded indicator to tell you if there is a cartridge inside and shutter cocked indicator. Plus, you can check that the film's advancing by observing the rewind knob. You can also see that there's no lens cap on be observing the in-finder meter and the manual exposure mode indicator will tell you if you've slipped out of AE mode and need to rotate the setting or use the meter. If you set the film speed right and check all the signals, there's virtually no chance that you'll waste a whole roll of film.
I bought it with an XR SL180 non communicating thyristor autoflash. The power is GN18m at 100ASA. It's simple and it works. This extends the usability of the system in low light conditions, but it affects the balance and bulk of the otherwise pocketable system. X sync is 1/125s, but I believe the camera should sync at all speeds.
Perhaps a better configuration is to use the hotshoe to mount a Voigt Kontur brightline. The 0.50x finder is good enough, but a little low magnification for eyes open shooting. The Kontur is a unique accessory finder that projects a 50mm frameline over my left eye, which in my case is stronger. This leaves me mentally in the action and the slightly tighter frameline leaves a little cropping room.
The shooting experience is a bit slow and laborious if you use full manual, but if you have good light and 400ASA film, you can happily snap away outdoors in aperture priority with your mind on interracting with the subject. I would scale or hyperfocal focus stopped down at f/5.6 or narrower. If you run out of batteries without noticing, AE mode defaults to f/4 which you can probably get away with exposure-wise in most situations.
Hyperfocal distances are useful to remember for cameras that have poor RF focussing:
F/16 3m
F/11 5m
F/8 7m
F/5.6 9m
Test roll after test roll came in sharp and well exposed, which is better than many (now aged) cameras of this era. I abandoned the first negative strip which was just used to test shutter, focus and meter function in the store (more good camera stores should do this) but here are some shots I developed at home. There's not much art to them, but any camera that can shoot rats will excel at family and street shots. Shutter priority isn't my preference in cameras, but it works out well for kids and critters as you need to maintain a certain minimum shutter speed to freeze action and grab a sharp image without motion blur. It also helps to avoid camera shake.
I think the most obvious target market of the 500ME is the collector, but it is a practical camera suitable for holiday snaps and a reasonable film camera to learn some of the finer points of film photography on. The camera is also an excellent candidate for funky lomography-style shooting. I am totally satisfied with my purchase and I would recommend it to other members of the forum.
EDIT: Notes... Film was Tri-X done in T-Max soup. The colour images were made on a GRD IV.
