Camera of Week 20 – Ricoh 500 G
This week we will talk about small 35mm rangefinder from Ricoh – 500 G. Camera was introduced in 1972 and was also sold as Sears 35|RF.
As camera is rangefinder it could be made very small, unlike bulky SLR type of cams. It had non-interchangeable Rikenon 40mm f2.8 lens, lens itself took 46mm filters. Viewfinder had coupled rangefinder and itself parallax lines. Minimum focusing distance 0.9m / 3 feet. Camera has two shooting modes manual and shutter priority. Shutter itself is mechanically controlled with speeds of: 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 o second + usual Bulb mode. Film speed dial allows to choose from various speeds ranging from 64 to 800 ISO. Metering was done with cadmium sulfide cell. Interesting feature is flash sync up to 1/500th of second if using electronic flashes. PX675 battery is required for metering. Camera also features hot shoe, PC sync terminal and self timer.
While camera isn’t super popular, looking at eBay listings you can easily get this under 20 dollars, maybe even less.
Ricoh 500 G from http://www.35mm-compact.com
nice camera. I’d love a camera with fast flash-sync.
I had one of these. It was left in a shop where I worked in 1984. At that time I knew absolutely nothing about photography, but It took some great pictures. Then the battery needed changing, I couldn’t find one, so I threw it away! What a waste.
I was young and foolish!
Great story, sad about battery
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What a beauty! I want! =)