Ricoh Auto Half

4season

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Since there didn't seem to be an existing thread about the Ricoh Auto Half series of cameras, I figured I'd create one!

I acquired my camera via That Auction Site, for a little less than 45 USD, shipped. But some restoration and repairs were needed before I could use it, and I spent a number of hours tinkering with it before I felt it was film-ready.

The viewfinder on mine looks a little bit askew, maybe due to camera being dropped. I'll check to see some realignment is needed.

Once film is loaded, film speed set, and spring drive is wound, it's pure, battery-free, focus-free, automatic exposure, point and shoot fun. Clockwork film transport seemed good for about 10 exposures max before rewinding, but there's plenty of warning as the film transport becomes progressively slower until it finally stops altogether.
 
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4season

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A few photos shot on Kodak Ektar 100:
 
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M-88

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Roger Cole said:
Interesting cameras. I recall seeing something about them in passing when looking at half frames. How is an f/2.8 lens "focus free?"
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The lens is wide. Its 25 mm should translate into somewhere around 35.5 mm on full frame and the lens is probably focus free exactly thanks to it being wide.

f/2.8 would be something like f/4 on full frame, so the lens should give DOF roughly similar to 35 mm f/4 lems.
 

Paul Howell

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Metering seems to be ok, surprising how after maybe 60 years the selenium cells are still working. Any idea for the shutter speed range?
 

Helge

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I wonder why half frame cameras of this vintage and target market, almost always seem to deliver lower contrast photos than similar 36x24 cameras?
 

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Helge said:
I wonder why half frame cameras of this vintage and target market, almost always seem to deliver lower contrast photos than similar 36x24 cameras?
Click to expand...

Helge, as a joke I would have written because it is half the frame it has half the contrast. But you do make a good observation.
 
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4season

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Paul Howell said:
Metering seems to be ok, surprising how after maybe 60 years the selenium cells are still working. Any idea for the shutter speed range?
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According to specs that I found online, 1/125 sec in automatic mode, and 1/30th in manual (flash) mode, with auto exposure only varying the aperture.

Original selenium photovoltaic cell was toast, so I replaced with modern silicon photovoltaic cell. Because the modern part has much higher output, I could get away with using a much smaller replacement. And by the time I placed this behind the plastic lens array and honeycomb grid, I was getting readings which looked decently close to what my handheld meter was indicating.
 

Don_ih

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My one of these suffers from very brittle plastic on the front of the camera. Essentially, it all fell off - in pieces. Maybe it sat in the sun for some of its life.

I did get a couple of rolls of film through it before that, though. The lens is impressive.
 
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4season

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Helge said:
I wonder why half frame cameras of this vintage and target market, almost always seem to deliver lower contrast photos than similar 36x24 cameras
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Don't know, but mine exhibits some "glow" around bright highlights such as the white tents, and I assume it's a limitation of the lens coatings.
 

Huss

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The lens could be hazy. My Agfa Optima 1035 did that, and then when I looked into it that camera was notorious for it.
 
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4season

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Roger Cole said:
Interesting cameras. I recall seeing something about them in passing when looking at half frames. How is an f/2.8 lens "focus free?"
Click to expand...
You want to be particular about it, then I figure actual focus point is probably somewhere in the vicinity of 5 meters, but due to low 1/125th fixed shutter speed, Ricoh's designers were counting on small apertures providing plenty of DoF.
 
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4season

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Huss said:
The lens could be hazy. My Agfa Optima 1035 did that, and then when I looked into it that camera was notorious for it.
Click to expand...

D'oh, it just dawned on me that I could inspect the lens the easy way - by holding the shutter open with a cotton swab. But nope, no new secrets were revealed.
 
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4season

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Huss said:
4season - excellent pics and this looks like a very cool camera!
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Thanks! But at 320 grams, it's no flyweight compared to some of those plastic fantastic wonders.
 

Helge

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Huss said:
Helge, as a joke I would have written because it is half the frame it has half the contrast. But you do make a good observation.
Click to expand...

Might also be slight overexposure.
Since these (let’s say Pen a-likes) was primarily used for B&W that would make sense.
 

Cholentpot

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Just derailing the conversation by saying OPs profile photo is amazing. My sky/cloud photos never come out right.
 
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4season

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Cholentpot said:
Just derailing the conversation by saying OPs profile photo is amazing. My sky/cloud photos never come out right.
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Thank you! IIRC it's a small section of a 35mm Lomo 100 color negative, possibly taken with a Jenaflex. I got jillions of cloud + sky photos, and most are nothing special, but I got lucky on occasion. Such as 3 PM today when I was taking out the trash and saw dark storm clouds building. Grabbed my (digital) Olympus Pen-F and captured the following:

Some of the "pop" is in post processing, but believe me, the original event had plenty of drama. and yes, Colorado skies do sometimes take on a deep blue-black hue.
 
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Cholentpot

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Colorado. I should have known.

We have two colors here. Washed out and grey.
 

albada

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Cholentpot said:
We have two colors here. Washed out and grey.
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You're fortunate. It's usually sunny here in so-cal, which means harsh shadows that are a pain. Washed out/grey means you can print at grade 3 or 4 with good results.
 

Roger Cole

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4season said:
You want to be particular about it, then I figure actual focus point is probably somewhere in the vicinity of 5 meters, but due to low 1/125th fixed shutter speed, Ricoh's designers were counting on small apertures providing plenty of DoF.
Click to expand...
How weird to put a lens as fast as 2.8 on it and then not provide a way to even zone focus it. Still looks like a cool camera!
 
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