I found a near-mint Ricoh FF1 on eBay and it arrived a few days ago; I just developed my first roll (HP5+) and I am impressed. I liked this camera when Huss sent one of his around for the film one-photo project, although I wasn't sure I wanted a zone-focus camera; I used one for years as a kid but for a point-and-shoot I figured I'd want autofocus. Flash forward to now and I have experience with the Holga and my Voigtländer Snapshot Skopar 25mm lens (which is zone-focus, not rangefinder coupled), so zone focus isn't such a barrier anymore.
bjhurley wrote:
I found a near-mint Ricoh FF1 on eBay and it arrived a few days ago; I just developed my first roll (HP5+) and I am impressed. I liked this camera when Huss sent one of his around for the film one-photo project, although I wasn't sure I wanted a zone-focus camera; I used one for years as a kid but for a point-and-shoot I figured I'd want autofocus. Flash forward to now and I have experience with the Holga and my Voigtländer Snapshot Skopar 25mm lens (which is zone-focus, not rangefinder coupled), so zone focus isn't such a barrier anymore.
Desmolicious wrote:
Nice! Nothing is quicker for street photography than zone focus.
I still think my Fuji Work Record is the better camera -- accurate and fast autofocus, autofocus/expsoure lock, fantastic lens, better build quality, and waterproof, but it's a lot bulkier and noisier. It sounds like a miniature Godzilla every time I press the shutter button and it's hard to be discreet when shooting with it. The Ricoh is truly a pocket camera (I carried it around in my raincoat pocket over the past couple of days here) and it's even quieter than my Leica M2-R. And there's no flash to disable, which is a plus for me. I do wish it had a larger ISO range (it tops off at 400) but apart from that I'm really happy with it.
Thanks Huss! To be honest, my dad-in-law picked up this XG-1 with the 50/1.7 for $35 from some thrift store. The first role I found the camera had light leaks. I successfully fixed the seals after an $13 purchase off ebay lol
The funny thing is, I am enjoying shooting a film SLR quite a lot. My last roll was Sebboh's Contax Aria he kindly borrowed me. Much more than the Zeiss Ikon I also own, or the Mamiya 7 I used to own.
The XG-1 has 1/1000 shutter which is ok but a bit annoying, but not spot meter kills me on contrasty scenes. I blew several frame on this roll because of it. Time to learn how to work with average evaluative metering. Or use an Iphone metering app.
Ektachrome E100: first time I've used it and positively surprised how much highlight detail is retained. If only it wasn't so crazy expensive - ca 3€ per click
https://photos.smugmug.com/Jesses-Photos/Jesses-Gallery/i-qg4g3qQ/0/Lrj8t2sxX562cbVgnhZQ6SV3cBhHRK4vT3wcVQ4gq/XL/2024Flickr-3587-XL.png
