The $50 Film Camera: Ricoh 35 ZF Camera Review

Instead of an epilogue:
I want to appologize for my poor English beforehand.

Last year I presented my friend Sophie Lomo LC-A for her birthday. This time I shoot digital only and thoughts about film shooting never even crossed my mind. She begun uploading first photos on flickr, then I seriously thought about trying myself at film shooting, because I liked her photos very much. It occurred to me, that the amazing colors of skin tones and sky, she could easily get from her LC-A and film, I would never get with my Canon 400D.

Luckily, the time of buying my first film camera concur with the 50$ film camera project. I have already shooted 3 film rolls and want to participate in very much.

Advantages and features

- Ricoh 35 ZF can be found on ebay.com or keh.com for 5-25$ (link, link) (according to it's condition). Olympus Trip 35, Yashica 35 ME and Minolta Hi-Matic G2 can be found for the same price too. But the last three cameras are fully automatic (shutter priority mode), while Ricoh has fully manual mode additionally. It was the main reason why I chose Ricoh 35 ZF.

- Available shutter speeds: 1/8 1/15 1/30 1/60 1/125 1/250 1/500 + Bulb mode

- Hot shoe for external flash

- Available ISOs: 25, 32, 40, 50, 64, 80, 100, 125, 160, 200, 320, 400, 800

- Lens: Rikenon 40mm f/2.8. I would like to note, that Ricoh's lens are the sharpest of all the cameras above, according to photos I saw on flickr.

Disadvantages

- First and the main disadvantage to my mind - I can't find protective filter for lens, although there is a thread for it.

- Back cover of camera is locked weakly. I afraid it to open and overexpose the film inside, that is why I plastered it with adhesive tape out of harm's way.

- Film counter shows right only two positions - 0, when any shoot is not made, and 36. Intermediate values are doubtful.

Photos

For participating in contest I want to present photos from my 3rd film roll (Fujicolor superia 400), which I devoted to the town I'm in love with, Saint Petersburg. Comments are always welcome at my flickr page. There is a special flick set also ;)

P.S.

I will not be able to check my e-mail or Epic Edits blog, from the 1st till 15th September, because I'll be traveling in China this time.